Love ‘em or hate ‘em, it doesn’t matter – Babymetal are now the Supreme Overlords (or perhaps the Overlord Supremes) of their own Cult of Kawaii. And if you do hate ‘em, then lighten the fuck up. The absurdity of three J-pop teenyboppers fronting a metal band is too ridiculous not to love – and the surprising part is that much of it is real, honest-to-Satan metal. The debut smashed together power metal, death, thrash, ‘core, and unfortunately yes, nu-metal, with sugary sweet vocals, catchy choruses, and the odd sprinkling of hip-hop, techno, and visual kei. And it was more than a guilty pleasure, it was genuinely enjoyable.

Album #2 sees the trio hopping and bopping atop that same collision of style and saccharine, with some new metal influences screaming to the forefront – for better and for worse. On opener “Road of Resistance,” Su-Metal, Moametal, and Yuimetal team up with DragonForce guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman, and as you’d expect, the combination of hyperspeed power metal + hyperactive J-pop vocals works as well as chocolate + peanut butter (or green tea flavor + KitKat, if you prefer). There’s more to follow with the DragonForce-like attack of “Amore,” though I don’t think Li/Totman return here. There’s also a heavier use of electronics on a bunch of songs, and while nothing is quite as audacious as the hip-hop/deathcore/techno one-two-three from “Iine” on the debut, there’s still plenty of wtf glee to be had from “Awadama Fever,”which sounds like a Prodigy track gone very, very wrong, or the spazzy mash-up of techno, ska, and dubstep on “YAVA!” The album’s weirdest moment comes from “Meta Taro,” which starts techno and then turns Viking, with a folk metal anthem (think Ensiferum or Amon Amarth) as its template, but with a nursery-rhyme Barney melody for the vocals. Once you get past the lunacy of the mash-up, you realize that Babymetal singing a children’s song is annoying as hell.

Honestly, as entertaining as all of the mash-ups can be, the formula shows its seams when the metal gets heavier and darker. Perfect example is “Sis.Anger,” where the sing-songy vocals feel Frankensteined into what is otherwise a death metal/deathcore attack. It’s here that Babymetal feels like way more of a gimmick because the music is so frenetic and brutal, but the vocals are so silly and sweet. I’d also like to sweep the leg on first single “KARATE,” which layers grating, staccato vocals atop chunky, stuttery nu-metal/’core, and although the chorus is fun, it could use a more melodic framework in the rest of the song to support it.

The best moments on Metal Resistance are actually where the songs play it fairly straight. “From Dusk til Dawn” is my favorite track here – a moody, gothic metal epic with sweeping synths and skittering percussion, like Nightwish meets M83. The girls’ normally chirpy vocals have been transformed into ethereal falsetto dolphin-song, which works beautifully with the echoing piano and strings, and it all builds up to a soaring chorus. Yeah, the song has a briefly distracting breakdown shot through with chaotic dubstep, but where other tracks feel kitschy and silly, this feels grand and honest.

“No Rain, No Rainbow” is also pure and uncluttered. It’s a heartfelt ballad that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Dream Theater album or over the ending credits of an anime series. It’s got a lovely melody and it’s nicely orchestrated, with great uplifting guitar solos, and it never gets jumbled up with breakdowns or dubstep or growls. (Follow-up “Tales of the Destinies” also sounds like Dream Theater at first, but it fares much worse, as if someone were playing Images and Words and choppy Eskimo Callboy-style technocore at the same time.) The finale, “The One,” has the most ambitious Dream Theater sound of the three closing tracks, with proggy, soaring solos, off-time drumming, and a big gorgeous melody (sung in English!) If you see Babymetal on tour this year, I bet it’ll be their big blue-rectangles-everywhere encore (kids don’t use lighters anymore, you dig?)

As with the debut, if you’ve got an open-mind and don’t take yourself so seriously, you’ll find a lot to like here. On the other hand, if DragonForce, Dream Theater, nu-metal, deathcore, and ska are not your thing (and three of them aren’t mine either), well then you’re excused. I’ll be very curious to hear how the balance shakes out on album #3 (and there will be an album #3, the band is still packing stadiums). Maybe the insane mash-ups will give way to a more even-keeled approach – but given that Babymetal hails from a country that likes tuna, corn, and mayo on pizza, ehhh probably not!

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