[外電新聞] Extreme rocker takes Taiwan history, politics overse

[joe6304105 (MATCH)]

路透社

By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters Life!) - Pop music-mad Taiwan has bred a mutant that is
casting a long global shadow: an extreme metal band that roars about the
island's fractious politics and the dark side of its history.

Freddy Lim and his band Chthonic have made a name over the past few years as
the only commercialised heavy metal band from Taiwan, as they take elements
of their homeland, including hints of local music and issues such as the
island's struggles with China, to stages overseas.

"Most of the fans enjoy the oriental and sorrowful emotion that we create in
this extreme metal music," Lim told Reuters in an email interview from the
United States following his latest album "Mirror of Retribution".

"That's what is unique, I think. We are the metal band that most people know
in Taiwan."

Lim, 33, was introduced to music via piano lessons at the age of 4. As he
grew older, heavy metal became his real passion and the band was launched in
1995. Chthonic has so far put out five albums and performed in 20 countries.

The Taipei-based group was the first Asian extreme metal band to perform at
the Wacken Festival in Germany and toured as part of world renowned rock star
Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest in the United States, the band's website says.

Chthonic performed around the world in 2007 to promote Taiwan's ill-fated bid
to enter the United Nations over the objections of China, a veto-wielding
Security Council member that says the island lacks U.N.-required sovereignty.

China itself claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan.

The band's latest album compares hell to Feb. 28, 1947, when strongman Chiang
Kai-shek, whose authoritarian government had recently fled to Taiwan from
China, began a crackdown on dissent. Thousands were killed in the years that
followed.

"Taiwan was once colonised by China and Japan, and at the same time it's an
island intertwined with the Western world," said Taipei fan Chiu Li-wei, 29.
"Therefore, whether melody or lyrics, Chthonic's music fiercely shows these
features."

The band calls itself "Chthonic", a Greek word referring to the underworld
deities, because Lim likes mythology and the name "looked cool", he said.

Lim gained his global fame partly because of partnerships in Europe and the
United States, where extreme metal is relatively mainstream, said David
Frazier, a Taipei-based arts and entertainment writer. Anthrax guitarist Rob
Caggiano produced the latest album and a 2006 album was recorded in Denmark.

"Taiwan can add a little bit of exotic identity to it with this band,"
Frazier said.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)


http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-42916220091005?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

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