The Avengers and the Fox God's Seal

After such a blow, many bands would have simply looked for a direct replacement or frozen in place. BABYMETAL chose a more complex path. Instead of immediately incorporating a new official third member, they created the Avengers system — elite dancers who rotated in that position across different shows. Among them was Momoko Okazaki, along with other figures such as Riho Sayashi and Kano Fujihira.

The decision was intelligent for several reasons. First, it avoided the symbolic brutality of putting someone in to "fill Yui's place" as if nothing had happened. Second, it allowed the three-figure stage dynamic to be maintained without yet locking in a new fixed identity. But it also brought its tensions — that lack of definition kept a state of permanent transition alive. The band was moving forward, yes, but had not yet found a new definitive form.

The Avengers system in action: Momoko Okazaki and Riho Sayashi among the rotating figures

Metal Galaxy appeared in that context in 2019. It was an expansive, ambitious and openly international album. If Metal Resistance had consolidated their global status, Metal Galaxy was confirmation that BABYMETAL wanted to play on an even larger scale. Collaborations, diverse influences, exploration of new rhythms and a very strong cosmopolitan vocation. It was a record that, beyond proposing a sonic journey, served to say: the band is still alive, and has no intention of closing itself off or becoming conservative after the trauma.

That period also consolidated another important aspect: the increasingly visible division between the classic Japanese Kami Band and the Western formation that began accompanying the band on international tours from 2019. The Japanese formation had been an essential part of the stage identity of the founding years, with masked musicians and an almost mythical aura. The incorporation of a Western formation reinforced the global dimension of the project, but also marked a change of era.

The band also achieved important milestones in the United States, including leading rock chart positions and consolidation as an act capable of filling arenas in the North American market. That carries enormous value when you remember that BABYMETAL had started as a project that many reduced to a "meme" or a viral extravagance. Now, established in the international circuit, they were demonstrating permanence.

Metal Galaxy (2019), the album that took BABYMETAL to an even more global scale

The pandemic forced another pivot, but did not completely paralyze the narrative. In 2021 came the 10 BABYMETAL Budokan project — ten shows conceived as "Doomsday" under severe COVID-19 restrictions. Those concerts had something of pure resistance about them. They were an anniversary, yes, but also an affirmation of survival. The band was navigating a world on pause without giving up its epic nature.

And then came another classic gesture from the project: the "seal". The Fox God announced that the legend of the ten years would be sealed, and BABYMETAL disappeared from the public scene for a time. That disappearance was much more than a pause. It was a narrative reset — another example of how the group transformed silence into part of its own dramaturgy.

10 BABYMETAL BUDOKAN (2021): ten nights of resistance during the pandemic