“NEX_FEST," a festival curated by Bring Me The Horizon, was held in Tokyo on November 3rd, in addition to 3 extra shows titled "NEX-FEST -Extra-" in Hyogo. The headliner was Bring Me The Horizon from Sheffield, England. Accompanying the band for all performances was BABYMETAL, Japan's beloved metal dance trio. 【View more photo】BABYMETAL on NEX-FESTIn 2019, Rolling Stone Japan conducted an interview with both bands, in which Oliver Sykes, aka Oli, vocalist of Bring Me, said, "We were inspired by how BABYMETAL makes the stage work and used that as a reference point. Not just as a rock band or a metal band, but as a performance in a big show." Three years later, the performances they gave at this year's Download Festival and NEX_FEST were truly big shows with a story to tell.
Bring Me The Horizon's first collaboration with BABYMETAL, "Kingslayer (feat. BABYMETAL)," was released in 2020, and has become an integral part of Bring Me's recent live performances. Many fans had been looking forward to seeing the two perform together at this series of shows. On the first day of the Extra concert at Kobe World Memorial Hall, the long-awaited "Kingslayer (feat. BABYMETAL)" made its world premiere as SU-METAL sang "Kingslayer, come and collect us from the night!" Oli's raspy vocals sent the audience's adrenaline flowing. This dynamism is the real thrill of the live show. BABYMETAL, who had just finished a 29-show U.S. tour, gave a tight performance, and the synergy with the vibes generated by Bring Me The Horizon's performance was more than I could have imagined. Above all, the story created by the "bond" between the two groups that overcame the COVID-19 pandemic together resonated in my mind long afterwards.
This interview was conducted online with Oli, BABYMETAL's SU-METAL (Vocal & Dance), MOAMETAL (Scream & Dance), and MOMOMETAL (Scream & Dance) a few days after NEX_FEST ended.
ーBring Me The Horizon and BABYMETAL recently performed “Kingslayer (feat. BABYMETAL)” in Kobe, Nagoya and Makuhari, how do you feel about the performance?Oli: It was really cool. It's crazy how long it’s taken to actually get together to do this from when we wrote the song, it felt like a long time coming. It was really hard to perform because we kind of just wanted to watch BABYMETAL dance. It was just super sick and we were all saying after that it just feels like it's never going to feel right playing that song again without the girls there. They just brought so much to that song and the show and it just feels intrinsic now with the song so it was super cool.
MOAMETAL: It was a shame we only got to do it four times because there were only four shows at NEX_FEST. When we did it on the last day it felt really sad because we won’t do it again for a while so we’re definitely looking forward to getting back together to do it again. Also, we want to remind Oli that we haven’t forgotten talking to you backstage about how you want to learn the choreography so next time you should join the dance.
Oli: (Laughs)
