BabyMetal’s Atsuki Unfinished version is an incredible vocal performance from a sixteen year old Su. Very moving. Love your Ado reactions too, my other favorite singer. Thank you for your enthusiasm.
Hello! Hope you read this btw. Su's singing style has always been incredibly forward placed since like 5 years old. And because she loves belting jp songs, it somehow resulted into a power sounding forward placing near none vibrato voice. There's a couple of videos of her singing back then. The Babymetal producer who is a metalhead realize how her style could pierce the heavy sounds from the heavy metal genre. After a couple of songs however he realizes that Sumetal needs to expand, hence hiring a vocal coach for their next song Megitsune (the quintessential BM song) , which employs a similar enka style type of singing. You then slowly see her over the years how she tries to control both singing in forward placement and vibrato as her new singing style. Some of the early performances to see the progress include Babymetal - Rondo of Nightmare Budokan 2014, Akatsuki Budokan 2014, Karate Download 2016. There are others but those are locked in copyrights.
In an online poll, Su-metal was votes "Best female metal vocalist" 2 years in a row (2023 & 2024). 2023 was by a landslide with 71.3% of the votes (Floor Jansen came in second with 10%). You can clearly see why. 🤘🦊🤘
I'm glad that Baby Metal did this rendition. I don't think Su or Moa get the recognition for their actual talents that they deserve, as they put on such theatrical performances.
Babymetal is you love it or hate it (I love it) but much people underestimate the talent of Su, Momo and Moa; i understand that it is not youre cup of tea but you can respect what they do
Thank you so much for this. She strikes the perfect balance between technique and emotion, nice to see you break it down. She’s my favorite singer and I love her to death..
Hey Chris. Great reaction. There's a couple more songs they have done that is similar. One is another song off the first take, however it isn't anywhere nearly has popular as it is SOOOOOOOOOO short. It's way too short. They pretty much cut the entire song in half it feels like and left you feeling like you didn't even get to finish the song. That one is The One off the first take. But the OTHER song, the one I'm almost BEGGING you to check out is Akatsuki Unfinished. They really only performed that version of Akatsuki once. That was during Su-Metal's 16th birthday. So you'll get to hear how Su was when she was 16 and you'll be able to see how she's grown. However, even though her voice HAS matured and grown a lot over the years, you're going to be in for a surprise as this song is a VERY emotional song that tends to cause tears (I mean dust fall into your eyes of course!) as even at that age, Su had a gift of being able to convey emotion through her singing. I'd LOVE to hear your reaction to that!
Excellent analysis, thanks. Your video should be mandatory to watch on YT. 😁 Su-metal has a unique way to convey the emotions and this is the reason why I became a die-hard fan. 🤘🦊
I've watched a lot of reaction videos to a lot of different media, but it's a welcomed rarity when I come across content that helps me appreciate the things I already love in a new way. Thanks for your breakdown of Su's voice. There are flashier vocalists out there but there are few that are as satisfying to listen to. The part where you discuss the differences between forced vocal flourishes and those caused by natural emotional output really clicked for me. There's always been an earnestness about Su's voice, and those little moments you pointed out truly highlight that.
Watched three other vocal analysts/ teachers react. . .all good, but this one is the best by far! Picked up many things the others did not. Also the sound on this channel is better as well!!!! Thank you Chris-Metal! 🤘🦊🤘
Excellent reaction and analysis. I said this after your reaction to 'Brand New Day', Su-metal is my all time favourite vocalist, there is just something about her voice that works perfectly for me ... but even watching the best quality live videos didn't prepare me for when I finally got to see BABYMETAL live and to hear just how incredibly powerful she is in person. You can almost feel her stage presence too. She did a stripped back (piano and strings) version of their song 'Akatsuki' live at the Legend 1997 concert celebrating her 16th birthday in December 2013 that I think you would also love if you like things stripped back. The full version of 'Akatsuki' live at Budokan Black Night from March 2014 would be a good one to watch first (it pays homage to X Japan's song 'Kurenai') and the stripped back version has a completely different feel - look for 'Akatsuki - unfinished version' live at Legend 1997.
One of my favorite live moments for me personally when I was at a Babymetal show is her singing The One in 2018, it's not my favorite song, but it's a moment when the crowd was quiet and it was actually after Road of Resistance, fans had been running around and spend a lot of energy, she started off with the unfinished version in the first half and the loud speakers are loud... so I felt surrounded by her voice. Like being wrapped in a thick blanket or a warm embrace. 🙂
Great analysis of the vocals. As you've mentioned multiple times, Su-metal is emotionally invested while singing this song. This is because this performance on First take (ep 299) was meant as a final farewell to their ex-member Yuimetal, who was as close as sisters but left officially in 2018 due to health reasons, before they add Momometal in 2023 into the group. Their 2nd First Take performance ep 309, with Momometal, was meant to reflect the start of the journey as a new group.
This was a brilliant breakdown of the skill Babymetal has. All this skill and they manage to do it whilst dancing to metal live. If ever anyone says Babymetal is "ust a gimmick" Im going to point them to this reaction, because you highlight every part of the skill it takes to sing like this.
Thank you for your analysis, it's always great to hear different perspectives. Su-metal is known for her clarity and great diction in her singing. You can really hear it here. The top Japanese comment on the video you reacted to actually talks about it: I was born with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. I can't hear sounds well, including vowels and consonants. I've seen many singers, but SU-METAL is the first one whose lyrics I could hear so clearly. I was shocked by Sonisphere in 2014, and my life changed in many ways, including going to more concerts than I normally would, buying expensive earphones, and so on. There are many things I don't like about my hearing loss, but I would like to thank SU-METAL for giving me the joy of listening to songs. Please react to a live version of a song she loves to perform: BxMxC (the official Babymetal channel recently posted the Legend MM video). 🙂
This shows off Su, she has some serious skill and does thing a lot of techniques singers can't do. She attended acting and music school and has had vocal coaches. She will go out with her older sister and friends and do karaoke to experiment. Total pro and very serious about her singing.
Welcome back to the Foxhole and BabyMetal's metalverse 🦊🤘🌐 I'm glad to see you're back with more BM songs, hopefully you'll come back and share the live version at Makuhari Messe 2023 of this beautiful song, NLMetal got a live compilation with the live at PIA Arena MM sound which is also nice but with the Western Kami Band unlike Makuhari Messe with the East Kami Band, also you can enjoy the official lyrics. BM fans already know this type of unique acoustic version like Akatsuki Unfinished Version live at Legend 1997 or "The One - Stairway To Living Legend", so we're used to this SuMetal's vocals power to reach and melting our hearts. Fans at the recent World Tour 2023/2024 were enjoying the original version of this song at almost every show and having a magical moment and hopefully we're gonna get more this year, they will be in Brazil, Argentina, Chile for the first time as part of the Knotfest as well Peru with a headlining show, they will coming back to Mexico in November and we can't wait for this amazing tour. The three white figures dressed in white are probably a reference to old BM era when YuiMetal was still part of the group or maybe a reference to the new young BM unit they previously performed along with them and are part of this new metalverse project, they already debut at Summer Sonic Festival opening the festival with a set of new three songs exclusive for them. When they released this Piano Version the new official member MomoMetal wasn't announced yet, that's why you only see the two of them, after the official announcement they released another acoustic version of a song called "The One - Unfinished Version" and they included MomoMetal, the new official member in it. Thanks for sharing your deep analysis on this and see you next time.🦊🤘🌈
just came across this gem of a song n band on this channel. First time listening to it, and HOLY GOODNESS it's made my day already! straight-up amazing !!
Thank you for this reaction . Su's vocals are what drew me to BabyMetal. I just loved her voice and the harmonies from Moa and Yui, and now MoMo . Loved the metal instrumention as well . This reaction has helped me understand a lot of the reasons I loved their vocals With yours and a couple of other vocal coaches who reacted to thems help . Plus, somehow, a none dance fan now loves their courography 😁 . Who would have guessed 🤣 🤘🏼🦊🤘🏼
Hopefully we'll see your reaction to this live :) Lyric video is also great and makes fairly explicit some of wehat this song references/is about. Great reaction to a wonderful melancholic and beautiful song.
Great reaction, breakdown, and analysis. Love hearing people who actually know what their talking about. Not trying to throw shade on some reactors, but there are few who could definitely take some pointers from your format.😂 Su is amazing striped back.👍
Thanks again from Japan 有難う💛。In this first take version, the girls proved that they can do anything. They have forced people to headbang with their heavy music and sharp choreo. Now they can depict various images by just singing and project them into the listeners' brain to move people emotionally. Thank you BABYMETAL. And thank you Koba, the BM producer, for your serendipity. Some 14 years ago, you certainly discovered something amazing and sacred for us. Speaking of the three figures in white hood adding some background vocals, they are homage to BM's girlhood with original three girls.
Su’s voice has a special tone that mixes skill and emotion, and for me always has an uplifting quality which I can’t help but attribute to her joy of singing. Nice analysis and discussion - thanks! 🤘🦊
Great analysis! Always enjoyed seeing a professional review and analyze Su's vocals. She is absolutely incredible, and even more so, to invoke such emotions in a complete different language! I know you mentioned you already checked out the full version of Monochrome. Was it posted anywhere? Didn't see it on your channel! I hope you check out more songs by Babymetal as well, they have some amazing songs that are vocally focused: *Light and Darkness (Pia Arena MM)* *Akatsuki (Budokan 2021)* *Amore (Wembley 2016)* 🤘🦊
Thank you for the review! Suzuka/Sumetal’s voice was never to be underestimated. Coming from one of the top professionally trained idol groups from Japan, and handpicked by one of the worlds smartest metalheads for having an iconic voice suitable for the genre, it is my opinion that Sumetal is about to be the metal scenes female equivalent to Vessel. She hypnotises so many people across the world with her voice! I do recommend you react to No Rain No Rainbow from Legend S and their recent release of BxMxC live. Both are from Babymetal’s official channels. Another one to react to is Kagerou from Legend MM, but you will only find fan uploads of that one. Su’s voice is hot in that one.
Su definitely has an incredible voice. She's in my top 5 performers. Would love to see more BabyMetal and maybe also your breakdown of an Aussie singing legend. John Farnham and his mind blowing rendition of Help ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dv54giOSRKs.html
Great reaction. Normaly an analysis distracts from a performance, but yours enhanced it. This performance makes anyone with sensitivity to good music want to smile and shead a tear at the same time, without knowing exactly why. The amount of reactors that feel the emotion physically in this performance is incredible. The fact most of them have forgoten she is singing in Japanese is also remarkable. Some people might think she's belting this out at the top of her powers here, but she isn't. If anything she's having to hold back. It's precise control and emotional expression that drives this performance. Su is a very rare singer, probably unique. She's more like an elf who can enchant people by the tone of her voice. She's completely uneffected by Western ideals of what a metal singer is supposed to be. She's rewriting the rules without trying to do. Any song by Yuyoyuppe, even the most metal, can be rendered as a solo Piano piece. Then you realise how much melody and emotion is hard-baked into his music. Su+Yu= Oooooooh! 😍I can't wait to hear what he has in line for Babymetal in the future. Because like Su he is only getting stronger.💪
There is one thing about Su-metal's singing a lot of people don't realize she doesn't use vibrato she tends to quickly cut off her notes now that you know you cannot unhear it. lol
At around 11:55 or so when you talk about her swells, I don't know if it is only swells happening here. I personally hear more of a lift between the notes she is stressing which in turn fabricates space but she maintains resonance through that lift which allows for the phrase to maintain that connected sound. The crescendo at the end of that phrase is chefs kiss, its not just a suddenly loud moment. She delivered it to that exact point gave it musical energy, maintained tone and intensified her timbre through it. Gives me chills.
What a great analysis, thank you very much! I don‘t know much about these things, and many details escape me. What I do know is that I have listened to this song countless times, and not a single time did I make it through the whole song without shedding a tear. It‘s nice to get some background on why it’s doing that to me. Having said that, in such an intimate and close-up setting, Su could probably recite the phone-book (do people still know what that is?) and still make me cry. Her voice is just pure sonic caressing of my ears and soul.
Great reaction, great vocal analysis.. And the fact that it was done in one take is impressive... I love this song, check out the original music version with the band too. I'm a new subscriber now, hoping for more music reviews, especially Babymetal🤘🦊😃✌️
If you were to do another Babymetal reaction, I'd recommend BxMxC (and again, probably a live version.) Not because it has the same sort of soaring vocals, but precisely because her tone and the techniques involved are so different than the ones used here.) As an aside, there's a fancam version of BxMxC (pronounced B-M-C) floating about where in Su-metal's solo (you'll understand if you listen to the song) the backing vocal comes in a beat early and Su-metal steadfastly remains on beat. It's not that popular of a video, because of said error and mediocre sound quality, but very impressive from a musicianship perspective.
Well done on acknowledging the arrangement and instrumentation in addition to the vocals. I haven't seen anyone else mention this in their analysis. I feel it does a lot of the emotional lifting in this version of the song, which a lot of people maybe don't even realise.
You should really check out the other two version of Headbanger, where Momo Metal and Moa Metal have their own individual solos in singing the song so you can hear what every one of them has to offer in terms of performance and singing.
I love babymetal, and finally after 14 years they are coming to my country, I am really delighted with this band, they are incredible artists. From their beginnings until now they have had very strong criticism, but instead of exalting themselves, they continued doing their thing, regardless of what people or other artists said. Nowadays they have enormous support from the most recognized metal bands, and at every festival they go to they change the minds of thousands of people. I hope you continue analyzing this beautiful band!!
I love this performance because it showcases a degree of subtlety and technique that isn't as visible in their normal performances. Su-metal is known for her vocal power, but she can express emotions with her voice across the language barrier like few other singers can.
Always love your analysis on vocalists, Chris! Maybe you could try reacting to more The First Take performances, it would be nice to see you do a video on Yuuri's The First Take! His performance on "Betelgeuse" and "Dry Flower" have resonated really well with me, hope you'll check him out!
That is an excellent reaction and analysis. That's what happens when you have over two decades of singing experience. I've watched her videos since she was a little girl singing and in a professional jpop group at 10 years old. Great reaction and very informative. Thank you.
I’ve been binging your reactions to Japanese music the past couple of days and I NEED you to check Reol performing “Edge” on THE FIRST TAKE. She does some things on that song that you’re REALLY going to love.
I’d like to suggest in addition to reacting to Akatsuki, could you also do No Rain No Rainbow. Thanks for this great analysis and reaction to Su’s wonderful singing voice! Kitsunes up! 🦊🦊🦊🦊❤️❤️❤️❤️
This is my favorite version of this song. The minute she opens her mouth and starts singing, I get goosebumps all over, and feel such a heartache, even before i ever saw the lyrics translation! And after seeing the translation, and learning this was done as a "goodbye" to Yui, their third member, it hits me even harder. I first saw this while returning home after visiting my sister, who had leukemia. It hits me hard! Su is an incredible vocalist!
I desperately need you to react to The Last Dinner Party covering "Call Me" by Blondie. It may be the best cover I've ever heard. I think you in particular would love the vocal performance. You talk a lot on this channel about inhabiting a character while you sing. Besides maybe Ado, I've never seen anyone do so much character work in a single vocal performance. Fyi, it's the video that just dropped two days ago for Like a Version on the triple j RU-vid channel.
As someone with a baritone vocal range, I think I'm pretty hopelessly locked in to silly noises when trying to imitate Su. Won't stop me from trying to sing along though 😂 On a more serious note, 'Akatsuki' is another of their songs with which they've done this kind of acoustic arrangement. The best performance of the original version that's available on youtube is from their 'Budokan Black Night' show in early 2014. The acoustic arrangement - called 'Akatsuki (Unfinished version)' - was performed just once live, at Su's 16th birthday show 'Legend 1997' a few months before that. I would love to see you analyze it!
Another brilliant video from you Chris. I’m a Luddite when it comes to singing but your expertise definitely helps me appreciate Su’s immense talent. I’d love to see your reaction to a song she did when she was only 16. The normal version of Akatsuki is quite heavy but she did a pared down version which you may like called Akatsuki (Unfinished version) from the Legend 1997 concert in 2013. Despite being the same song, this rendition is heartbreaking and full of emotion. It’s a little more raw and she wasn’t as skilful as she is as an adult but still an incredible performer. Loving your work mate, keep it up.
You have to listen to phantom siita's songs. They're a group produced by ado so you know they'll be good. They had 2 songs so far and many more to come. WATCH THEM CHRIS
Dude, you should react to some beatbox. Currently, they have high control over the different types of sounds, I mean the different origins of the sounds and their variations (mouth, tongue, troath, lips, whistle, vibrations,etc.). In addition to the singing, the dynamics, the sounds, and the technique they currently use is crazy.
I want to hear your analysis to yourshika - Nautilus (live version) or Sunny. The vocalist suis has gentle voice, and the band delivering music very good in live version. i promise her voice & their music make listener emotional
Great reaction and analysis.. I was really excited to see you dive in to this version. I'm so glad they did it, cause it's probably the best way to show how talented singer she is :) For her next kind of unexpected "skills" would be interesting to see you watch BABYMETAL's performance of "BxMxC【Live Blu-ray/DVD「BABYMETAL WORLD TOUR 2023 - 2024 LEGEND - MM」" 🦊🤘
i really improve my singing skils thanks to your videos, i love them. Good reaction! Sumetal is so versatil singer i love her agresive raping style in BxMxC but i really love her soft side too.
I'm so glad that I clicked on this video or I would have never heard about this musician. Thank you for posting this Chris. Your pointing things out in her performance really increased my enjoyment and appreciation. Thanks.
Come on youtube you are slipping why have you not recommended this channel to me until now hmm ? Great breakdown she really is quite special would love your views on Akatsuki unfinished from legend 97 where a 16 year old Su after a hard concert sings with just the piano backing her though got to warn you to have some hankies ready as man the emotional overload you get from the song is astonishing.🦊 Subbed
I would really love to hear an isolated vocal analysis of Phil Labonte (All That Remains) - any song from The Fall of Ideals album would be fantastic. Love your videos!
I have never fallen in love with a singers voice like I have with Su-Metal. It's probably not that she is technically a better singer than anyone else, she just connects with me in some way I cannot explain. I feel like her potential vocal range is much wider than what she actually sings in. She never seems to be stretching to her maximum highs or lows. She always seems very relaxed and comfortable which, I am assuming, allows her to emote so well.
🤘🦊🤘 この動画は、新メンバー発表への布石でした。 白い衣装の3人はYUIMETALが脱退して以降サポートしてきたメンバーを示しています。 新メンバーはサポートメンバーから選ばれました。 約1ヶ月後新メンバーが発表されました。 直後に公開されたのが下記の動画です。 ↓↓↓ BABYMETAL THE ONE- Unfinished ver. / THE FIRST TAKE
Thank you for this amazing reaction and explanation. Su is such an amazing singer. She have so much emotion. Moa can sing very well too. And Momoko also. I also think this is a last goodbye to Yui ❤❤❤❤❤❤
Su-Metal's notes that understanding the number of harmonics present in a voice can impact the perceived richness and fullness of the sound. They also note that Su-metal's voice consists of an even and harmonious distribution of various vocal frequencies, setting her apart from other "intense" or "hasaki" voices. Thanks Chris for the in-depth breakdown of Su-Metal's vocal range.
It's very rare to see such an in-depth analysis of her voice. Really goes to show how hardworking Su-metal is. Her singing is basically a perfect mixture of emotion and science/technique.
Great stuff Chris, such a powerful performance. Would love to see you check out a live performance of the song “Headbanger” to see them go full on Babymetal. There’s a new version called Momobanger where Momo takes the make for the second half of the song and it’s amazing. Live performances are always the way to go with Babymetal
