For me one of the most remarkable things about this performance is the fearlessness of that sixteen year old girl doing what she just did. Imagine being up on that narrow little platform, ten feet above the rest of the stage and having to dance and sing, with the spotlights in your eyes so you can't see squat, and with no safety barrier whatsoever. Personally I would have crapped myself and even to this day I can't watch this performance without wincing every time she gets too close to the edge.

Great reaction.  The Nippon Budokan in Tokyo carries the same sort of levels of prestige as Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden.  It is where all Japanese artists aspire to play.
BABYMETAL are the youngest average age female band ever to headline at the Budokan - Su was 16, Yui and Moa still only 14.  They sold it out 2 nights running on 1st and 2nd March 2014.
They were there again for 10 concerts between January and April 2021 as a major part of their 10th anniversary celebration.

Not many 16 year olds could follow that world class intro from the Kami Band and instantly become the centre of attention.
This is one of her solo songs, Yui and Moa were catching their breath back stage.

'Rondo of Nightmare' is one of their darkest songs with Su caught in a recurring nightmare running and hiding in darkness from something she can't see until she accepts there is no way out and asks if she is to die will whatever has been chasing her show itself.

For more Prog songs, as you have been told, their homage to Dream Theater (possibly to DT's 'Dance of Eternity') is 'Tales Of The Destinies' live at Tokyo Dome 2016 (the only live performance to date), but follow that with 'The One' which was originally part of that song, separated early in the writing process.
A more recent Prog song is 'Mirror Mirror' live at PIA Arena from April 2023.

Su's breath control is amazing  I couldn't hear a single breath being taken the whole song

This is a Su-metal solo. The other two girls are backstage resting, drinking water and most likely doing their homework.
I would suggest their song MONOCHROME, live at PIA Arena.
Kitsune dao!

According to Babymetal lore, the Kami Band are the gods of their respective instruments sent by the Fox God (the god of metal) to support Babymetal in their mission to save metal from the tyranny of the idols. On this occasion, they Kami Band perform solos as prayers to the Fox God to send Su-metal forth to do battle for metal. It's a pretty crazy and metal concept. The musicians in order of their solos are Leda Cygnus, Takayoshi Ohmura, BOH, Hideki Aoyama.

This performance at Budokan Black Night was only the second time that Su-metal had performed it live. As you said, it's an incredibly polished and mature performance for a 16 year old.

Rondo of Nightmare is a dark fairytale inspired by Alice in Wonderland and had the working title of "Kill the Alice" before eventually being given its final name Akuma No Rondo (Rondo of Nightmare). It tells a story from a first person perspective of a protagonist who is trapped in a nightmare dreamscape and is pursued relentlessly through it by an unseen monster. The lyrics evoke feelings of dread and impending doom as the protagonist is relentlessly pursued by this implacable unseen foe. Eventually, exhausted, the protagonist begs the monster to at least show itself before it kills them. It ends with the protagonist falling into darkness, with their fate left unclear. The sinister, menacing mood that infuses the song is reinforced by the use of the minor key, and the 3/4 time, which serve to make the song feel more unsettling.  Babymetal songs are usually upbeat and hopeful, but Rondo is the opposite; it is probably Babymetal darkest song.

Rondo is one of the four Su-metal solo songs that featured across the first two studio albums, with the others being "Akatsuki", "Amore", and "No Rain No Rainbow". There are also four song sung by Yuimetal and Moametal without Su under the name "Black Babymetal"; their songs are "Song 4", "Onedari Daisakusen", "GJ" and "Sis Anger". The purpose of these split songs was to give the girls a rest break during shows when they were kids, so while Su was doing her solos, Yui and Moa could rest, and when Yui and Moa were performing, Su would rest. Since they became adults, and also because Yui was an integral part of Black Babymetal, the Su solos and Black Babymetal songs have been effectively retired from live performance. The last time Rondo was performed live was in July 2017.

Good one, thanks!
After six years of being a fan and having seen them live a few times, Su's voice still gives me goosebumps.  😁
Funny you mentioned she could be intimidated by performing fronting a world class band. BOH (the bassist in this video, seasoned musician) mentioned that playing for BABYMETAL was his most challenging job and that he felt like he had to give his maximum to match the ladies energy and dedication and not to seem lazy. Of course that must work in the opposite way and imo, having world class musicians had a lot to do with their success.

"Rondo of Nightmare" is probably their darkest song lyrically. It's about Su being trapped into an endless nightmare, without any chance to escape, where she's chased by a dark entity as she tries to run away and hide. Finally she asks the entity to reveal its real nature before giving up.
This was just the second time they performed it live (the first one was just the previous night at the same venue) and Su-metal, being 16 at the time,  was standing by herself on a relatively small and elevated platform, without any safety and probably not being able so see a thing due to the spotlight. This is so freaking metal!
This is one of what we call Su-metal solos. She has four of them. The others are: "Akatsuki", "No rain no rainbow" and "Amore".
The "rondo" in the name refers to the musical refrain form. The typical feature of any rondo is the return to the main theme after each digression giving the song a dark feeling of moving in circles without any possible way out. One of the best known rondos is Beethoven's "Für Elise".

The song had the tentative name "Kill the Alice".
Here is an excerpt from an interview with RollingStone (April 2014 issue):
Q: Concerning Su-metal's solo songs we see that 'Akumu no Rondo' has been released as a new single.
Su-metal: It seems my two solo songs are 'Akatsuki' and Akumu no Rondo'. 'Akatsuki' has the sense of being the 'redness of passion' (realize that Akatsuki means 'red moon') as is a song where I move around passionately. Compared with that, 'Akumu no Rondo' possesses the feeling of 'blackness'. The temporary title for this song was 'Kill The Alice' based on an image of Alice falling into a cave and being flaying around in the darkness. This is a story where it seems that something is chasing me (this girl) around in the darkness of the cave where I can see nothing at all. Most of the songs I have sung up to meeting this one have been passionate songs but this song has allowed me to try my hand at new ways of singing and I feel I approach this song with a new way of expression each time I sing it.
🤘‍🦊

THIS IS MY TREAT TO WATCH AFTER WORK TODAY!!

Dancing in the dark 2 meters above a rotating stage, 16 year old Suzuka sings of an Unending Nightmare of being chased by a Faceless Terror and Begging a Boon that it show Her Its Face just once before She dies.

That's Metal.

That's Babymetal!!


Put your Kitsune UP!

ps Kitsune sign is 2 middle fingers stright forward on to your thumb and 2 outside fingers stright up like a fox in shadow play 😁🤘🏼🦊

I believe that the "KAMI Band" of this era was world-class in both performance technique and sense. Please check out their music from this era. It is truly unfortunate that the lead guitarist with incredible technique and sense at that time passed away at a young age.

The performance by the band solo is great. However, as soon as the vocal appears and starts singing, everyone gasps at her beauty and recognizes that she is the protagonist.❤
I think you should conquer Queen's 4 solo songs. 😁
①Akatsuki
②Rond of nightmare(finished😍)
③No rain no rainbow
④Amore

The hand sign that BABYMETAL uses is not devil horns. It is the sign of the Fox God from Japanese mythology. It’s the same shape you would make with your fingers to make a shadow of a fox, with your middle finger and your ring finger pointing forward with your thumb underneath. They do it at some point in most of their songs.

OOOH LETS GO !!! more babymetal ! 🔥🦊

Suzuka Nakamoto has spoken on several occasions about the way Babymetal ‘s songs come into being, and her descriptions reveal a process that is far less mechanical than one might expect. There is no single formula. Sometimes a song arrives fully formed, its structure and lyrics already in place, requiring only small adjustments during the recording process. At other times, the process begins in a far more primitive state, with little more than a fragment of music. In these early stages, before words exist, Suzuka will sing various improvised sounds to discover melody she is happy with.

The song is passed back and forth between various creators and performers, shaped gradually through repetition and revision. This exchange can be brief or extraordinarily long. In some cases, years pass (in at least one case over 5 years) before a song is finally deemed complete. This process of writing their own songs, is probably one of the reasons that Babymetal is able to successfully collaborate with other groups seamlessly.

In the case of “White Flame,” Suzuka said she heard the music and decided that she wanted to write the lyrics on her own. From these examples, it becomes clear that Suzuka's involvement in constructing their music is not fixed but variable, adapting to the needs of each song.

There is, however, one constant. No matter how a song is written or how long it takes, it must be accepted by the performers themselves. If the members do not believe in a song, it is simply not recorded.

Here is a radio program that Babymetal was on last week. In this their process was talked about as they had done a collaboration with the host Tatsuya Kitani
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCBRkfrTmj8

One thing I wanted to add, this does not even mention the evolvement of Moa Kikuchi and Momoko Okazaki. They have not talked about their involvement as much, but we do know it is there. After all Moa had a writing credit on a song before Suzuka.

Goddamn he just whipped that shit out WITH a harmony after one listen!

As far as I know Su is given the lyrics and the music but it is up to her, and likely her coach to come up with how she sings it, she has indicated in interviews that this is the process so despite the fact that until recently she hasn’t written any of the songs, she still contributes a lot to the finished product. There has been much made over the years of how they are just a manufactured band and the girls just front it but I think it is a collaborative effort and the girls contribute a lot more than they are given credit for

Nice reaction. Lyrically this is one of their darkest songs. All about being chased through the dark by a creature you cannot see. You run and in the moonlight the creatures' fangs and claws flash. You run some more hiding here and there through the forest. You find a well to hide in, but the creature finds you. You gather the strength to ask it to reveal itself and are plunged into the darkness. This is where the song ends and why it ends suddenly like that. Did you die? Oh, you must have forgot this is a recurring nightmare. It ended because you woke up. Only for it to happen again some other night. I really hope this didn't happen to any of them. Since they were underage at this time and still subject to child labor laws. Having solo songs for Su and duos for Yui and Moa was a great way to extend their show times. And it gave them time to rest and as the joke goes do their homework. Did they do homework? someone will have to ask them someday. Enjoy the journey through the foxhole and into the Babymetal galaxy of music.

⚡ / 🔥 😱 🔥 - A great choice.
A pretty rare song to react to these days.
This was already epic, and THEN Su rises up from beneath the stage.
This was the Black Night at Budokan in March of 2014, with Leda Cygnus and Takayoshi Ohmura on guitars and Hideki Aoyama on drums.
And of course BOH on bass. Not that many people can play a six stringed bass to begin with, let alone tap one like that.
Su sang three solo songs that night.
She did 'No Rain, No Rainbow', followed by 'Akatsuki' earlier in the set.
I already liked BABYMETAL, but those solo songs made me a die hard fan.
Dancing on a small platform raised up in the air demonstrates courage.
Following up an introduction where each Kami Band member demonstrates their skills shows total fearlessness.  : )

12:10 there are some songs that Su performs solo (this one and Amore iirc) and there are some songs that Yui and Moa perform in a duo (like GJ, Sis. Anger and Onedari Daisakusen).

I love this song, the chorus has one of the most beautiful melodies I know, while being quite complex, if you look at it more closely.
The vast majority of BABYMETAL‘s songs have very positive, optimistic lyrics, while this one‘s are rather dark. They tell of a person that has a recurring nightmare, where they are being chased through the darkness by an unknown entity. After hiding for a while, they realize that there‘s no chance of escape, and ask the pursuer to at least reveal their face before the end. As you have noticed, the music does a great job at reflecting this dark atmosphere, even if you don’t understand the lyrics.
BTW, if you like Dream Theater‘s music, you might be interested in checking out BABYMETAL‘s song „Tales of the Destinies“, which is an obvious homage to DT. But of course they add choreography. It has only ever been performed live once, though, so a performance might not be easy to find.