NEWSLETTER

Things that are awesome about ChthoniC: They’re the biggest metal band in Taiwan, they’re the first Asian band to tour with Ozzfest, they just put out an elaborately packaged ten-year anniversary DVD called A Decade on the Throne (no pun intended, we think), they have two girls in the band (quick, name another metal band with two girl members. Can’t, can ya?), oh, and the drummer wears a spike-studded leather surgical mask when he plays that looks really neat and now whenever I see those old ladies walking around Chinatown wearing surgical masks I think of that and giggle.

Another big thing about ChthoniC is that they’ve been banned in parts of China because of their support for the Taiwan independence movement. A brief history: In 1949, when Mao was on the slaughter, killing everyone who didn’t love communism (50 million people), Chiang Kai-shek said “Fuck this” and fled to Taiwan to start a capitalist China. He had to kill a bunch of indigenous people but it worked. Currently, Taiwan operates as an independent democratic country, with free press, no censorship and a thriving economy. Basically they’re Canada, while China is like Africa but freezing. Still, when you live in Taiwan, your address is Taiwan, Republic of China. Communist China has all these laws to prevent them from becoming an independent nation and they’re not allowed to be part of the UN, which sucks because that’s where all the fun is (if you’re a country).

Heavy stuff for the Ozzfest audience to ponder after they get bored of head-butting each other and puking, eh? Anyway, I spoke to ChthoniC’s main guy, Freddy Lim, on the first leg of their tour. They were in Albuquerque, so we had plenty of time to chat.

Vice: When did you first get into metal?

Freddy Lim: When I was in junior high school. I started with all of the glam 80s metal bands like Guns N’ Roses and Motley Crüe.

We call them hair bands.

Yes, apparently. Then I listened to more and more heavy bands like Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Testament, Megadeth. And by the time I was in high school I was listening to black metal like Carcass and Morbid Angel. I worked my way up to it.

Is there a big metal scene in Taiwan?

Not really, but it has gotten bigger than it was 10 or 11 years ago. When we first started playing, we were the only metal band in Taiwan who wrote original songs. There were a few other bands but they just covered hair-band songs. Sometimes we would play for three fans. We never expected what we have now, where sometimes we play for thousands of people.

Have you toured all around the world?

We’ve played in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and a few shows in European metal festivals, but this is our first tour in the US.

MEG SNEED


TO BE CONTINUED:
MADE IN TAIWAN | 1 | 2 |

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