SAN FRANCISCO — Explaining Wednesday night’s bill at The Masonic to someone unfamiliar with the trio of metal acts performing would take some time. Babymetal, Dethklok and DragonForce each have a lore and backstory worthy of a think piece. Sonically each takes a foundation of a pulverizing heavy metal and supplements it with something different. The end result was three sets there were captivating, thrilling and at times quite unorthodox.

The night’s headliner was Babymetal (though they’ll flip for a second show show tonight), whose set was a testament to just how much this band has grown and developed with time. Taking the stage to the energizing “BABYMETAL DEATH” intro, the kawaii metal trio led the crowd in spelling out the band’s name. From there, Su-Metal, Moametal and Momometal held the crowd in the absolutely packed room in the palms of their hands.

“San Francisco, I want to see a circle,” Su-Metal commanded early on, to which the crowd obliged with a mosh pit.

A Babymetal set is a fusion of power, chaos, dance and joy, set to unrelenting heavy metal powered by the reliable KAMI backing band. Songs like “PA PA YA!!” and “BxMxC,” both from 2019’s Metal Galaxy,  showed off a powerful sound. On the latter song in particular, Su-Metal delivered a rap-like a cappella flow. Then on “Monochrome,” from their latest album, The Other One, the group showed it still has range.

“San Francisco, help me shine a light on this dark, dark world,” Su-Metal said as thousands of phones shot upward, illuminating the venue.

Moametal and Momometal adeptly amplified the energy with hyper-synchronized choreography, and led the crowd in some call-and-response chants, jumps, claps and fist pumps. Each member of the band had a solo before the group launched into “METALI!!,” midway through the song telling the crowd to “get low” and waiting until everyone was sufficiently crouched to blast into a video of Tom Morello playing the song’s solo.

Once “Megitsune” began, most of the crowd was fully engaged, jumping with hands in the air. Su-Metal grabbed hold of a gem-encrusted mic stand. The group closed out with older tracks like “Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!” and its massive first hit, “Gimme Chocolate!!” Maybe the only oddity came during the encore break, which seemed to stretch an inordinate amount of time, making for an extended Babymetal chain and some antics in the pit. That was all forgotten when the trio returned carrying flags for the rousing “Road of Resistance,” with a massive mosh pit in the center of the crowd.

Notably, these two San Francisco shows are Babymetal’s only shows in the U.S. currently on the calendar. They and Dethklok toured together in 2023, but these are also their only joint shows this year.

Dethklok’s Wednesday set was just as engaging, even as it was different in just about every facet. The band is essentially fictional, depicted on Ault Swim cartoon “Metalocalypse.” It was brought to life by providing the soundtrack to a massive video screen that projected animated videos from start to finish. Songs like “Briefcase Full of Guts” and “Birthday Dethday” all came with over-the-top visuals. At the outset, General Crozier—one of the cartoon’ main baddies—appeared onscreen and reprimanded the band and its fans. That’s when the unrelenting journey began.

Brendon Small—stand-up comedian, writer, director, producer, musician and “Metalocalypse” co-creator—handled a wide range of creative aspects of the performance, from the design. Even his screams and guitar playing skills were top flight.

Small’s guttural scream held up throughout the night. Some other characters made cameos on the screen, like Facebones, the animated Dethklok logo, who offered some genuine (OK, maybe not) tips for concert etiquette, including showering and not acting a fool when you’re on drugs. That piece culminated with a chant of “drinking booze and smoking pot!”

Spotlights drowned the room in red on the fiery “Bloodlines,” while “Awaken” seemed to describe a struggle with the devil. The double-bass thump of “Hatredcopter” had multiple mosh pits hopping at the same time. As the set went on, it seems the message of some of the songs also veered more toward the odd side. The video for “I Ejaculate Fire” was a sight and “Murmaider” was about, well, the murder of mermaids.

At the end, the lights dimmed and Small performed just about all the voices from his TV show in a conversation.

“We came back for you San Francisco,” he said. “We are uniting the country with the power of heavy metal.”

Smalls broke character only once, when the house lights finally came up on the band that had been shrouded in darkness all night.

Power metallers DragonForce opened the show. Flanked by “Rampage” and “Galaga” arcade game cabinets that doubled as platforms for band members to climb on for solos, Sam Totman and Herman Li showed their guitar mastery and singer Marc Hudson flexed his vocal range though a collection of hits.

A highlight was the “Legend of Zelda”-inspired “Power of the Triforce,” from their latest album, Warp Speed Warriors, which came complete with a throwable chicken for the crowd. That may not make sense if you’re not a fan of the games, but that wasn’t an issue.

“I’ve got a question,” Hudson asked in introducing the song. “Do we have any fuckin’ nerds in the audience tonight?”

DragonForce closed out with their biggest song, biggest crowd pleaser, and hardest song in Guitar Hero history, “Through the Fire and Flames.”

Daniel J. Willis contributed to this story. Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald. Follow photographer Chloe Catajan at Instagram.com/riannachloe.