The state of Chinese heavy metal

This article was originally published on Neocha and is republished with permission.

Metal rock’s beginnings in China can be traced back to the late 80s, when the never-before-heard aggressive sounds arrived in Beijing by way of pioneering bands Black Panther and Tang Dynasty. As it was late in reaching China, the different subgenres of metal—established in Europe and America—became bedrocks on which Chinese bands constructed their own brand of metal. Many bands began looking to add a Chinese spin to metal through the inclusion of traditional Chinese instruments, vocal techniques, and folklore-inspired lyrics.

Today, a diverse variety of metal subgenres is on offer throughout the Middle Kingdom. Depending on your open-mindedness and mood, you could be listening to a blues-inspired metal band one night and a pornogrind band spewing the raunchiest lyrics you’ve ever heard the next. No matter your taste, the burgeoning metal scene in China has something for everyone. In this edition of Neocha Roundups, we’re happy to present ten underground Chinese metal acts that we believe deserve some attention.

Ready to Die
Old School Death Metal

Finding a quality old-school death metal band in China is something of a rarity, and Ready to Die is an even rarer breed, considering the talented female vocalist who drives their sound. Inspired by Floridian death metal bands like Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, and Morbid Angel, Ready to Die was founded in Beijing in 2007 and hold the claim as the first band in the Middle Kingdom to utilize female vocals with a classic American death metal style. The band’s bludgeoning riffs and Chris Barnes-esque, guttural vocal style come together to create a massive, suffocating sound that would impress any death metal purist. While they frequently play festivals in and around the Beijing area, their internet presence, especially an English presence, is minimal. So if you spot their name on the bill, don’t miss out.

The Dark Prison Massacre
Slam/Groove/Grind

Slam riffs and the heaviness of brutal death metal mixed with monstrous vocals and Pantera-esque grooves are the sonic foundations that The Dark Prison Massacre is built on. Formed in 2005, the Tianjin-based band creates songs across a variety of themes, ranging from oppression and brutality to animal cruelty. With venues in Tianjin packed with fans to go ballistic, nobody gets the pits going like these maniacs. Their latest EP Conviction, with the inclusion of Egypt-inspired sounds in their brutal soundscapes, marks a new creative milestone for the band.

Never Before
Stoner/Sludge Metal

Being that marijuana is illegal in China, stoner rock isn’t exactly a genre that’s thriving in the country. Nobody seemed to have told Never Before, a band that harkens back to the greats of the genre such as Electric Wizard, Monster Magnet, and Clutch. Still, not lighting up won’t affect the audience’s enjoyment of a Never Before live show. They recently rolled up a fat new EP titled Savage, and as the name implies, it’s a harder-edged version of the band’s sound, featuring chunky, sticky riffs that seem like the sonic equivalent of holding freshly harvested buds.

Los Crasher
Glam/Hard Rock/Heavy Blues

The Beijing equivalent of LA’s Sunset Strip is perhaps Nanluoguxiang, a series of winding backstreets dotted by bars and live music venues. Here is where you’ll probably find the members of Los Crasher, clad in leather or denim, downing shots of tequila, and flirting with girls. The 80s style of teased hair, bandanas, and tight leather pants as seen in glam-metal bands like Guns and Roses, Motley Crue or Skid Row have returned with Los Crasher, who live by the rebellious mentalities of the genre’s predecessors. They’ve created hard-rocking, harmonica-tinged anthems such as “Tricky Boys Back in Town” and “Smoking Hot Baby” as well as ballads that inspire female fans to throw their bras and scraps of paper with their WeChat IDs onstage. If you catch a show, hang onto your girlfriends.

Borrow the Sound
Industrial Metal/Electronic

Borrow the Sound is a mad scientist cooking up an avant-garde style of industrial metal. Donning a lab coat on stage, his live performances are backed by ear-grating electronic sounds, explosive guitar riffs, and unhinged vocalizations. He is routinely booked with metal bands to mixed results: at times, audience members may seem less than enthused, but others, they dance and scream along with his experimental take on metal.

Dream Spirit
Folk Metal

With 5,000 years of history, musicians have a lot to draw from when incorporating ancient Chinese culture into their musical output. Dream Spirit is one of the best examples of a band that takes the finer points of Chinese history and puts it to exciting use, resulting in a distinctive sound that’s struck a chord with metalheads across the country. Routinely booked as headliners for the annual 330 Metal Fest in Beijing, Dream Spirit gets the crowd singing along with five albums’ worth of folklore-inspired melodies. Their latest, Warriors of Heaven’s Descend, is similarly filled with anthems that fans can shout along with.

Rectal Wench
Goregrind

Wearing butcher’s aprons and luchador masks, Rectal Wench flies the flag of goregrind. Inspired by bands like Gut and named after a song by Lividity, the band thrives on repugnance, mashing together nasty lyrics and dissonant sounds to make something devastatingly heavy and aesthetically revolting. With their live shows, the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” has never been truer.

Punisher
Thrash Metal

The thrash scene in China is something fierce, with several beer-guzzling, fast-tempo bands instigating audiences to do laps until they vomit in the circle pit. A band such as Jinzhou’s Punisher—with its speedy instrumentation, shrieked vocals, and buzzsaw riffs—does just as their name indicates: punish the listener. This band takes a no-nonsense, gimmick-less approach to the style, taking cues from classic 80s thrash acts like Annihilator or Kreator. When the instruments break down and the monstrous crescendo hits, audience members lock arms and swing their hair in unison, headbanging with enough force to seemingly power a small wind turbine.

Black Kirin
Blackened Folk Metal

Black Kirin, with the addition of a new vocalist, has evolved into a blackened metal band while still maintaining the Chinese folk influences that fans have come to know them for. Their songs often deal with Chinese history: an entire album was even devoted to the brutal Nanking Massacre of WWII. Their latest single, Qinhuai, being their most musically complex work so far, is a 12-minute-long track with no repeating chord progressions. On stage, they pile on the theatrics that’s expected of black metal: corpse paint, capes and cowls are all par for the course. Black Kirin is a spellbinding band made for fans of Cradle of Filth, Emperor, and Dark Funeral.

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Contributor & Photographer: Ryan Dyer
Additional Images Courtesy of 海淀阑尾, 耿由然, 陈悦湘, & Douzi