Chinese heavy metal
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Chinese heavy metal (中国重金属,
pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
: ''Zhōngguó Zhòngjīnshǔ''; also 中国 重金属音乐, ''Zhōngguó zhòngjīnshǔ yīnyuè'', literally "Chinese heavy metal music") is commonly used to describe a wide variety of forms of heavy metal music, in connection with the rock bands and solo artists from the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
(Native
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
-speaking regions such as
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
,
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
,
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
are considered separate scenes). Typically, Chinese heavy metal bands adhere to one subgenres of heavy metal such as
death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
,
thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...
, and
power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...
, but commonly using Chinese-based lyrical content rather than English.


History


Tang Dynasty (1988–1990)

Chinese heavy metal had its origins in
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
(硬摇滚音乐, Yìng yáogǔn yīnyuè) and Heavy Metal (重金属, Zhòngjīnshǔ) music genres, which had emerged and gained popularity around the 1980s in the western world. As a main genre in Mainland China. The genre of Chinese Heavy Metal music emerged with the formation of the Chinese band,
Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
as they were the first band to emerge in China with Heavy Metal oriented music. Following their initial formation in 1988 Tang Dynasty utilized both elements introduced in the new wave of British heavy metal as well as elements of classical Chinese music in the music they wrote. In 1990 Tang dynasty was hired to play at the, 'Festival of modern music / 90's Modern Music Concert', wherein they were met with extremely positive responses from the crowd of nearly 18,000 spectators. The success gained from their performance eventually led to them obtaining a record contract with the Taiwanese record label, Magic Stone. In December 1992 Tang Dynasty released their debut album, entitled ''
A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty ''Tang Dynasty'' ( Chinese: 唐朝; pinyin: ''Tángcháo''), also known as ''A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty'' (Chinese: 梦回唐朝; pinyin: ''Mènghuí Tángcháo'') is the eponymous debut studio album by Chinese heavy metal band Tang Dynasty ...
'', marking the first release of a heavy metal album in China by a Chinese band.


Development (1991–1999)

In the time following the initial success of 'Tang Dynasty' a number of other Chinese heavy metal bands began to emerge throughout China. The bands emerging during this time period gradually began to adopt a more 'heavier' style of music utilizing more western elements in to their music, as shown by the band Overload's thrash metal debut record in 1996, but still retaining the Chinese lyrical content. 1997–1999 saw a massive rise in the amount of metal bands in China as the amount of new metal bands being formed every year increased from roughly 1-2 to 15 by 1999. The new bands being formed also began to diversify in terms of musical subgenre of heavy metal as many bands began to explore a more
Extreme Metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...
sound rather than the traditional '80's metal sound'. In 1999, the first metal magazine
极端音乐(Extreme Music)
was founded in Nanjing. Extreme Music Magazine articles feature metal bands and metal culture especially underground metal bands. Extreme Music moved to Beijing in 2006.


Public Recognition (2000–2012)

In September 2000, the first heavy-metal-oriented magazine, '' Painkiller'', was founded in Beijing. The magazine quickly became popular within the heavy metal sub culture in China on account of both its local coverage of metal related subjects as well as due to the inclusion of interview and articles written by foreign correspondents. During June 2001, the record label "Mort Productions" is founded by some of the members involved in the production and release of the ''Painkiller''. On November 4 Mort productions released the first compilation CD of Chinese heavy metal, namely "Resurrection Of The Gods" Mort Productions would go on to release a variety of records by Chinese metal bands as well as several metal compilation albums. From the year 2005 and onwards, China began to have several high-profile metal concerts with foreign bands headlining, along with local Chinese bands supporting. The band
Labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...
's performance in Beijing marked the first official metal concert in China by a foreign band. In the following years several foreign bands such as:
Edguy Edguy is a heavy metal band formed in Fulda, Germany in 1992. History Demos, AFM years (1992–2003) Edguy was founded in 1992 by 14-year-old students Tobias Sammet, Jens Ludwig, Dominik Storch and Dirk Sauer. The name "Edguy" was an affecti ...
, Lacrimosa, Testament,
Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...
,
In Flames In Flames is a Swedish heavy metal band, formed by guitarist Jesper Strömblad in Gothenburg in 1990. Alongside At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity, In Flames pioneered the genres known as Swedish death metal and melodic death metal. During t ...
,
Nightwish Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee. The band was formed in 1996 by lead songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former lead singer Tarja Turunen. The band soon picked up drummer Jukka Neva ...
,
Dark Tranquility Dark Tranquillity is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Gothenburg. They are considered one of the pioneering acts of the Gothenburg metal scene, which also includes bands such as In Flames and At the Gates. Dark Tranquillity is regarded a ...
,
Dream Theater Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of the ...
, Stratovarius, Helloween,
Opeth Opeth is a Swedish progressive metal/rock band from Stockholm, formed in 1990 by lead vocalist David Isberg. The group has been through several personnel changes, including the replacement of every original member; notably Isberg in 1992. Mikael ...
,
Lamb Of God Lamb of God ( el, Ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, Amnòs toû Theoû; la, Agnus Dei, ) is a title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God wh ...
, Soulfly,
Cannibal Corpse Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band formed in Buffalo, New York in 1988, now based out of Tampa, Florida. The band has released fifteen studio albums, two box sets, four video albums, and two live albums. The band has had little radi ...
has performed in both Beijing and Shanghai. 2012 marked to be a major statement of recognition for the Chinese metal scene, with several metal bands such as Suffocated being filmed by CCTV 5 and broadcast along the European Championship in Soccer 2012 coverage. Furthermore,
Rock in China Rock in China is a website dedicated to the documenting and archiving of contemporary Chinese music, ranging from rock music to punk, metal, electro, jazz and hiphop. It was founded in 2004, and in 2006 became a wiki. The website currently runs ...
released the compilation record CORE IN CHINA that attracted global attention online and is regarded as a milestone for Chinese metal.Metalinsider.net (c) June 201
review
/ref> In August, three Chinese metal bands (Suffocated, Yaksa and The Falling) performed on the Wacken Open Air 2012.


Artists


See also

* Midi Modern Music Festival * Chinese rock *
Rock in China Rock in China is a website dedicated to the documenting and archiving of contemporary Chinese music, ranging from rock music to punk, metal, electro, jazz and hiphop. It was founded in 2004, and in 2006 became a wiki. The website currently runs ...


References


External links


Mort Productions

Mort Productions release timeline

Guitarchina (in Chinese)



Report about Heavy Metal in China
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinese Heavy Metal Chinese styles of music 1980s in music 1990s in music 2000s in music Heavy metal by location