Fans of more mainstream oriented music may never have heard the bands performing this weekend, but for those metal heads in the know then the festival line-up should come as no surprise, as nearly all of the band's performing have already proven their mettle at many of Taiwan's other festivals.
Leading the local pack is the well-known "death metal" act Chthonic, a combo that has recently taken the odd step of adding a truly Taiwanese twist to its demonic sound by releasing an album on which it waxed lyrical about the souls of the dead Aboriginal heroes who took part in the Wushe incident -- an anti-Japanese revolt by members of the Seediq tribe in 1930 that resulted in the deaths and decapitations of 130 Japanese soldiers and policemen.
From Japan comes Grim Force, which models itself on Brazilian "thrash metal/death metal" band Sepultura and Zombie Ritual, a combo that is heavy on the Halloween-like make up and plays a brand of metal known as "doom metal," which is slow and heavy, evokes an atmosphere of darkness and despair and is influenced by acts such as Lord Gore and the Impaled.
Other local bands of note appearing this weekend include "nu-metal" combo 666 that along with making one hell of a racket will be promoting its recently released debut album Republic (
It's not all total noise, however, as the Invali-Fest also features performances by a couple of more prog-rock oriented acts like the "new age metal" combo Hercules and the "neo-classical metal" four piece Revive (
It may be a heavy metal festival but this hasn't stopped Taiwan's hugely popular nakashi driven anarchists, LTK Commune (
What: Invali-Fest (
When and Where: From 6pm tonight and tomorrow at The Wall (
Admission: Tickets are available at the door for all shows and cost NT$500 for the Taipei shows and NT$450 for the Taichung and Kaohsiung shows.
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