Babymetal are a well-oiled heavy metal machine. The kawaii metal trio’s live shows are meticulously honed, with their dance moves, video backdrops and backing band tightened to the point of perfection. As a result, it’s extremely rare for one of this band’s songs to get pulled out at a show and then get swiftly abandoned.
In fact, it’s only ever happened once.
On September 19, 2016 – the first night of their two-show Red Night / Black Night extravaganza at Japan’s Tokyo Dome – Babymetal played Tale Of The Destinies onstage for the first time ever. The track was a deep cut on the three-piece’s then-newest album, 2015’s Metal Resistance, so giving it its live debut only affirmed how special an occasion the pair of evenings would be. You can watch footage of that debut below, taken from the live album Live At Tokyo Dome.
- “Metal is the only genre that’s open to so many different types of music. That’s why Babymetal is here right now”: How Babymetal smashed the barriers and defied the haters to become Japan’s biggest metal band
- “Some of the guys in the band are like, ‘**** that, we’ll never play it!’” Watch Slipknot play one of their deepest cuts for the first time ever in Melbourne on Friday night
Like many Babymetal performances, Tale Of The Destinies live is a masterclass of choreography and athletic metal musicianship. The band weave from tightly sprung heavy metal to far more spacious and melodic choruses, before striking a weird lounge sequence two-thirds of the way in, just because they can.
Why the track never got busted out again seems something of a mystery, but a quick look at streaming stats shows Tale Of The Destinies is one of the least listened-to songs on Metal Resistance. According to Spotify, it has 3.7 million streams. Not a number to be sniffed at at all, though the only song on the record that’s less popular is From Dusk Till Dawn, which can’t even be streamed in certain markets.
Babymetal have just played a run of European festival sets and will return to live performance later this year with a tour across North America, supported by Scene Queen. See the full list of dates below. Tale Of The Destinies, sadly, is unlucky to make the setlist.
Babymetal / Scene Queen 2024 US tour:
Nov 05: Orlando Hard Rock Orlando, FL
Nov 06: Hollywood Hard Rock Hollywood, FL
Nov 12: Charlotte The Fillmore, NC
Nov 13: Raleigh The Ritz, NC
Nov 15: Washington DC The Anthem
Nov 16: Richmond The National, VA
Nov 18: New York Terminal 5, NY
Nov 21: Bethlehem WindStar Creek Event Center, PA
Nov 23: Cincinnati Andrew J. Brady Music Center, OH
Nov 24: Madison The Sylvee, WI
Nov 26: Indianapolis Egyptian Room, IN
Nov 27: Des Moines Vibrant, IA
Nov 29: Oklahoma City The Criterion, OK
Nov 30: Albuquerque Revel Entertainment Center, NM
Dec 03: Anaheim House Of Blues, CA
