It's 10 a.m. in Tokyo and lines of grown men are already wrapped around the Saitama Super Arena to see one of the most exciting metal act around play tonight. No, not Metallica. Not Slipknot. This is a metal band centered around three teenage girls; this is Babymetal.
Comprised of 17-year-old Suzuka "Su-metal" Nakamoto and 15-year-olds Yui "Yuimetal" Mizuno and Moa "Moametal" Kikuchi, the Japanese trio's combination of pop-music melodies and heavy-metal production have cast a spell over those at home and abroad. Since releasing their self-titled debut album last February, the band hit No. 1 on Japan's album chart as well as No. 1 on Billboard's World Albums chart. They played overseas festivals like the U.K's Sonisphere and Canada's Heavy Montreal, were invited to open dates on Lady Gaga's Artpop tour and Harry Styles even gave them a shoutout on Twitter. Mind you, they're still in school and really only get to leave the country if they're on a break.
After performing around the world in 2014, the gals are now returning home to play a sold-out arena show for 20,000 fans in Tokyo—their biggest audience to date. As the only American outlet invited, Fuse writes down every detail of the wild, kooky and totally "kawaii" concert experience. (We also sat down for an exclusive interview with Su-metal, check it out here, and Babymetal mastermind Kobametal, read that here.)