October 2009

Prior to 2007 if you had mentioned the band Chthonic to someone in the United States, the chances are fairly good they would have had no knowledge of the band. Even some of the most hardened black metal fans that I associate with had never heard of the group but their participation in Ozzfest as well as a series of off-dates alongside brutal death metal titans Nile gave the band exposure to an American audience for the first time and the response from most was overwhelming positive.

For those who would listen though, the message that Chthonic came to spread was one that went beyond just being about their music. Within their lyrics one can learn of the mythology and legends of their native Taiwan but the band also had a political objective that transcended this. Their trip to the United States may have given them exposure to new fans but it also allowed them to voice their concerns over an issue that has been affecting the country.

Since 1993, Taiwan has tried repeatedly to join the United Nations, a request that has been denied time and time again. The nation, no longer under Chinese rule and independent, hasn’t been awarded the same privilege as others and even places such as Wales, which isn’t even a country, is a member of the UN. Chthonic may have come to enlighten fans to their style of symphonic black metal but they also came to attempt once again to have Taiwan’s voice officially heard as a part of the United Nations.

October of 2009 would once again find Chthonic paying a visit to our home of Portland, OR, this time touring alongside black metal legends Satyricon. We were privileged enough to sit down with Freddy Lim and discuss their latest release, “Mirror of Retribution,” as well as some political view points, their participation in the Free Tibet Concert, and everything in between.

The new album, Mirror of Retribution, is out. It seems that it’s more of a concept album than the previous releases. For those that don’t already know, what’s the story behind it?

Since the first four albums, some of the fans, some of the critics were very interested in Oriental hell, the philosophy behind it. Oriental hell, the structure is very big so it’s no Japanese, Chinese, Korean and we tried to write a whole story. There are ten chords of hell and eighteen levels and tons of smaller ones. So we tried to have a story that can describe whole thing, so that’s the main concept of what we are doing on this album.

Mirror of Retribution is the first thing that you will have to face when you go to hell. We made a story to describe the theme so we connected it to Taiwanese history, the most infamous massacre, the 228 Massacre in 1947. (In the story) there’s a medium, a boy, who wants to change the history so he sends himself to hell to rewrite, to edit the Book of Life and Death. So that’s the main story of the album and there are lots of different themes.

What you’re referencing is after Japan gave control of Taiwan back to the Chinese?

Yeah, Taiwan was occupied or colonized by the Dutch, Spain, Japan and China. So now the most important thing for Taiwanese citizens is to protect or nation; to remain independent. 

This is the first album you recorded in the US?

Yes.

How does that differ from recording in Taiwan?

Actually the first four albums, only the second album we recorded in Taiwan, the other three we recorded in Demark. Mirror of Retribution we recorded in the US It’s quite a different experience from compared to Taiwan or Europe. Jesse, the guitarist and I, we are the main song writers in the band and both of us are very old school, American metal fans; we like Exodus, we like Overkill, Anthrax, Slayer. So I think we enjoy the new sound.

One thing I noticed with the production on Mirror of Retribution is that the erhu (henna) can be heard better on this album than the others.

The way that Rob Caggiano produced this album is he tried to make the different parts of the songs be clearer and tried to make different instruments in different parts to be more recognizable. We didn’t produce the album in this way. We will continue to write these types of songs, we will compose in different ways.

What’s the response been to Mirror of Retribution outside of Taiwan?

Very good. We’ve got very good reviews and critical praise in different magazines. Actually after the last album, Seediq Bale, that album we thought might be the best that we can do; we liked that album very much. We didn’t know we could do something that we liked better. Mirror of Retribution we realized is better than the previous one, but we like them both.

What’s the metal scene like in Taiwan?

There are more and more metal bands. Back when I started this band there were no international metal bands that played in Taiwan at all and there weren’t even any metal musicians to start a band with me. You can imagine at that time it’s really hard to form this kind of band. But now there are maybe more than one hundred metal bands in Taiwan and lots of metal kids and lots of international metal bands playing in Taiwan. Arch Enemy will play a few weeks and Exodus just played last month. Now the scene in Taiwan is very developed and lots of local metal bands and international metal bands play in Taiwan. I think that it might be the most important scene in Asia besides Australia and Japan. I think most of the metal bands will play in Taiwan now.

Since you’ve gone from outside of Taiwan to the United States and Europe, do you think this has changed the perspective people have about Taiwan?

Yeah, I think so. It’s very funny that the metal kids, you feel like they are crazy, they are out of their minds, they don’t study too much. Back when I was in high school or when I was in university when I started to listen to Scandinavian death metal I did a lot of homework besides listening to their music. I went to the library to know more about Scandinavia, Norway; I believe lots of kids are doing the same thing. And now when we tour around the world I can see a lot of kids, they send me messages on MySpace, on Facebook discussing Taiwan with me and they have a better picture about Taiwan and what they can do just like when I wanted to know more about Norway. I think metal fans want to learn much more.

How do you think touring the United States and Europe has changed your outlook on your music and stage presence? I was watching a video clip from Decade on the Throne but then watched a newer video that I believe was right after Mirror of Retribution was released in Taiwan and your stage presence seems a lot more aggressive. It seems like the expose to different metal scenes is rubbing off on you.

The Asian metal fans a little more subdued. There isn’t the same energy as the American metal fans. Our show, no matter if it’s in Taiwan or Japan, it’s not that easy for you to feel that energy or energize yourself. But after touring in American more, in Europe more, after enjoying all the energy from the audience, the fighting, you feel like it’s much easier to energize yourself and feel the punch inside of your body.

I know the last time you were in the United States you planned on going to the United Nations to petition for Taiwan to have representation. What happened with that?

We had a press conference; t went very good. Most of the press came, most of the important media. I think that’s a very good impact for the media. But Taiwan’s search for it’s own identity, it’s not just an issue of Taiwanese politics, it’s an issue of all the Taiwanese citizens so even a heavy metal band from Taiwan cares a lot about that.

If you see interview with Taiwanese players in major league baseball like I have seen interview with Hu Chin-lung of the Dodgers the American media once asked him “Oh, so you are Chinese” and Hu Chin-lung just replied “No, I’m not. If I’m Chinese then you are British” and the reporter realized his mistaken. If more bands like ChthoiC and more Taiwanese baseball players can stand out to the media and let them know that we care about our identity, it’s a very sensitive and very important issue for us, we can change the impact of Taiwan to the media and international society.

You also played in Tibet recently as part of the Free Tibet Concert and also received a blessing from the Dalai Lama; hoe did you arrange that?

Actually I started to get involved with Tibet and the campaign back in 2000 when we played Fuji Rock. I just walked in a Free Tibet booth and I learned a lot from them. I bought some books in the booth and I started to read a lot about the issues and then in 2001 I started to get involved in the Tibetan campaign in Taiwan. They always have a march for Tibet every year.

Last year I felt like since it was the 50^th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, I felt like we should do something bigger. Last December I went to where the Tibetan government is in exile to do more research and do some video clips, we wanted to make a bigger campaign in Taiwan and a few days before we took off I just send an email to the Dalai Lama’s representative in Taiwan to see if we could meet with him and maybe do an interview and have him say something for the young people in Taiwan. We didn’t expect anything; we just felt like we are going there so if we can have this chance then that would be very good but if we don’t, that’s fine with us.

The day before we took off we got a reply from his office that said they would arrange a meeting for us. That’s really a remarkable journey The people in the room where we waited for our meeting with the Dalai Lama, the people in front of us are Japanese congressmen, lots of representatives of Japanese congress and then behind us is the chairman of the Italian congress, so a bunch of young Taiwanese kids just squeezed ourselves in with all the serious people. It’s supposed to be a five minute meeting but we met with the Dalai Lama for like half an hour so that was a very good experience. He was very open minded. I really enjoyed talking with him.

With Mirror of Retribution and concerning Chthonic in the future, how do you want people to view not only your music but Taiwan?

As a member of Chthonic we will keep doing our work and we will continue to write songs; keep touring the whole world. Hopefully we will tour the United States early next year. But as a Taiwanese citizen I believe that each person in the world needs to care about the international society and the issues more. When you try to spread the word, when you try and pay more attention and help to improve society you will feel like you improve yourself. That’s a very good experience I want to share with each person in the world; when you do something nice, when you try to help somebody, when you try to fight for the justice and the freedom of more people on the planet, that’s a very good experience and that can inspire you to do whatever you want to do no matter if you are in the music business or something else.

Any final words?

No, I think that’s it.

Chthonic’s latest release, “Mirror of Retribution” is available now from Spinefarm.

For further information and how you can get involved in the Free Tibet movement, please visit http://www.freetibet.org/. Additionally, those who wish to have Taiwan’s voice finally heard in the United Nations, please visit their official website at http://www.un.org/ and make your opinion heard. You can also contact them by emailing to their comments section (just click on the link we've provided.) Let's not allow Taiwan to go unheard any longer. Let's let them finally have their voices heard just like the rest of the world.