Everyone is ready to sacrifice everything for their art — until such time comes that they actually do in fact have to give in order to get. I’ve seen it with my own eyes and heard with my tinnitus-ridden ears. Band gets invited to high-profile show/festival/tour. Band loses its collective mind. Band then has “the talk.”
Before long they get down to brass tacks. “Can we afford it?” Inevitably they decide that, no, they can’t. So they don’t do it. Instead they continue buying more video games, staring at their brand new smart phones, and walking, knowingly or not, down the road to eventual self-imposed oblivion. Sacrifice? It’s easy so long as all you have to do is talk about it in the existential sense.
Taipei-based, Nantou-bred black/folk metal band Bloody Tyrant (暴君) is one of the few extreme bands in Taiwan with the demonstrable level of ambition required to take things to the next level. Since 2009, the band has been honing and refining its sound, continuously adding new layers to the original black metal base. Most recently, they have followed in the footsteps of local extreme metal forebears Chthonic (閃靈), among other music-of-old-inspired metal groups, and added elements of traditional folk music.
Photo courtesy of Blake Liu
METAL AND ORCHESTRA, TOGETHER AT LAS
Next weekend, Bloody Tyrant will embrace sacrifice with its most ambitious endeavor to date. Not only has the band rented out high-profile venue Legacy (傳音樂展演空間), but they will also bring with them a 10-piece orchestra who will add classical and folk arrangements to the band’s songs. This will actually be the second time the band has attempted playing alongside an orchestra after an initial run-through earlier this year in Taichung.
“It was truly a hard time setting things up for the orchestra,” says bassist Willy “Krieg” Tai (戴敬緯). “We spent three hours to complete the sound check. More people means more problems. A tiny mistake still needs lots of time to debug. After that, the result was great. The scene on stage was overwhelming. I’m very proud of it. We spent lots of time and money to prepare such a massive performance.”
Photo courtesy of Blake Liu
This will be the final time the band performs with classical accompaniment while playing in support of its most recent album, The Legacy of Sun Moon Lake — a record that tells of the legends surrounding the landmark body of water situated within the band’s home county.
“It talks about the two dragons who invaded Sun Moon Lake, and the residents tried to defeat them,” Tai says. “After some cruel battles the dragons were defeated, but many people died, so the main character of this story became the mountains around the lake to protect this area forever.”
The year 2009 might not seem like all that long ago. However, at the time being a metal head in Nantou was almost unheard of. But the story of a group of guys (they’ve since added a female pipa player to the group) heading for the big city and now headlining one of Taipei’s biggest venues is sure to show young people from their hometown that the stereotypical small town curse can put the clamps on you only insofar as you allow it to do so.
“It was very difficult to play metal in Nantou before,” says Tai. “There were no live houses, no school clubs that performed really well, no professional music teachers, no good music stores. All the information was collected online. But it’s the Internet generation. Now everyone can be a metal head in Nantou.”
■ Bloody Tyrant performs on Sept. 5 at Legacy (傳音樂展演空間), 1, Sec 1, Bade Rd, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號). Support comes from Taichung’s Flesh Juicer (血肉果汁機). Tickets are NT$500 in advance, NT$700 at the door. Doors open at 7:30pm and the show begins at 8pm.
This weekend there’s the StreetVoice Park Park Carnival (大破世代), a free two-day festival in Taipei Expo Park (花博公園). The multi-stage fest brings together bands and acts from all corners of the musical multiverse, with everything from DJs to extreme metal, pop, hip hop, and anything else you can name.
Notable among the performers at this year’s fest will be Beijing pop punk band Reflector (反光鏡樂隊). The group blends together pop sensibilities with the introverted and awkward punk musings of the likes of Lagwagon, No Use For A Name, and if you want to go back to the godfathers of all things pop punk, the Descendents.
The band gained fame in 2001 when they became one of the first underground bands from China to tour in the United States, doing a West Coast run of seven shows that included an opening slot for Pittsburgh politico-punks Anti-Flag.
Another band making the journey across the strait is Hong Kong jazz-infused hip hop/funk/soul group Project Ace. The six-piece collective was formed by virtuoso performers who are all part of the Midou Music label.
The band’s songs are performed in a mix of Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, and in 2014 the group took a big step toward global recognition with their collaboration with Jurassic 5 MC Akil on the track “Canton Funk (節拍崛起).”
■ StreetVoice Park Park Carnival (大破世代) takes place tomorrow and Sunday at Taipei Expo Park (花博公園), next to Yuanshan MRT Station (捷運圓山站). Bands perform from 2pm to 10pm on both days on stages scattered throughout the park grounds. Admission is free.
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