Music I Like – Asian Metal

Out of 7.5 billion people in the world, 4.5 billion of them live in Asia. Heavy metal may seem like a white man’s game, but you can bet that out of 4.5 billion people, some of them are going to be pretty metal. Here are some of the ones I like.

Zuriaake

This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned Zuriaake here, and it’s probably not going to be the last. To be honest, I’m not even sure 狼王 (For the Motherwolf) is by this band from the city where I met my daughter (Jinan). Released in May, the album appears on their page, but lists YN GIZARM as the author. Whoever it is, I love it. Chinese folkened black metal rules. {But if you know the true story, please share it with me because I like to get nerdy about the details.}

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Chthonic

Dude, you can’t even talk about Asian metal without talking about Chthonic. I mean they’ve got a politician and a polymath bass player in their lineup; they address overlooked history in their albums, and they’ve even made a full-length movie (which I’m still trying to track down) with a Randy Blythe cameo. Not to mention that their music is really good. Bu-Tik was my entry point to the band and still holds a special place in my heart. But let’s give something newer a listen, too, shall we?

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Jambinai

South Korea’s Jambinai uses archaic folk instruments to make post-rock and black metal.

ONDA takes cues from the Olympian ideal of “higher, faster, stronger,” doing everything that Jambinai do, only more so—the towering peaks of “Event Horizon” replicate the sense of overwhelming awe of peering out on some wide-reaching expanse, while the lengthy stretches of near-silence during 13-minute “In the Woods” sound like they’re being transmitted from the earth’s core. On the brutal war cry of “Sawtooth,” Jambinai evoke memories of Sepultura’s Roots: another groundbreaking, controversial co-mingling of progressive metal and folk traditions. To that end, ONDA is roots music, committed to including an array of voices—like the traditional wailing that graced their earlier work, and the ones that appear on “Square Wave” and the title track (“At the end of your darkness, pain will turn into the shining stars and it’s going to come to you”). All of this suggests that Ill-woo’s issue isn’t with meditation per se, but rather a false equivalency between transcendence and calm: like the most extreme forms of spirituality, ONDA seeks to sublimate catharsis from suffering.

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Death Kult Over Black Congregation

I got an alert from Bandcamp about this album and mistook it for a band. I was nearly done listening to the whole thing when I thought, “These guys are really eclectic, but some of their tracks are awesome.” Only then did I read the Bandcamp page closely enough to realize that Death Kult Over Black Congregation was a compilation of Chinese extreme metal bands. When I have time to listen to it again, I’ll make a closer note of which tracks, and therefore which bands, I like best. But for now, I encourage you to do the same.

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Zuriaake

Told you I wouldn’t stop talking about Zuriaake. While this post sat in my drafts folder, Zuriaake released Resentment in The Ancient Courtyard, 18 minutes of music in two tracks. I usually only mention full albums here, but I love everything Zuriaake does and they don’t often post new music.

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Sigh

Like Chthonic, Sigh is one of the first artists people think of when conversation turns to metal from Asia. This Japanese band puts the lie to Japanese stereotypes of conformity, politeness, and normalcy. From one album to the next, you’re never quite sure what you’ll get from Sigh. It might be something proggy or blackened or pure chaos. All you can count on is that it will be inventive, and it will probably be ugly. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a “representative” Sigh album, but I’m including their 2009 album Scenes From Hell here because it’s available on Bandcamp.