Chthonic- Taiwanese Death Metal Band

This morning I got this email from the Cincinnati Taiwanese Association

I am pleased to announce that Mr. Freddy Lim, lead singer of "ChthoniC" and head of "Guts United, Taiwan" will be in Indianapolis, Indiana very soon to deliver an imporant speech to the Taiwanese American community of the Midwest.

I was kind of curious about Chthonic so I visited their website and their entry on Wikipedia.
It turns out they're a Taiwanese death metal band that has performed at Ozzyfest.
From Wikipedia.org:

While some songs have their lyrics partly or entirely written in Taiwanese, Japanese, or Taiwanese aboriginal language, most of the band's songs have their lyrics written entirely in classical Chinese (with Mandarin pronunciation), which is rarely seen in contemporary Chinese music. Taking advantage of classical Chinese's feature of being a monosyllabic language, many songs, especially those in earlier albums, used plenty of parallel sentences in their lyrics to create an epic atmosphere.

The themes mostly surround early Taiwanese colonizers' defiant spirit, fictional war between aborigine's gods with Han's gods, Taiwanese folklore and mythology, and the historical event known as Wushe Incident, which is a rebellion against Japanese governor by Seediq people.

Although the lyrics are quite profound compared to most contemporary Taiwanese songs, many Taiwanese people don't prefer black metal vocals and said that they couldn't understand anything sung by Freddy, which is probably why Chthonic is said to be more famous in western countries than in Taiwan.

Ok, a Taiwanese death metal band that's popular in the West. That "sings" their songs in Taiwanese. That's a little unusual. However, things are not always they appear on the surface.

Freddy Lim, the vocalist is a highly respected political activist. Especially with the Taiwanese and Tibetan Independence movements.

Here's a picture of Freddy Lim's recent visit with the Dalai Lama.And a video of the same event.



If I had a child who started listening/singing death metal music, I think I would be in a panic and questioning my skills as a parent. Instead, the band members are meeting the Dalai Lama and are positive role models for the next generation of Taiwanese! I was talking to my father about Freddy Lim and he knew all about him and proceeded to go on and on about his courage, spirit, and his ability to mobilize the youth of Taiwan. My father is not alone in his admiration. When Chthonic travels in the United States, many older Taiwanese go to their concerts to support them and to bring them home cooked Taiwanese meals.

If you're curious you can hear their music while looking at their pictures on Chthonic's gallery.

Oh, the bass player of the band is slightly attractive.