The kawaii overlords are officially taking over the world.

We predicted it here over a decade ago–the steady, calculated world domination of Japanese heavy metal group Babymetal.

Active since 2010, Babymetal is a one-of-a-kind fusion of heavy metal music and Japanese kawaii (“cute”) idol aesthetics. While those two things seem to go together as well as water and oil, the combination somehow works–and the group has been finding even better recipes for success year after year around the world.

Babymetal’s latest accomplishment isn’t anything to scoff at, either, as it has become the first-ever Japanese artist in history to crack the U.S. Billboard 200’s top 10 with the release of its newest album Metal Forth on August 8. The album, which debuted on the chart at No. 9, is notable for featuring collaborations with an eclectic mix of global musicians on seven out of ten tracks. Meanwhile, the album reached No. 3 on the Oricon Albums Chart in Japan, the top 10 on charts in Germany, and the top 20 on charts in the U.K.

▼ The three members of Babymetal share their excitement at the global success of Metal Forth.

This top-10 ranking is monumental for Babymetal and fans of Japanese music in general. Before Babymetal, the highest-ranking album by a Japanese artist on the U.S. Billboard 200 was Kyu Sakamoto’s Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits (1963) at No. 14, a feat that remains incredibly impressive to this day, considering that the album is in Japanese and the titular track has nothing to do with the delicious hotpot dish of its name. In 2009, Hikaru Utada’s English-language studio album This is the One became the first album by a Japanese artist to chart in the top 100 in three decades at No. 69.

Since then, Babymetal’s previous albums Metal Resistance (2016) and Metal Galaxy (2019) made steady and significant process by reaching No. 39 and No. 13 on the U.S. Billboard 200 respectively, and now Metal Forth has smashed the group’s own previous record to land at No. 9.

▼ Music video for “from me to u” feat. Poppy, the lead single of Metal Forth (2025)

Babymetal is currently embarking on a world tour, also becoming the first Japanese artist to sell out a concert at London’s O2 Arena back in May. While the group already made its U.S. television debut in April 2016 on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, we can’t help but wonder if we’re about to see even more of the kawaii metal singers in international media in the months and years to come.

Source: Oricon News via Hachima Kiko
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