Musician and YouTuber Steve Terreberry accidentally made a ‘Japanese’ power metal ballad that’s going viral on social media using AI, despite setting out to make ‘slop.’
AI tools are getting better and better all the time, and music-making programs that use them are no exception.
The conversation around AI in the music industry has only grown as platforms like Spotify crack down on “spammy” AI-generated songs, while AI artists sign multi-million dollar deals with record labels and even get promoted by major producers like Timbaland.
To see what all the fuss is about, guitarist and content creator Steve Terreberry decided to put some music-generating AI tools to the test to create a metal song.
Initially, he anticipated these programs would only come up with ‘AI slop’ — but he accidentally ended up crafting a hilarious and shockingly catchy tune that’s going viral online.
YouTuber’s accidental AI-generated metal hit stuns social media
One of the tools Terreberry tried about nine minutes into his video was ‘Mureka,’ a site that promises to pump out “unique and customizable songs, lyrics, and tracks for any project.”
First, he attempted to craft something reminiscent of Yoko Ono, but was left disappointed when the song ended up sounding more Nightwish-inspired than he’d intended.
Instead, he switched to making a power metal track, pressing random keys for the lyrics. The AI ended up ‘optimizing’ his songwriting by inserting random rhyming phrases at the end… which, somehow, ended up sounding somewhat Japanese.
“izuxfbk we’re flying high / zxfukhz across the sky / lsugaku never say goodbye / xfghzlx our dreams will never die.”
“I have a feeling that this is just gonna sound like a Japanese power metal song,” the YouTuber remarked — but he didn’t realize how right he’d be.
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Altogether, the song was actually quite catchy, leaving both himself and his viewers surprised. In the two weeks since uploading his video, Isugaku Never Say Goodbye has gone viral across X, TikTok, and even YouTube, where a full version of the track has now been uploaded.
“Not gonna lie, man, I would probably add that to my Spotify playlist,” Terreberry admitted. “It sounds like an anime theme song, too, kinda.”
Commenters were largely in agreement, with many joking that the AI “kinda cooked with this one,” saying it goes “insanely hard” despite being made by a bunch of ones and zeros.
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