August 2007
 

August 15th, an off day from Ozzfest and my trip to Roseland Bar & Grill in beautiful downtown Portland OR was about to be met with something unexpected. I was more than prepared to see everyone's favorite Egyptian flavored death metal act, but the real surprise was before Nile took the stage. All I knew about ChthoniC was they were from Taiwan and they were a black metal band. In my mind, I thought that Asian black metal would be quite a bit different than what I'm used to listening to, and probably something that I wasn't interested in.

That's where I was wrong.

ChthoniC is one of the single most impressive black metal bands to come from Asia, Taiwan, or anywhere else for that matter. With everything included that makes black metal so powerful, so aggressive, so brutal, someone hearing ChthoniC for the first time would think they were from Europe, and with the addition of some female backing vocals and the use of a hena, an oriental violin, ChthoniC proving they aren't just another black metal act, something that legions of new fans here in North America are discovering as they hear the band for what might be the first time as a part of the 2007 Ozzfest tour.

Just a few weeks after the show, we had the opportunity to interview lead vocalist Freddy (and even Doris) about the band itself as well a a number of other things.

How did ChthoniC originally form?

I started ChthoniC at 1995. There was no metal scene at that period, so it's hard to find musicians who would love to play metal. Except me, the other original members were not familiar with extreme metal, they were just my friends who been asked to join the band by me. Some of them listened to jazz, some listened to punk, and some listened to pop music.

ChthoniC moved forward step by step and inspired more and more people to play extreme metal. Finally there were some suitable members to replace the original members smoothly.

What influenced your music written then and now?

We listened to a lot of extreme metal from mid-nineties and formed Chthonic. However other bands like Slayer, Anthrax, Deicide, Iron Maiden, Overkill, S.O.D. , Megadeth have been our favorites for a long time as well. And some Taiwan artists also have big influence on our music, like the rock artist Ta-Yo Lo, folk singer Cheng-Nen Tsai.

There doesn't seem to be many metal bands in Taiwan, what's the scene like there?

In the nineties, many record stores in Taiwan started to sell death metal and thrash metal albums, other kinds of heavy metal like doom metal, black metal, dark metal, gothic metal became popular in Europe & US, too. In the meantime the Internet era began, allowing Taiwanese fans to buy much more CDs than before from the online stores like Dark Symphony, CD World. And the first Taiwanese Extreme Metal Band, ChthoniC, formed in 1995, and the scene here just getting bigger and bigger, but I don't think it's big as in U.S or Europe..

I think some people know that we won the "Best Band" award in the Golden Melody Awards, which is considered as the Eastern Asian Grammy Awards, so they feel like the metal scene here is very big. But I don't think so.

Music awards in Eastern Asia doesn't have the specific awards for each music genre like Grammy does. Golden Melody Awards put all the bands of different style together to compete for the Best Band award. It's actually very unfair. In the year before Chthonic, a pop idol band won it and in the next year after Chthonic won, this award went to a pop folk band. I think the fact that Chthonic won the award means that people's taste of music in Eastern Asia became less limited and more diverse. But I wouldn't say that extreme metal already became the pop music here. Even in Scandinavian it's not the case, either.

What led to the decision to add a hena into the music?

In 1997, while we were writing some critical parts of our songs, Freddy insisted on using an alternative instrument which can best express sadness. "Hena(Oriental 2-string Violin)" is a common traditional instrument in many Eastern Asian countries like Taiwan, Korea, China, Hong-Kong and Singapore. What is special about it is its plaintive, sad tone. So I decided to learn from a traditional musician and started to play it in ChthoniC's music.

How have fans reacted to seeing this instrument used in black metal? (Also, having seen you in Portland, I did notice a lot of people would stop and were completely amazed by it.)

Yes, they enjoy it very much. We think they can feel the sorrow through hena in our music.

Your makeup is based on the Eight Generals from Taiwanese folklore, can you tell us a little more about this and why it is an important symbol both in culture as well as your music?

EIGHT GENERALS is some kind of Taiwanese Taoist priest. Through the makeups on their faces, they can communicate with gods, ghosts, and spirits. Since we write about Taiwanese myths, legends, and ghost stories, this kind of makeup just what we need on the stage. We feel strengthen by these makeups, too.

How do the crowds compare in the United States to those in Taiwan?

Audiences in Eastern Asia are calmer, they also have mosh pits but more than half of them are too afraid to jump into it and some people even hate it. They usually just listen quietly or sing with the band or observe the player's technique. However in the US it's totally different. When the music starts and in two seconds ?it's like "BOOM!!", everybody just went nuts! It's hard to get used to it when we first saw that in Metal Meltdown. Simply put, in Eastern Asia, it's crazier on the stage than off the stage, and in the States, it's crazier off the stage than on the stage.

Doris seems to have attracted quite a following here, how does she feel about all of this?

Doris: They are amazing. I love them and want them to show more passion on chthonic and me.

What has been one of the most memorable things from playing Ozzfest?

Our show in Ozzfest, Sacramento was the most memorable moment so far, there were 4 mosh pits just like typhoons in the crowd, and some girls showed their tits! The fans there were fucking crazy.

It seems that on this tour, you have brought along a number of friends and family, how have they enjoyed being here in the United States?

They are not family, they are the Taiwanese Americans who live in the cities we tour attend to our shows. They support us very much, we appreciate all they have done for us. But I don't think before attending to our shows, they have anything to do with this kind of music at all, haha. But most of them told us that they enjoy the show very much even it's their first time.

How is your petition to get the UN to officially recognize Taiwan as an independent country going?

I don't think UN will change their policy to accept Taiwan to be a member of them in near future. But even though, we still have to fight for our rights, we are citizen of a democratic nation, Taiwan, just like all the other citizens of other democratic nations, we should share the same level of human rights like the others.

Your political views have also gotten you banned in parts of China, what led to this?

China is still an autocratical country, the citizens in China don't have freedom of speech and human rights. All the concert promoters and record labels have to get approved by the government if they want to organize a concert or release an album. So, the artists who apparently support democracy or human rights, and especially the ones who support Chinese democratic movements will be banned. As I've known, not just ChthoniC, but U2, the Beastie Boys, and Richard Gere are all banned.

When can we expect to see the rest of ChthoniC's back catalog of music available to North America?

SPV/deathlight has released some of back catalog NOW. All in stores!

(And I think Freddy does mean NOW, as in go out and buy them NOW!)

Most important; when can we expect some new music and when will you be coming back to tour the United States again?

We have re-recorded some old songs which will be included in "PANDEMONIUM", a best of ChthoniC, that will be released in September by SPV/deathlight. And we have started to write some new materials, and hopefully to record a new album next year. Our booking agent is arranging our tour in U.S. next year.

Anything else you'd like to say to your fans?

We hope that all the fans who support us can support Taiwan, the nation that inspires us to write all our music. We appreciate all your support!

Underland Online truly appreciates ChthoniC taking time out of their busy touring schedule to answer a few questions from us. As you have probably realized however, this isn't a band that's just about the music. They have an agenda they'd like to accomplish for themselves and their country. With this in mind, we feel compelled to help in any way that we can, and we're asking you to do the same. Taiwan should in fact be a part of the United Nations, Chthonic believes it as do we. So, simply visit the UN's website http://www.un.org/ and make your opinion heard. Let them know how you feel and to let Taiwan join. You can also contact them by emailing to their comments section (just click on the link we've provided.) Let's not allow Taiwan to go unheard any longer. Let's let them finally have their voices heard just like the rest of the world.