Taipei Metal

Chthonic: The Final Battle at Sing Ling Temple

The ornate and historic Sing Ling Temple, located on a hillside in the scenic mountain town of Puli in Nantou County, Central Taiwan, played host to Taiwan’s top extreme metal band, Chthonic, this past Saturday. The temple is of special historical significance to Taiwan, as it was the site of a battle between Taiwanese troops and KMT soldiers following the 228 incident, in which many thousands of Taiwanese were massacred by the KMT over 40 years ago. Chthonic has since made the temple, along with local folklore and the Taiwanese fight for recognition of their independence, a central focus of their music and lyrics.

Fans began lining up hours in advance of the concert’s 6:30 p.m. start time, climbing the steep hillside steps leading up to the bright orange thatched roofs and delicate masonry of the temple proper to the staging area just behind it. A film crew, documenting the concert for a future DVD release, lugged hundreds of kilograms of gear, including a large swing-arm camera that dipped and dove over the heads of the fans throughout the show, up the stairs in temperatures that reached an unseasonably high 30 degrees plus.

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Review: Assault - The Exceptions of the Rebellions

Did I miss the Scandinavian invasion of Singapore? Is one of the last few city states in the world now known more for its top-three finishes at elite level hockey tournaments and Nordic event dominance at the Olympics than it is for its vaunted multiculturalism and clean streets? If not, how else could you explain a band like Singapore’s Assault pulling off the melodic death metal sound, forged by the likes of Swedish luminaries such as At the Gates, In Flames, and Dark Tranquility so well?

Assault has well and truly arrived with its first EP, The Exceptions of the Rebellions, a four track effort many years in the making. Featuring great production, not just for an indie release, but genuinely clear, powerful production, blackened, clearly enunciated vocals, and Euro inspired riffs and tone, the mini album kicks off with “Subversion.” The track features the patented harmonized guitar attack during the verse, heavily inspired by the many European melodeath acts that have come before. It’s both catchy and dramatic, with soaring hammer on and pull of solos over a straight ahead, driving hard rock/metal beat.

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Bloodred Fullmoon - Winter Solstice

Taipei-based multi-instrumentalist and all around virtuoso Ray Heberer released a five-song EP entitled Winter Solstice through his Bloodred Fullmoon project in late September. This offering is currently available for free download via Ray’s Bandcamp page. Ray, who is all of 16 years old, is one of those rare people, regardless of a age, of such uncommon talent that actually has the unmitigated drive to match. He currently has at least five bands on the go, and he handles the entirety of the writing and arrangements for all of them. If this is where he is at 16, just imagine where he’ll be at 20, 25, 30, if he chooses to continue with his music. And why wouldn’t he?

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Interview: Abhor - On Esoteric Winds

For the past 15 years plus, Italian self-described “Esoteric Horror Black Metal” band Abhor has gone about maniacally splicing the unexplained elements of mankind's wayward path along the astral plane, occultism, witchcraft, and esotericism with an atmospheric, depressive, and darkly beguiling musical formula that drips from the many disparate branches of the black metal family tree. Though various forces have conspired in the past couple of years to keep Abhor off the stage, the band has nevertheless continued to compose, and has just released it's fifth full length album, the thought provoking and intriguing  Ab Luna Lucenti, Ab Noctua Protecti, a record that, while low on technicality, revels in its slow, simple brand of misanthropy and broad, heady exploration through minimalist but recognizable black metal progressions and layered keyboard atmospherics. Band founder, guitarist, and composer Domine Saevum Gravem spoke to Taipei Metal about the band's history, philosophy, and new album.

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Interview: Nocturnal Fear - War Metal

For over a decade, Detroit, Michigan  thrashers Nocturnal Fear have been dropping one bunker busting album of searing warfare-inspired Teutonic terror after another. Heavily inspired by the likes of legendary acts such as Sodom and Kreator, both lyrically and musically, Nocturnal Fear is a band that has known exactly what its message is from day one, and hasn't compromised its sound or values for one note or a single line. With a new album, Excessive Cruelty, the band's fifth full length, just released on Moribund Cult, founding member and guitarist Reverend Slavehunter talked to Taipei Metal about the new record, and Nocturnal Fear's unwavering and incendiary approach to true thrash metal.

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幻影樂團：傳說、神話、死亡金屬

Amorphis(幻影樂團) 對大部分的金屬頭而言，多不需贅述。20年前，這個樂團於芬蘭首都赫爾辛基發跡，先是以純正的死亡金屬樂風發了一張專輯，而後才走向前衛路線，出了《千湖之國 (Tales from the Thousand Lakes)》，遠較首張專輯廣受好評。這張專輯是幻影樂團首次融合清音唱腔、民俗與迷幻元素，並以19世紀的史詩巨作卡勒瓦拉為主軸，及其中收錄芬蘭及卡累利阿等地的民俗傳說及神話故事為題材，製成的概念專輯。在發行後的15年間，幻影樂團開闢了屬於自己的金屬之路，在民俗及金屬的模糊地帶間，以史詩作為串聯基礎，穿梭自如。這次，他們為了樂團的第十張專輯《新紀元 (The Beginning of Times)》，正在巡迴宣傳，而裡頭的樂曲及歌詞，也是再一次對卡勒瓦拉更深層的鑽研與啟發。2010年，他們先發行了一張名為《千湖之國現場特輯 (Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes)》的CD/DVD回顧精選專輯，才進錄音室為《新紀元》作準備，為過去忙碌的兩年劃上分水嶺。六月時，幻影樂團和死神之子 (Children of Bodom)一同到台灣巡迴演出，藉此機會，樂團發起人兼吉他手Esa Holopainen (以下簡稱EH)，與挺雜誌分享幻影樂團剛於五月在歐洲、六月在北美發行的新專輯，以及這二十年來的心路歷程。

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聖潔神靈：第二人生

在我們這個年代，雖說傲視群倫的金屬樂團，往往不是一時好運的年輕新血，而是堅守崗位的老學校死硬派，但其實，在這圈子裡，跟一群不及而立之年的小夥子玩團，卻遠比跟一些老骨頭混吃香得多。對許多人來說，二十歲時被視為最重要的事物，往往隨著年齡和智慧的增長，在自己年過三十後，不得不被重新評估定位。而這樣的改變其實是人之常情，只不過發生當下，多數人還是難掩心中失望。但有一種樂手，靠著堅忍不拔的毅力，在身邊的團員紛紛轉身，跟上前人步伐的同時，卻拒絕向殘酷的歲月低頭，死命的抓緊青春的尾巴。

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Interview: Vains of Jenna

It's been quite a ride for Swedish rockers Vains of Jenna. On the strength of nothing more than a four-song demo, the Falkenberg four-piece was offered a spot on the bill of the Motley Crue-headlined Cruefest in Hollywood in January of 2005.  It was at that gig, at the infamous Whisky a Go-Go club on the even more infamous hive of scum, villainy, and depravity, the Sunset Strip, that the band caught the attention of former Tuff front man and current Metal Sludge proprietor Stevie Rachelle, who would become the band's manager. At the time, the band's two youngest members were just 18 years old, not even of legal age to set foot in the Whisky.

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