Yava! (ヤバッ! Yaba!)

With all the talk of maturing and growing up it can be easy to forget how fun an on form Babymetal can be. With Yava! we find the band continuing where Awadama Fever’s infections pop metal left off, moving into an almost relaxed (in comparison to everything else) ska track that develops into the synth monster.

Yava! starts of as a playful number, with light guitars and a Su-metal in a youthful mood sounding almost like she is teasing the listener. Structurally the song opens similarly to debut effort Megitsune which also mixed shorter vocals with a lighter sound and hooky backing from Moametal & Yuimetal.

While sonically they remain very different, Yava! also replicates Megitsune’s slow break down and heavy ending, including overly modulated Su-metal vocals. It is no surprise to see Norimetal credited with music on both tracks.

Much like Megitsune’s “Sore, sore” vocal, Moametal & Yuimetal get Yava!’s main hook lines as well, singing out between Su-metal, “chigau, chigau” as well as the line ender and main title “Yava!”. There is however a stronger balance here than perhaps found in Babymetal. The girls seem more confident and come through stronger than before, which is especially important in the moments when ‘Yava!’ are sung while all the other instrumentation drops out.

The girls have spoken about the difference between Western & Eastern crowds, the former tending to follow and sing along with Su-metal, while the latter follow Moametal & Yuimetal. With a track like Yava! and it’s infectiously singable refrains, it almost demands of its crowd to follow the Angels of Dance & Love. I doubt any fan will be able to resist screaming “Yava!” along with their tiny heroines.

In line with this Yava! has a fierce swing to it throughout it’s near 4 minute run time and nowhere is this more perfectly demonstrated that during the “Pippo pappo pippo pappo pii” sections. This is Babymetal at it’s cutest and catchiest and may in fact be the point at which Metal Resistance finds us most revisiting Babymetal era ‘kawaiiness’. Following track Amore hits some sonic notes reminiscent of Babymetal but Yava! is stylistically and atmospherically more in tune with earlier efforts. It remains fresh however with it’s new choice of genre inspiration and the development in the girls performance.

The track has a nice, paced break down section that draws you along and builds the track into a more rock, driving metal sphere, ending with long drawn out chords as Su-metal chants over the top. By the time we find ourselves back into the chorus, swirling synths are all over the track as things come to a chaotic close.

During this as Su-metal completes a refrain of ‘chigau’ calls she is annoyingly heavily modulated. This is a bit needless given the depth of fluid synth happening in the background and I feel becomes slight overkill for these few moments. My main criticism of Yava! is it’s mildly unpalatable drift from bright, authentic ska-metal to overly layered synthetic synth-metal. Until the break down this balance is healthily maintained but seemingly in a bid to create a build of energy and heaviness things get a little much as Su-metal’s vocals begin to grate. Thankfully this only last around ten seconds.

Yava! is a track its hard to get tired of listening to and like Awadama Fever I find it extremely difficult not to bop my head along every time it comes on. It’s playful first verse has a Me First And The Gimme Gimmes quality to it that i enjoy but as things go on this can become a little buried.

Overall Yava! continues the hook laden opening gambit of Metal Resistance and is the most rhythmically playful track on the album. It’s fun and colourful, with light lyrics and a strong, but youthful sounding Su-metal. It's arguable however that Moametal & Yuimetal steal the vocal spotlight. If I had to offer one piece of advice to Kobametal for future instalments however it would be this... leave Su-metal’s voice alone!

Next week we look at Amore: A Su-metal Special. So until then… See You!

Resistance Review Series:

Part 1 First Wembley, Now The World

Part 2 - Awadama Fever

29/05/16 - Part 4 - Amore

05/06/16 - Part 5 - Meta Taro

12/06/16 - Part 6 - From Dusk Till Dawn

19/06/16 - Part 7 - Syncopation

26/06/16 - Part 8 - GJ!

03/07/16 - Part 9 - Sis Anger

10/07/16 - Part 10 - No Rain, No Rainbow

17/07/16 - Part 11 - Tales of the Destinies

24/07/16 - Part 12 - The One (All Versions)

Wembley Celebration Series:

Part 1 Babymetal Birth, Babymetal Death

Part 2 Megitsune

Part 3 Gimmie Chocolate

Part 4 iine!

Part 5 Akatsuki

Part 6 Doki Doki Morning

Part 7 Onedari Daisakusen

Part 8 Song 4

Part 9 Uki Uki Midnight

Part 10 Catch Me If You Can

Part 11 Rondo of Nightmare

Part 12 Headbangya

Part 13 Ijime, Dame, Zettai

Part 14 Road of Resistance

Bonus Karate Special