In support of their stunning new album 'Mirror Of Retribution' Taiwanese Black / Death Metallers are heading to the UK to spread their brand of decimation. We spoke with Doris Thunder Tears to gain some insight into the world of CHTHONIC!!! 

I think the reaction is great so far! Most of the magazines and media gave us high points for this album, and our music video has over 140,000 views so far, and the comments of the fans are great! I think we have made a good start. Our new album is now out in the US too, and I’m looking forward to seeing the reaction there…

In the philosophy of Eastern Hell, ‘Mirror Of Retribution’ is the first layer of Hell that every spirit will fall into after they have died. The Mirror will reflect everything you’ve done in your whole life, then – according to the sins you’ve committed – the Ghost King will send you to a different Hell to get different kinds of punishment. We described some scenes from Hell in our former albums, but this time we wanted to make an album that is totally connected to the Taiwanese legend of Hell. We put the biggest tragedy in Taiwanese history as the background, which is the massacre that happened on February 28th, 1947, when troops sent from China killed thousands of Taiwanese people. Many Taiwanese citizens fought back against the Chinese army, but they were killed or arrested. The last heroic battle happened in the middle of the country, in front of a temple call ‘Sing Ling Temple’ (which means ‘the temple that arouses the spirit and the soul’). In the end, only 40 people remained, facing over 1000 Chinese soldiers… “We created a story based on this real history, and we also created the main character ‘Tsing-guan’, who is the medium (psychic) in the temple; he tried to use his ability to go to Hell, stealing the Book Of Life And Death, and killing the tyrant of the Chinese army. “He went through many scary hells one by one, until he was found by the army of Hell…

The predominant theme of the album appears to be written around the 228 uprising. A very emotive topic indeed, so why did you decide this would be a good topic to base your album around?

The band is interested in history and mythology, so in our former albums we have always chosen to combine these elements. And because the 228 Massacre is the most serious disaster in Taiwanese history, and we can make a good connection by bringing in the Eastern philosophy of Hell, we decided to use this as the concept for the album.

Unlike any other Black Metal band I can think of, Chthonic choose to write about real world issues, issues that affect your everyday lives. How do you go about constructing a song, is it music then lyrics or do the lyrics shape the music?

We always set up the overall theme of the album first, and then divide it into many episodes, according to the story. Each member can then write the songs according to the different content and feelings of these episodes, and finally we bring everything together. The rough lyrics are being developed while the episodes are being worked on, and when all of the songs have been written, the band will then start to construct the correct rhymes and put the correct lyrics into the songs...

The band seems very conscience that the issues you write about don’t over shadow the music itself and you are seen purely as a ‘political’ band. How do you draw the distinction between musicians and activists?

It’s very natural for us to care about political issues, so there’s no need for us to distinguish that side of things particularly. Politics is a public issue, it’s something that everybody will bump into every single day. Like air, we cannot live without it. Air is clean originally, but sometimes it becomes dirty because people pollute it…So it’s a very natural process for us to write our thoughts into the music…

‘Mirror Of Retribution’ was produced by Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano. How did you guys hook up with Rob and what do you feel he brought to the recording process?

He is a good friend of our manager in LA. When we were thinking about the recording side for this album, our manager suggested that we get together with Rob, and after we exchanged ideas with him, we decided that, yes, it would be a good idea to work together. He’s a very nice guy and a funny guy, too – he inspired us a lot, and he also helped us with our English lyrics.

The album was of course written with a Taiwanese flavour but recorded in the USA. Was it an important factor to be away from your own country to record this album, and what do you guys make of the US?

With our former albums, three of them were recorded in Denmark (Borsing Recording Studio); we chose to record abroad not because of the equipment in the studio or the overall cost, but because of the experience of the sound engineers and producers. The recording scene in Taiwan is heavily involved with pop music or soft music, they’re very good at that, but they can’t get the type of sounds we want.

Of course in late Sept / early Oct the band is embarking on an extensive US tour. How much are you looking forward to the tour and what are your expectations of the US audiences?

We toured the US back in 2007 for Ozzfest. We love the fans there, they’re crazy as hell and they aren’t afraid to speak out their thoughts in front of you!

We have six shows in the UK right after the US tour, and these run from Oct 31st to Nov 6th. As for a European tour, we hope we can make that happen early next year.

‘Mirror Of Retribution’ is the first Chthonic album to be released through the Spinefarm label. How did you guys come to sign with Spinefarm and what did you feel were their strengths over other labels?

We had several label choices for this album after it was recorded, and Spinefarm was the company that showed the most interest in us; they also give us the creative freedom we need. We have a very good time talking to them and working with them, and they have good distribution and resources via Universal Music Group to promote our album. I’m happy with our choice.

The band appears to draw a great many influences from various genres, most notably from Black, Death and Thrash metal. How do you describe the bands sound, and who brings what influences to the band?

In the beginning, when vocalist Freddy formed the band, he was influenced by many black / death metal bands; then, after me and Jesse joined the ranks, we brought more thrash elements into the music. We like the way these extreme forms of music are presented, but we found out that we have our own characteristics and our own stories to tell, so we started to think that the frame of so- called ‘black metal’ might not be a suitable genre within which to express the whole aspect of ChthoniC’s music. Musically, we got much nutrition from black metal for sure, but there are also many folk elements and traditional Taiwanese melodies in our music. “If I had to describe the band’s music, I would say: Dark, melodic and extremely heavy sounds mixed with deep sadness and despair from the old Eastern myths.

Aside from Chthronic there doesn’t appear to be a great number of Taiwanese metal bands making waves in extreme metal. What is the scene like domestically and are there any bands we should be looking out for?

The metal scene in Taiwan is getting much bigger than before, and I think in the future there’ll be more outstanding bands coming from Taiwan. I would suggest people check out extreme metal bands like Anthelion, Infernal Chaos, Beyond Cure, Crescent Lament and EFTC…