CHTHONIC: The Band Singing Taiwan's History into Black Metal

30-Second Overview: CHTHONIC is a Taiwanese heavy metal band formed in Taipei in 1995. Drawing from black metal, death metal, and symphonic metal, the band integrates Tâi-gí, the erhu, folk instruments, the legend of Lin-tau-su (Sister Lin-tau), the Wushe Incident, the [228 incident], the Takasago Volunteers, White Terror, and the sense of Taiwan's sovereignty into extreme metal. While vocalist Freddy Lim (林昶佐) later entered politics, bandleader and bassist Doris (葉湘怡), guitarist Jesse (劉笙彙), drummer Dani (汪子<0xE9><0xA9><0xA4>), and keyboardist CJ (高嘉<0xE5><0xB6><0xB8>) have maintained CHTHONIC as a complete creative entity. Many overseas metal fans first heard Taiwan's history through CHTHONIC, witnessing how a nation's ghosts, language, and sense of sovereignty are brought to the stage.

In 1995, not many people in Taipei knew what black metal was. CHTHONHONIC formed that year and was later described by the Taipei Times as Taiwan's first black metal band. In 2003, they won Best Band at the 14th Golden Melody Awards with Epoch Rebellion. The same report noted that CHTHONIC performed at a Taiwan recognition event in front of the Presidential Office, bringing the Taiwanese folk legend "_Lin-tau-su" to the stage. At that time, CHTHONIC—already wearing corpse paint, playing heavy beats, and screaming—was already asking a very precocious question: Could Taiwan's own myths, traumas, and ghosts become the core of metal music?¹

Taiwan's History within Black Metal

From the beginning, CHTHONIC's music has bound genre syntax with Taiwanese subject matter.

In a 2003 interview with the Taipei Times, Freddy Lim placed the band's origins within the cultural consciousness of black metal: just as Northern European black metal adopts a stance of resistance against the displacement of ancient beliefs by Christianity, CHTHONIC brings that question back to Taiwan to examine local memories suppressed by Sinocentric historiography, colonialism, and authoritarian politics. Early albums—ranging from Han Chinese migration across the sea and the conflict between Han and Indigenous myths to folk legends like Lin-tau-su—gradually established a Taiwanese universe composed of ghosts, deities, and historical wounds.¹

This trajectory later extended into modern history. Seediq Bale deals with the Wushe Incident and the Seediq people's resistance against Japan. Mirror of Retribution (十殿) places the 228 Incident within the imagery of hellish judgment. Takasago Army (高砂軍) looks back at the Takasago Volunteers conscripted by the Japanese Empire during WWII. Bú-Tik (武德) turns toward the spaces of power symbolized by colonial resistance and the Budokan. Battlefields of Asura (政治) brings post-war Taiwan, democratization, protest, and contemporary political identity to the forefront. These themes could easily be dismissed as merely "highly political," but in CHTHONIC's work, they function more like an underworld version of Taiwanese history: those who were not properly placed in textbooks return to the stage to find their voice.

The difference between CHTHONIC and typical protest-style songs becomes clear here. The band places historical facts into characters, ghosts, myths, reincarnation, and ritualistic performance. Listeners may first be hit by double-bass drumming and screams, only to slowly discover that behind these sounds lie the 22ary 8 Incident, Wushe, White Terror, colonial soldiers, and silenced family memories.

Erhu, Tâi-gí, and the Metal Wall of Sound

The most recognizable elements of CHTHONIC's sound are screams, low growls, double-bass drumming, heavy guitars, symphonic keyboards, and an erhu that sounds like it is weeping from a distance.

As early as 2003, the Taipei Times noted that the erhu gave CHTHONIC's black metal sound a distinct Taiwanese identity. While the erhu is often used in Mandopop for lyrical or nostalgic effects, in CHTHONIC, it acts like a thread for the ghosts: it can evoke the sorrow of folk opera or create a sharp, unsettling, almost necromantic line within the metal wall of sound.¹

Language is also central to CHTHONIC's sonic identity. During the 2007 Ozzfest tour, Freddy Lim told NPR that they used Mandarin and Hoklo (Tâi-gí) during their US performances. The same Taipei Times report noted that "UNlimited Taiwan" was performed in English, directly bringing the demand for Taiwan's participation in international organizations to the US tour.² While English allows overseas audiences to understand the message, Tâi-gí and Taiwanese history make the work an irreplaceable piece of metal syntax.

Following Takasago Army, CHTHONIC's songwriting pushed forward another step. In a summary of an interview cited by Metalship, Freddy Lim mentioned that in their early years, they wrote metal first and then added the "Taiwanese feel." By Takasago Army, the process became writing the skeleton of a Taiwanese song, a Tâi-gí song, or a Taiwanese pop song first, which he and Jesse would then heavy up into metal.³ This shift was crucial: erhu, Tâi-gí melodies, enka-style sentiments, folk structures, and heavy metal arrangements began to transform one another.

Official CHTHONIC MV: "TAKAO". This song from the Takasago Army era demonstrates how Tâi-gí, war memories, and metal arrangements are unified within a single stage language.

The Stage as Part of the Narrative

CHTHONIC's stage visuals have always been intertwined with their music. Early corpse paint borrowed the coldness of Northern European black metal, but the symbols on their faces, joss paper, deities, hell, and necromantic themes quickly pulled the visuals back to Taiwanese folklore and historical ghosts. The talismanic cloth wrapped around keyboardist CJ's head, the symbols on the vocalist's forehead, and the audience scattering joss paper during shows made the concerts feel like a metal version of a _fǎhuì (Buddhist/Taoist ritual).⁴

By the Takasago Army era, CHTHONIC moved away from pure corpse paint toward costumes with Asian military, martial arts, and battlefield aesthetics. This transition allowed the stage to move beyond a mere "dark black metal" atmosphere to directly serve the album's narrative: Taiwanese-Japanese soldiers, colonial troops, identities forced into name changes, and post-war souls all stood before the audience through costume and visual design. Consequently, CHTHONIC live performances are rarely just a rendition of studio tracks; they act as a temporary summoning of the album's ghostly universe to harbors, live houses, international music festivals, or Ketagalan Boulevard.

This also explains why CHTHONIC's MVs often have a cinematic quality. "TAKAO" uses war, memory, and Tâi-gí melodies to construct its imagery. "Breaking the Night," "The Great Protector of Wuniulan," and "Pattonkan" bring historical figures, protests, and the families of victims into the frame. When image, costume, language, and sound work together, CHTHONIC's politics are not just explained through lyrics but felt through the entire stage system.

The Requiem Trilogy: Wushe, 228, and Takasago Army

A great entry point to CHTHONIC's work is the requiem trilogy consisting of Seediq Bale, Mirror of Retribution, and Takasago Army.

Seediq Bale brought the Wushe Incident to the metal stage. This album turned the Seediq people, Mona Rudao, anti-Japanese resistance, and colonial violence into a set of tragic characters and sonic landscapes. It also made CHTHONIC more recognizable in overseas metal media: this Taiwanese band infused its own history into genre syntax, distancing itself from bands that merely imitate Northern European or American extreme metal.⁵

Mirror of Retribution places the 228 Incident within the realms of the underworld and judgment. The imagery of hell, vengeful spirits, and reincarnation gives a tangible form to a long-suppressed period of political violence. CHTHONIC's metal language is particularly fitting here: the screams sound like those who were unable to speak, finally finding a voice in a way that cannot be ignored.

Takasago Army pushes the timeline further into WWII. The album's themes point toward the indigenous Taiwanese youth conscripted by the Japanese Empire during the Pacific War, linking back to the historical ruptures between Seediq Bale and Mirror of Retribution. Sources cited in Wikipedia indicate that Takasago Army is set against the historical backdrop of the Takasago Volunteers. The album also features collaborations with artists such as Yu Tian, Chan Ya-wen, and the Taroko musician Pitero Wukah, overlapping Tâi-gí songs, Indigenous voices, and extreme metal.³

These three works clarify CHTHONIC's core: the band performs requiems for a history that has not been fully laid to rest. The ghosts in the music carry the weight of modern Taiwanese history, and they have never truly left.

Official CHTHONIC MV: "Requiem for the Spirits". The setting of Puli's Xingling Temple brings the requiem narratives of Takasago Army and Mirror of Retribution from the album universe into a concrete location.

A Taiwanese Name on the International Stage

CHTHONIC long ago treated touring as another form of public action.

In 2007, they performed 20 shows during Ozzfest, using English at every show to tell audiences about Taiwan's situation—being obstructed by China and finding it difficult to participate normally in international organizations. For a metal band, this was not traditional diplomacy. But for a Taiwan that is long required to reduce its presence in international arenas, such stage-based speech serves as an alternative external narrative.²

Foreign media later frequently framed Freddy Lim's political career through the contrast of "a heavy metal vocalist entering parliament." When GQ introduced him upon his election as legislator in 2016, it described CHTHONIC as a band whose creative themes involve local languages, traditional instruments, oppression, and the suffering of Indigenous peoples.⁶ When _The Guardian reported on Freddy Lim in 2020, it placed him on a continuum of metal music, social movements, parliament, and Taiwanese identity.⁷ This context is vital: Freddy Lim did not suddenly enter public issues after leaving music. From the very beginning, CHTHONIC's music has treated "how Taiwan can be heard by the world" as a creative mission.

CHTHONIC's internationalism is not found only in their tour maps. They produce works in Tâi-gí, Mandarin, and English, allowing different audiences to approach the same historical universe through different entry points. They bring Taiwanese stories to international stages like Ozzfest, Wacken, and Fuji Rock, prompting overseas media to include Taiwanese history, metal music, and political identity in the same reports. While these reports sometimes simplify them as an "anti-China metal band," returning to the music itself, what CHTHONIC truly exports is a complete sonic design that allows Taiwan to be heard.

More Than Just a Vocalist

CHTHONIC's public image is often amplified by Freddy Lim, especially after his transition from musician to roles in the New Power Party, the Legislative Yuan, and diplomatic positions. However, CHTHONIC is not a solo project for one vocalist.

Doris has long been the bandleader, bassist, and the core of the band's management. Jesse is a vital source of composition and guitar sound. Dani's drumming and CJ's keyboards push CHTHONIC toward a more symphonic and dramatic arrangement. The official website and social media still operate under the CHTHONIC brand, reminding readers that CHTHONIC's story cannot be understood solely in reverse through the political figure Freddy Lim.⁸

From Takasago Army to Bú-Tik, Jesse's metal arrangements, Dani's drumming, CJ's keyboards, and Doris's low-end and management have allowed CHTHONIC to turn narrative ambitions into sounds that are tourable, recordable, and understandable to international media. Freddy Lim provides the vocals, concept, and public language, but the band's long-term vitality comes from the entire team. In Taiwanese music history, CHTHONIC is an independent creative community that cannot be reduced to a mere prequel for a political figure.

2007: CHTHONIC performing at Metropolis in Montreal, Canada. Multiple stage positions are captured, showing the band's full lineup more clearly than a single member close-up. Photo: Kozikkris, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).

From Band to Venue: Megaport Festival

CHTHONIC's influence on Taiwanese music extends beyond albums and tours.

In 2006, Freddy, Doris, and the TRA Music team organized the first Megaport Festival (大港開唱) at Kaohsiung Port Piers 11 and 12. In an interview with VERSE, Doris recalled that they wanted to create a southern music festival distinct from the "street stage" style of Taipei, using the scenery of Kaoh_hung Port, a maritime vibe, and southern Taiwanese bands as the event's tone. This starting point is very similar to how CHTHONIC makes music: bringing local landscapes, languages, histories, and voices that are not easily seen by the mainstream onto a sufficiently large stage.⁹

2016: CHTHONIC performing at Megaport Festival. This photo captures the intersection of the band, the port-side festival, and the large-scale stage better than a single member close-up. Photo: Hisakon, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

After Freddy Lim was elected legislator in 2016 and left the Megaport team, Doris and drummer Dani took over management and coordination. According to a VERSE interview, Doris led the 2016 and 2017 festivals before moving into an advisory role; Dani began coordinating in 2016 and is known within the team as the "President." This lineage makes CHTHONIC's collectivity even more apparent: Doris and Dani sustain the low-end and rhythm on stage, while off-stage, they transform the band's cultural value into a music festival that gathers fans, bands, NGOs, and urban memory every year.⁹

A subsequent VERSE article places Megaport within the context of Taiwan's "street stage" tradition, Spring Sound, and the post-90s concert culture. Freddy and Doris managed street stages in their early years; they later learned about multi-stage setups, backstage logistics, volunteer division, and artist hospitality from international experiences at Fuji Rock, Wacken, and Download, and brought these practices back to Megaport. In other words, CHTHONIC did not just take Taiwan abroad; they brought international organizational methods back to Taiwan, gradually transforming the local festival culture.¹⁰

The "NGO Issue Village" within Megaport is a particular extension of CHTHONIC's influence. In the VERSE interview, Doris and Dani linked it to Freddy's past concerts regarding justice, anti-annexation, and Tibetan freedom, as well as CHTHONIC's long-standing pursuit of liberty and justice. For CHTHONIC, the stage is not a place to escape reality; the stage can also be where suppressed issues, identities, and emotions emerge together. This is why, although Megaport deserves its own entry, it remains an essential branch for understanding CHTHONIC.

_Bú-Tik_ and _Battlefields of Asura_: From Martial Arts Halls to Contemporary Politics

Bú-Tik is the work that pushed CHTHONHONIC's album universe to another level. English-language records indicate that _Bú-Tik was released in Asia, the UK, and North America by labels such as Spinefarm and Universal in 2013; Blabbermouth also recorded its wins for Best Album, Best Band, and Best Musician at the GIME Awards.¹¹ These awards demonstrate one thing: Taiwanese extreme metal works are now treated as complete albums by local music awards, rather than being relegated to a "curiosity" category.

The concept of Bú-$\Tik$ also brings CHTHONIC closer to "historical scenes" themselves. The Budokan (Martial Arts Hall) is a symbolic space of martial arts, discipline, and colonial modernity; CHTHONIC transformed it into a metal narrative, bringing the relationship between bodies, weapons, colonial rule, resistance, and the modern state into sound. Later acoustic and live versions broke the high-pressure metal wall into another ritualistic form, allowing melody, language, and spatiality to carry the power originally driven by volume.

In 2018, Battlefields of Asura brought post-war Taiwan and contemporary politics to the forefront. When Blabbermouth reported on the album that year, it noted collaborations with Randy Blythe and Regina Wong; data from the 30th Golden Melody Awards also shows that Battlefields of Asura won Best Band, with jurors understanding it within the context of a generation of freedom, metal music, and social voicing.¹²¹³ This album is often seen as a response to Freddy Lim's entry into politics, while continuing CHTHONIC's earlier question: how do historical wounds enter the present? Politics here becomes an echo within everyone's body, family, and memory.

After the Low-Activity Period, the Ghosts Remain

After Freddy Lim entered parliament, CHTHONIC's activity level decreased for a time, but the band did not disappear.

In 2019, CHTHONIC held the "Taiwan Grand Triumph" concert on Ketagalan Boulevard; in 2020, they collaborated with Trivium vocalist Matt Heafy on a new version of "Breaking the Night"; in 2021, they left a live performance at Megaport; and around the 2023 228 Anniversary, they released "Pattonkan" (護國山), bringing the memory of White Terror victim Kao Yi-sheng and his family back into song. CNA reported that the inspiration for "Pattonkan" came from the families of political victims;¹⁴[^_. It was also recommended by the Grammy-affiliated Global Spin program the following year, making CHTHONIC the first Taiwanese band to appear on the show.[^16]

"Pattonkan" shows that CHTHONIC's later works still deal with the same core: victims have letters, children, and songs, as well as tribal memories. As the band progressed from Wushe, 228, and Takasago Army to Kao Yi-sheng and Kao Ju-hua, Taiwanese history gradually moved away from a mere sequence of events to become an echo passed down through families.

The 2025 song "A Million Times" connects this line back to family memory and the sense of reincarnation. These recent works do not need to overshadow CHTHONIC's first twenty years of creative history, but they do prove one thing: CHTHONIC's core has not vanished due to politics, elections, or changes in band roles. It continues to process those voices from Taiwanese history that keep returning.

Entry Points for New Listeners

To understand CHTHONIC, you do not necessarily need to start with their entire history.

You can start with Epoch Rebellion to feel how they connect Lin-tau-su with Tâi-gí black metal; then listen to Seediq Bale, Mirror of Retribution, Takasago Army, and Bú-Tik to see how the band pushes themes like Wushe, 228, Takasago Volunteers, and colonial rule into their album universe; next, listen to Battlefields of Asura to understand how CHTHONIC continues to handle history and the contemporary through a band format after Freddy Lim entered institutional politics; finally, listen to "Pattonkan" and "A Million Times" to see how post-political era CHTHONIC returns to family, White Terror, and the reincarnation of ghosts.

Listening this way also prevents the misunderstanding that CHTHONIC is a band that adopted a political stance first and used music as packaging later. More accurately, it is because they have spent years processing language, history, ghosts, and identity through music that political issues appear natural within their work.

This listening path is like an underground sonic map of historiography. CHTHONIC has given Taiwan a metal band capable of standing on international festivals, and proved that Taiwanese history can move beyond textbooks, monuments, or news events into screams, erhu, Tâi-gí, myth, heavy beats, music festivals, portside culture, and underground fan communities. When these sounds explode on metal stages worldwide, the audience may first be shaken by the sound, only to slowly ask: where do these ghosts come from?

Further Reading: Freddy Lim, Megaport Festival, [Taiwanese indie music scene], [228 incident], Wushe Incident, White Terror

Image Sources

• 12-08 Wacken Chthonic 02 — Photographed by Achim Raschka at Wacken Open Air, Germany, 2012; hosted on Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Chthonic — Photographed by Kozikkris at Metropolis in Montreal, Canada, 2007; hosted on Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 3.0.
• Chthonic megaport 2016 — Photographed by Hisakon at Megaport Festival, 2016; hosted on Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
• CHTHONIC - TAKAO - Official Video — Official CHTHONIC YouTube video, used to present the sonic and visual language of the Takasago Army era.
• CHTHONIC - Requiem for the Spirits Official Video — Official CHTHONIC YouTube video, used to present the Xingling Temple setting and requiem narrative.

References