Chthonic, pronounced “thonic,” is a black metal band hailing from Taiwan, a small-island country that separated from China in 1911 after a bitter conflict that has yet been solved. China and Taiwan still remain foes after almost a century, which has created many difficulties for Taiwan as China’s influence in international politics has widened. You may be wondering if there was a need for that little blurb on Taiwan. After all, you are reading a rock and metal ‘zine, not exactly looking for a political commentary. With Chthonic though, you get plenty of both. Some of you may already be aware of their political passion if you have seen them on Ozzfest this summer, where they were undoubtedly one of most attention-grabbing bands on the second stage, or on their run with Nile this fall. If you have seen their performance, most likely you have also seen Freddy Lim, the band’s vocalist’s earnest speech about Taiwan’s independence and support for Taiwan’s entry to the United Nations, along with a dose of Chthonic’s unique brand of melodic black metal, featuring colorful lyrics incorporating Taiwanese mythology and an instrument called the erhu, a traditional instrument similar to a violin. The band also hosted two press conferences, in Washington D.C and New York, recently on their headlining tour, commanding international attention to Taiwan’s sticky political situation along with their music.

I had an opportunity to sit down with Freddy Lim, the vocalist, and Jesse Liu, the guitarist of the band to speak more about their music, politics, passion, and more.

STELLA KIM: Who are you?

FREDDY LIM: I’m the vocalist, Freddy, from Chthonic.

JESSE LIU: I’m the guitar player, Jesse.

SK: What are you up to? Tell me about what album’s being released in the U.S, what you’ve been doing this summer. My understanding is Seediq Bale is the only album released in the U.S so far and you have a greatest hits coming up.

FL: Yes, there’s Seediq Bale, which was released on SPV late last year. This year, SPV will also release two more titles from the back catalogue. Then next month, SPV will release another one, which is the greatest hits. So after September, there will be four titles in the U.S.

SK: Great. So what have you been doing this summer?

JL: Touring, touring, touring, touring. Play the show, sleep, eat.

SK: How does it feel to be the first Asian band to play Ozzfest? One could say Chthonic is the first Asian band to have a significant presence in U.S metal scene in a while.

JL: Great. Nice.

FL: I think we’re very lucky to have this kind of experience. The crowd here is so much crazier than crowds in Asia. Also they appreciate our kind of music very much.

SK: I’d love to hear about how you guys got together, what’s your vision, a general introduction and history of the band, if you will.

FL: It’s a long story.

SK: You can give me the long story. Well, the short version of the long story.

FL: Well, I’ll give you the long story anyway. I’m the only original member. I’ve played for eleven years. Jesse and Doris, the bassist, they’ve been here for eight years. And the other three, they’ve been members for three. So now, we work very tightly together. The first three years, when I played with other members, there was no metal scene in Taiwan at all. So I had to find people who played punk or some other music to play extreme metal with me. But after a few years, they didn’t want to play metal anymore. So I started to recruit members. I found Jesse, who appreciated this kind of music very much, then Doris. Three of us worked together for a long time now. (Pointing at Dani, the drummer) And then, he’s the brother of our first drummer. His brother didn’t like this kind of music. After his brother played with us, he decided to play this kind of music. CJ, the keyboardist, he had his own band. He wanted to talk to me about how to manage a band. When I found out we had to find a new keyboardist, I wanted him. And the last one is the violinist, Su-Nung. Before him, I played the violin. But it didn’t work, so I had to find someone to play violin. He didn’t know much about metal, but he studied hard.

SK: So what’s your common vision? What do you guys share?

FL: We believe that we can create metal from Asia. We want everyone from the Western world to know that we have metal in Asia.

SK: Tell me about your visual image, the dramatic names. What are you portraying through all these and how do you incorporate them into your live shows?

FL: We have different names for every different album.

JL: You can check our MySpace for our names. But…

SK: What about your visual?

FL: You mean the face paint? It comes from Taiwanese folklore. Priests wore makeup to scare the spirits away. We kind of try to do the same thing with our characters. We can become whatever we want and tell the kind of story we want.

SK: So the makeup represents the transformation into your characters?

FL: Yes.

SK: And is the theme consistent with your lyrics?

FL: Yes. The concept of our albums is about Taiwanese Gods, folklore, myths.

SK: Do you sing in English, Taiwanese, or both? My knowledge is you guys sing mostly in Taiwanese and Mandarin.

FL: Yes.

SK: Do you think it’s a hindrance to delivering your message?

FL: No, because I think metal fans don’t really care about what language we sing in. (laughs) Like when I listen to Emperor, Immortal, Dimmu Borgir, I can’t understand anything, but I still like it and appreciate it. So I think metal fans don’t care, like I don’t care.

SK: What are some of your influences, personal and as a band?

JL: Pantera, especially Dimebag. Only one hero. Metallica.

FL: Anthrax, Metallica, there are many others, but Anthrax is personally my first.

SK: What about as a band?

FL: I think Slayer, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir.

SK: What about Taiwanese influences?

FL: I listen to a lot of Taiwanese folk songs. Some critics always say they can hear a lot of pentatonic chords. That’s where they come from.

SK: I have read that Freddy, the vocalist, is very active in the Taiwanese political scene and the band’s even been banned from parts of China because of its political views.

VARIOUS PEOPLE: The entire China! Entire China!

SK: Oh, okay, I stand corrected. Tell me about your beliefs, what you’re fighting for, and how does it incorporate into your music, if it does.

FL: First of all, people who write about us on Wikipedia say that we’re very active in political scene, blah blah blah. I don’t think I’m that active. I’ve been to some talk shows talking about politics. As a Taiwanese, I think it’s our responsibility to stand for our country. We have to fight for our country. I believe the United States have been in same kind of situation, U.S citizens have fought for their country as well. And people will always say we are too political, but I think that’s not fair, because every citizen has to do that. Like WHO (World Health Organization) provides public health service to almost every country, but not Taiwan. It’s not fair. We only want to share the same rights with citizens of America or citizens of Canada. It’s not fair that citizens of Taiwan cannot have same rights and Taiwan cannot be in the same in important international organizations.

SK: Heavily political musicians are often controversial here. For example, Dixie Chicks, Ted Nugent, et cetera. Some people say entertainers should stick to entertaining and not be forcing their political agenda on their audience. What do you think about that?

JL: I think that’s bullshit. Everybody decides their own career. Look at Rage Against The Machine.

FL: And they have very political, very complicated messages! We don’t. We have one very simple message. You’re a citizen of the earth. You have the right to fight for anything you believe in. If you can’t find anything to believe in, you’ve got some problems.

SK: Tell me a bit about the Taiwanese metal scene, which is not well known here. What’s popular? Are there other bands you think would be successful in the U.S soon?

FL: Taiwanese, they’re very dedicated in what they believe in. No matter what they play, metal bands, punk bands, they all work very hard. So yes, I believe there will be more Taiwanese metal bands coming here. I know there are a couple very good metal bands in Taiwan, like Antillion and Infernal Chaos, which is more thrash metal.

SK: Future plans?

JL: We’re gonna have another tour in Europe in November. After the tour, we’re gonna write more new material.

SK: Final words?

FL: Check out more Asian metal bands!

Chthonic is finishing up their headlining North American tour and will be heading over to Europe to tour with Cradle of Filth and Ensiferum among others. The English version of their sixth album, Seediq Bale, was released on SPV last year.