Metal Mania comes to town

If you suffer from migraines or are of a nervous disposition, then several of Taiwan's leading music venues are probably best avoided this weekend, as it's that time of year once again when the nation's most vociferous bands crawl out of the woodwork in order to celebrate that loud and earsplitting musical genre commonly referred to as heavy metal.

From tonight through Sunday, 13 of Taiwan's best metal bands and two equally loud Japanese acts will be teaming up for the Invali-Fest (大威震金屬制霸) and will bring with them their deafening buzzsaw guitar barrages of noise and unholy lyrics.

Organized by TRA Music, the same bunch of musical miscreants that bring us the more mainstream Formoz Festival (野台開唱) every July, the Invali-Fest was previously known as the Metal Immortal Festival and is now in its eighth year.

Along with the name change the event, which has long been a solely Taipei-based one-day affair, has been extended to a two-day bash in Taipei and will see several of the big name acts taking to stages in Taichung and Kaohsiung over the course of the weekend.

"Originally it was a small one-day event, but this year we decided to make it larger and take it on the road," said TRA's Freddy Lin (林旭佐). "It's not like all fans of heavy metal live in Taipei so it seemed fair to give people in Taichung and Kaohsiung the chance to see the bands perform."

While the first festival, which was held at the long defunct venue Vibe, saw only a handful of acts and attracted more curious onlookers rather than hardcore fans of the noisy genre it has, according to Lin, long since transformed into a hugely popular event. And while turnout remains relatively low in comparison to larger festivals like Spring Scream, Ho Hai-Yan and Formoz, Taiwan's sole heavy metal festival has managed to create a name for itself over the years.

"In the first year people came because it was new. There weren't many [heavy] metal bands in Taiwan and it was a real novelty to see such acts perform here," said Lin, who, when he's not deskbound, puts on heavy make-up, dons extravagant costumes and takes to the stage as the front man for Taiwan's Golden Melody Award winning death metal combo Chthonic (閃靈樂團). "Now people come because they know about metal music and have heard of many of the bands. It's impossible to compare it to Formoz in regard huge turnouts, but I think it serves a purpose and fills a void."

According to Lin the number of people in attendance over the years has yo-yoed from a couple of hundred to over 1,000 and, while the event is not one of TRA's great money earners it has served its purpose well. There are now more metal bands in Taiwan than ever before and large numbers of young people, most of whom no doubt have far too much testosterone for their own good, are now avid followers of the metal scene.

"The festival has certainly been responsible for the increase in, and awareness of, heavy metal in Taiwan," said Lin. "The fact that we've been able to lengthen the event to two days shows that more and more [young] people are now interested in and playing different forms of heavy metal as opposed to simply sticking to old alt/indie/punk rock formats."

Along with encouraging local youth to emulate the likes of well-known heavy metal acts like Motorhead and Metallica the festival has also been responsible for an increase in the popularity of the many differing types of metal music. While keen to please fans of more mainstream heavy metal, Lin has ensured variety by booking a selection of band's this year that play everything from death to nu-metal and even the kooky sounding new age metal.