Metal in Taiwan

Metal in Taiwan
While attending the DeSForM conference in Taipei in October 2009, TMK also studied the Taiwanese metal scene by meeting few interesting persons in the city. One of them was Mr. Space K. Chen, with his company Rock Empire. Space has been 20 years in business as a promoter, agent, and producer, among other things, keeping the metal culture alive in Taiwan by bringing bands to the country, maintaining a metal store with amazing selection of CD’s and other stuff, and running his own recording studio. He has been recently hosting bands like Children of Bodom and Arch Enemy in Taiwan, China and other local places. And thanks to him, Sonata Arctica is coming to Taiwan for the third time in January. I also met Jesse Liu from Icon Promotions, also a concert promoter for some metal bands and a number of other groups, as well as some record company reps and people from the Wall club, the only decent live house in the whole city with some 2,6 million people – which indeed tells something about the state of music culture in the country.

Metal underground
In specific, heavy metal is a small scene in Taiwan, much smaller and underground than I even initially thought, knowing that even many Finnish bands have visited the country in their Asian tours. But in fact, it turned out that Finnish bands belong to the best known and appreciated metal bands there. Children of Bodom, Stratovarius, and Sonata Arctica have gathered audiences around 800 people that is a high number for a metal show in Taipei. However, the city is lacking a decent gig place for that size of rock shows, and promotion is difficult while there is not any considerable metal media in the country. The big names of metal do not visit the country, while they are too expensive and would therefore require a big crowd. And live gig is a ticket for greater appreciation also in Taiwan. That is probably one reason while Finnish and Swedish bands are experiencing relative success there. As told by Jesse, these and other metal bands, in the first place, come to Taiwan thanks to Space.

In addition to the rare visits of foreign bands, there is in average only one metal night arranged per month. These gigs usually present local bands in the Wall club, which is an astonishingly small venue (max capacity of 400) considering it is basically the only place in Taipei for such concerts and hosting even some semi-big names every now and then. For example Skid Row recently performed in the Wall for some 300 people. My interviewees estimated that there are perhaps 10 active metal bands in Taiwan. My robust peek into some of the bands suggested that the Taiwanese metal heads are inclined to play technical stuff with death/black influences.
I was lucky to see one of those local nights in the Wall, as four Taiwanese bands – Valcun, Hekate, Emerging From The Cocoon, and Solem – played there for some 100 mostly young fans. And quite young seemed the band members as well, but apparently well educated in precise playing and heavy metal gestures. In terms of their music, it was very difficult to differentiate the bands, as they showed very little personal subtleties. One difference, however, was the female singer of the main act Solemn. Her casual appearance with the red striped shirt may not quite fit the metal environment, but otherwise the references to Arch Enemy were obvious. And even in a small event like this, there are always some metal ambassadors from Scandinavia in the audience (Cheers Tomas & Geir!).

Big in Taipei
Not only are the gigs small and rare, but also CD’s are selling quite marginal numbers. Younger customers don’t buy them much anymore, while Internet is the main channel to get one’s hands on the music. Even the big names like Metallica and Iron Maiden are selling albums only in few hundred copies, and practically all the CD’s are imported. If a band nowadays manages to sell close to 1,000 copies, it is a “big” one. For instance, Polaris by Stratovarius has sold some 800 copies so far (in comparison to the 2,000 copies of some earlier albums). From the Finns, COB, Sonata Arctica and Nightwish are also selling relatively well. And many other Finnish items are found in the Space’s record store where, by the way, Steve Vai is the best selling artist. In overall, technical stuff and guitar virtuosity is much liked in Taiwan, which quite resembles the situation in Japan.

And why is metal so underground in the country? It is basically due to the lack of any considerable culture and history. Metal listeners are mainly young people, the music and its’ listeners are still generally considered rebellious, and many people stop listening to metal when growing older. It is very difficult to find older metal fans in the country. For example, the COB audience is typically 18-25 years old and very male dominated. Arch Enemy is appeals also to many women, thanks to Angela of course. So in many respect, the culture is very different in comparison to Japan. Overall, consumption of domestic music is dominating: Only 10% of people listen to foreign bands in the first place. The local pop stars easily fill arenas of 20,000 people. From the foreigners, one of the recent considerable successes was Beyoncé whose concert sold some 8,000 tickets.

Noise from the dragon's mouth
And the mainland China is much like Taiwan. Both Space and Jesse operate also in China, which is still a tricky country in terms of gig arrangements and CD sales. Nonetheless, a new music culture, also metal, is strongly booming there. The Chinese Painkiller magazine (btw, currently promoting visibly the China tour of the Finnish Ensiferum) is selling some 6,000 copies, which is of course none in the Chinese scale, but still considered a considerable communication media. More and more gigs are also being organized, especially in Beijing that is becoming the heavy metal centre of the country. COB in the recent tour played to an audience of 600 people, which is also about the required size to break even. However, having wrong looks, singing about wrong themes, or coming from a wrong country can cause bands some troubles. For example, the visas of Skid Row was recently retained, but Jesse eventually managed to get the band to the country. Some extra payoffs are also required in many instances.

One of the most interesting and often also amusing details from China and Taiwan are the altered band names. Not only must the lyrics be translated for Chinese officials if a band hopes to obtain a permission to perform in the mainland China, but also the names of the bands often have to be translated to Chinese when promoting concerts or CD’s both in Taiwan and China. This is not always due to political reasons, as was the case when Napalm Death was translated to something like “Gasoline Pump” in China. Many foreign names are simply considered too difficult and impersonal for the local fans, while English is generally not well understood. For example, Children of Bodom may be translated to something like “Seiren’s Child” or “Children of Love”, Arch Enemy to “Biggest Enemy”, Sonata Arctica to “Sonata of Northern Lights”, and Stratovarius to “Riding the Cloud”. A perfect case of re-branding!

Chthonic state of mind
Finally, when writing about Chinese metal, one local band needs to be mentioned. It is Chthonic that during its’ 14 years of existence has grown relatively big. The band has created interest abroad and toured all over the world, for instance in the Ozzfest 2007, and the band’s female singer Doris Yeh has created some attention for the band by posing in the FHM magazine. Chthonic presents an interesting concept of extreme metal, including strong local influences in its music and lyrics that stem from the mournful events in the Taiwanese history. The band has currently a link to Finland, as the recent album “Mirror of Retribution” was released by the Finnish Spinefarm. As Spinefarm writes on its website: “Taiwan is a country where history and folklore work very much hand in hand, and both of these elements are central to the latest studio album from that country’s premier metal outfit, Chthonic.” Hopefully there are more bands emerging that merge the rich cultural background into their music, which is something that could make a difference abroad.

Toni-Matti Karjalainen



Links:
Rock Empire: http://www.rockempire.com.tw/
Icon Promotions: http://www.icon-promotions.com/
The Wall: http://www.thewall.com.tw/
Chthonic: http://www.myspace.com/chthonictw
Chtonic at Spinefarm: http://www.spinefarm.fi/showband.php?id=199
Painkiller magazine (Chinese): http://www.painkillermag.com/


Photos (top down):

Add for the Wall club metal night
the Wall club (photo: Toni-Matti Karjalainen)
Solemn performing at the Wall (photo: Toni-Matti Karjalainen)