A Voice for Taiwan's Freedom, History

Lim says he and his fellow band members grew up on a diet of Slayer, Anthrax, Deicide, Iron Maiden and Megadeth, as well as Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, "the bands we liked the most when we first listened to black metal in the mid-'90s, especially their arrangements." (Chthonic headlines club dates on its off days from Ozzfest with Egyptian-themed death metal band Nile.) Lim also cites Emperor and Enslaved from Norway and England's Hecate Enthroned, bands whose complex structures and arrangements sired the "symphonic black metal" movement. England's Cradle of Filth and Norway's Dimmu Borgir wrote about their native cultures after traditional pagan religions had been forcibly replaced by Christianity.

Chthonic incorporates stories tied to Taiwan's culture and history, including the struggle against the Han Chinese, who after assuming control of the island about 350 years ago, subjugated aboriginal cultures. The band's 1998 debut, "Where the Ancestors' Souls Gathered," is about the original journey across the sea and the Han dreaming about a brighter future in Taiwan. The follow-up, "9th Empyrean," deals with a war between the gods of the Han and Taiwan's aboriginal people.

Chthonic's most recent release, "Seediq Bale," is also inspired by history. When the Japanese ruled Taiwan between 1895 and 1945, they banned traditional aboriginal practices, including facial tattoos, which were considered marks of honor. The Seediq, part of the Atayal, one of the 12 officially recognized indigenous peoples in Taiwan, rebelled in 1930, resulting in the Wushe Incident, an infamous massacre in which most of the tribe were killed, with women and children hanging themselves in trees to let the warriors focus on fighting. Revolver magazine called Chthonic's album "a booming blend of beautiful brutality and theatrical gloom." (There's an intriguing trailer for an as-yet-unreleased feature film, also called "Seediq Bale," about the conflict at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS8Ojljcy7A.)

As the band's album covers, videos and photos show, Chthonic makes dramatic use of facial tattoos, also known as "corpse paint." Painted rockers go back to Alice Cooper and Kiss, and death and black metal bands in the '80s and '90s, particularly those from Scandinavia, embraced particularly dramatic, foreboding imagery. As with the Oskorei, a legion of ghoulishly painted dead souls found in Norse mythology, Taiwanese folklore had the Eight Generals, painted deities empowered with the eight Taoist spirits to be judges of good and evil.

"The makeup that we have is very traditional," Lim says. "Taiwanese Taoist priests would have to communicate with the gods and ghosts, to let the spirits into their bodies to transcend themselves. And because our songs are about Taiwanese ghosts, we need to be strengthened on the stage as well. That kind of makeup lets our fans know about Taiwan, and they become more and more curious about Asian culture. And it lets our music fit into the whole Chinese culture, lets people not think it's weird to use heavy metal to express Taiwanese history and culture."

Chthonic's sound is generally familiar: Guitarist Jesse (the Infernal), bassist Doris (Thunder Tears), keyboardist CJ (Dispersed Fingers) and drummer Dani (Azathothian Hands) deliver machine gun/jackhammer accompaniment to Lim's throat-shredding, guttural screams. But you'll also notice Su-Nung (the Bloody String) on erhu (hena in Taiwanese), a two-stringed traditional Chinese violin. It's often buried in the tumultuous sound mix but sometimes gets a solo showcase that capitalizes on the sad, morose sounds that have made the instrument a favorite in tragic or melancholy films and plays. Lim once said that the band tried the Western violin but that it "was just not sad enough."

"There are a lot of die-hard fans who always know when the hena will come out," Lim says. "In our performance, you can see those big eyes as they stare at it. Many people cannot figure out which part is the hena [and] which part is the guitar or keyboards because all things are mixed together, but that's the beauty of symphonic black metal."

Since its second album, Chthonic has recorded Mandarin and English-language versions, though Lim is clearly more comfortable in his own language. "Some parts are really difficult to translate from Taiwanese, particularly the ones that are speaking of the gods or the spirits, and I don't want to write in English because it doesn't feel natural. It is not too difficult for us because we work with many writers in Taiwan to do something in English, but I feel like in extreme metal the fans maybe don't really care about the lyrics."

This last observation is both pragmatic and personal, Lim says. "I like Emperor, I like Immortal [black metal bands from Norway], I like In Flames [from Sweden], but I don't really know what they are singing about. I know that they are writing about Scandinavian myths and some Satanism stuff -- that's all I need to know. I don't really have to look at the lyrics sheet -- it's a different kind of music." And his own lyrics are sung with such brutal energy that the actual language hardly matters.

Chthonic, Nile, Azrael and Aeturnus Animus Appearing Monday at Jaxx More than a concert T-shirt: Concertgoers can always pick up souvenir CDs and tour T-shirts, but Chthonic is likely the only band offering paper doll versions of themselves. It's traditional Taiwanese folk art, and fans will find six dolls modeled after the members of Chthonic (with their instruments), along with others representing the Eight Generals.