Chthonic-Seediq Bale

Catastrophic

Pokemon Master
Aug 24, 2007
407
0
16
Matang Jaya,Malaysia
I'm not super good in English so forgive me.



Seediq Bale-100%


The first time I heard about this band I never cared about them much because I read the label symphonic black metal so I thought it might sound like thousands of other bands. Not to mention the uncountable number of Dimmu Borgir clones out there but this band is very different. While the Swedish and Norwegians are busy mimicking every single riff their idol generated, Chthonic took symphonic black metal to a whole new level. The album is a mixture of eastern and western elements all in a unique concoction.
While Freddy Lin a.k.a. The Left Face of Maradou, rips the music away with his Swedish Black Metal influenced vocals, Su-Nung their Er hu player takes the way and adds in a sorrowful sound. However, I do wish Su-Nung adds more er hu solos into their music. The sadness of the er hu will remind you of all those sad Chinese movies and to add up to all those sadness, their bassist, the gorgeous Doris takes her voice a level of grief ness. Her vocals resemble the character of a young lady in any Chinese opera, plus she sings in Chinese! Listen to Bloody Gaya Fulfilled then you get the picture of the eastern elements mixed into a weird atmosphere. Their keyboardist CJ puts in the typical black metal notes but at excellent heights reminding you of the old symphonic bands. His keyboard solo in The Gods Weep will make any God weep due to the sadness in the notes. The guitars riffs are basically Swedish melodic death metal or black metal and the longest track, Quasi Putrefaction has really good guitar riffs avoiding becoming boring. Jesse’s guitar tremolos in the album are clear and clean (not undistorted). The bass in the album also sounds very smooth. Doris seems like to be a very talented girl able to play bass while singing in a Chinese opera style. However, I do wish Su-Nung adds more er hu solos into their music. The intro of The Progeny Of Rmdax Tasing is very interesting where Freddy spoke in Chinese.
Lyrically, they are also very interesting. They sing about their ancestors and about a tribe called Seediq in Taiwan. The tribe used to drink blood of their enemies after beheading them. They also sing about a man named Maradou who went against the Japanese after banning the practice of face tattooing. I look forward for newer albums from this band and they look promising. I hope they are going to tour Malaysia one day. I want to meet Doris!