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2007.08.26自由時報
閃靈登華盛頓郵報 為台灣自由與歷史發聲
■閃靈匹茲堡演唱會，滿場的粉絲跟著閃靈的演唱熱血沸騰。
（TRA Music提供） |
■華盛頓郵報詳盡介紹閃靈巡迴演唱，為台灣發聲的精神。
（TRA Music提供） |
記者張釔泠、易慧慈／台北報導
「閃靈」樂團在國際越來越受到關注，繼紐約時報稱讚為今年Ozzfest演出陣容最佳藝人，美國另一大報華盛頓郵報，也於24日以全版報導來自台灣的重金屬樂團閃靈，以音樂抗議國際社會對台灣孤立，並聲援台灣加入聯合國的倡議。
登記者俱樂部宣揚無限台灣
華盛頓郵報描述閃靈「為台灣的自由與歷史發聲 （A Voice for Taiwan’s Freedom, History）」，並介紹閃靈首張專輯「祖靈之流」描寫台灣漢人祖先自中國渡海來台的故事，第4張專輯「賽德克巴萊」描寫日治時期霧社事件。這篇專文以全版圖文刊登，撰寫文章的華郵樂評家哈林頓表示，閃靈許多歌曲的靈感來自台灣文化；很少有重金屬樂團會同時出現在Jaxx
Night Club及「全國記者俱樂部」，但「閃靈」樂團就即將這麼做。
「全國記者俱樂部」是位於美國政治重鎮華盛頓市區的記者中心。閃靈預定8月27日及9月13日在位於維吉尼亞州的Jaxx Night Club表演，並預定9月13日在這個俱樂部舉行記者會，討論樂團的「無限台灣」（UNlimited
Taiwan）活動，及首度代表亞洲樂團參與「奧茲音樂季」（Ozzfest）盛會的經驗。
郵報記者大量閱讀台灣史料
正因為閃靈每張專輯主題都與台灣歷史有關，且閃靈的屍妝造型取材自八家將與官將首，這篇報導幾乎把台灣近代4百年的歷史與文化都介紹了一番。
閃靈主唱Freddy表示：「撰寫這篇報導的記者非常興奮，華盛頓郵報難得這樣深入介紹台灣，他個人亦是首度大量閱讀關於台灣的資料與書籍。」
完美外交 美各大報先後報導
除了紐約時報、華盛頓郵報，於180個國家發行的跨國報紙「國際先鋒報」日前也大篇幅報導閃靈，閃靈在美東還有1個月的巡演行程，預計9月底返台，11月踏上歐洲，閃靈在歐美亞預計有近百場演唱會，也創下台灣藝人的紀錄。
Freedy：身為台灣人必需傳達政治訊息支持自己國家
Freedy於華盛頓郵報上表示，樂團能做的事真的不多，一開始的巡迴演唱的目的並非政治目的，但身為台灣人必需傳達政治訊息支持自己的國家，誰知道哪一天，這些在不同地方聽演唱會的年輕人會支持台灣。
Freedy接受華盛頓郵報訪問時說道：「我們能做的就是激勵台灣人勇敢地在國際社會傳達意見，就如同我們會為自己的音樂事業奮鬥，因此我們也要為自己的國家奮鬥。」（文／易慧慈）
閃靈重金屬對抗北京
德國週刊：中國打壓台灣 國際外交鬧劇
閃靈樂團宣揚獨立理念，除了登上美國華盛頓郵報，德國「明鏡週刊」網路版也報導，台灣是個具民主又樂善好施的國家，但是遭到中國打壓而被聯合國拒於門外。
報導是以「重金屬對抗北京」為題，指出中國打壓台灣，可說是無所不用其極，並成為國際上的外交鬧劇，中國在巴黎舉行的「世界動物衛生組織」會議上，不僅強迫台灣放棄「中華民國」會籍，甚至企圖把台灣逐出組織，做出將台灣降旗、中國升旗的要求。
報導指出，台灣政府贊助閃靈樂團，透過閃靈樂團登上美國「奧茲音樂季」舞台機會，用重金屬音樂對樂迷發聲，在逆境中傳達台灣被全世界忽略的處境。
A Voice for Taiwan's Freedom, History
By Richard Harrington
Updated: 08/24/2007
Not a lot of metal bands appear at both Jaxx nightclub and the National
Press Club, but Chthonic will be doing just that, with appearances at
Springfield's Jaxx on Monday and Sept. 13. The latter date is also when
the Taiwanese ensemble holds a downtown news conference to discuss its
"UNlimited Taiwan" campaign as well as its experience as the
first Asian extreme metal act to take part in the Ozzfest tour -- an appropriate
showcase for a band called "the Black Sabbath of Asia."
According to lead singer and songwriter Freddy Lim, the September events
are particularly important because they coincide with the Sept. 18 opening
of the annual session of the United Nations, which Taiwan will once again
attempt to join, an effort blocked every year since 1993 by China, which
asserts sovereignty over the island.
Chthonic -- pronounced "THON-nic," it's Greek, meaning "of
the underworld" -- has recorded a single called "UNlimited Taiwan"
and made a short film for the song, protesting their homeland's isolation
in the international community:
"We have the land, the strength, the power / Rise up, overcome,
take it over / Ignored too long, we became stronger / Tear down the walls
and let us run over."
It's all part of an effort to drum up sympathy and support among a younger
generation of music fans that may not be aware that Taiwan has been self-ruled
since nationalist forces fled there in 1949 after losing a long-running
civil war with communist forces. It had a U.N. seat as the Republic of
China until 1971, when China asserted sovereignty and threatened military
action if Taiwan tried to secede. The United States has been trying to
encourage a peaceful resolution ever since.
"The things that we can do are not too much," Lim admits. "We
didn't organize this tour for a political reason -- first of all, it's
a musical tour -- but as citizens of Taiwan we had to express our political
message in the same time when our country needs our support." Lim
says the band has "met fans here and in Europe, even in high school,
who are involved in social justice action and want to write about Taiwan,
let their classmates know about Taiwan. Who knows? Those young people
may be somebody who in different areas can support Taiwan in the future.
"So we do the most that we can do and hope that after we honestly
express our opinion, we can inspire more Taiwanese citizens to bravely
express their own opinions in international society, like the many movie
directors and the baseball players in major league baseball in Japan.
We are just a heavy metal act and we have to fight for our own musical
career, but at the same time we want to fight for our country."
Seeking international political recognition while asserting its independence
has been difficult for Taiwan, Lim says. "In my opinion -- and I
think the opinion of all the citizens in Taiwan -- they consider Taiwan
is already an independent country," he says. "We have all rights
like the citizens of America: We pay the tax to our own government, we
vote for our own president, we have our own army. It is for us an independent
country, no doubt. That would be the point we want to mention: Accept
'unlimited Taiwan,' like the song.
"But we don't write anything political in other songs," Lim
adds. "All our songs are about mythology in Taiwan. I'm a fan of
all kinds of mythologies since I was in kindergarten. When I started to
write music, I made up my mind to write about things that normally human
beings cannot do -- I love to write about gods, ghosts, spirits."
Good subject matter for the kind of music he chose, no?
"Yes!" Lim responds enthusiastically.
And thank goodness for metaphor and allusion.
Lim says he and his fellow band members grew up on a diet of Slayer,
Anthrax, Deicide, Iron Maiden and Megadeth, as well as Cradle of Filth
and Dimmu Borgir, "the bands we liked the most when we first listened
to black metal in the mid-'90s, especially their arrangements." (Chthonic
headlines club dates on its off days from Ozzfest with Egyptian-themed
death metal band Nile.) Lim also cites Emperor and Enslaved from Norway
and England's Hecate Enthroned, bands whose complex structures and arrangements
sired the "symphonic black metal" movement. England's Cradle
of Filth and Norway's Dimmu Borgir wrote about their native cultures after
traditional pagan religions had been forcibly replaced by Christianity.
Chthonic incorporates stories tied to Taiwan's culture and history, including
the struggle against the Han Chinese, who after assuming control of the
island about 350 years ago, subjugated aboriginal cultures. The band's
1998 debut, "Where the Ancestors' Souls Gathered," is about
the original journey across the sea and the Han dreaming about a brighter
future in Taiwan. The follow-up, "9th Empyrean," deals with
a war between the gods of the Han and Taiwan's aboriginal people.
Chthonic's most recent release, "Seediq Bale," is also inspired
by history. When the Japanese ruled Taiwan between 1895 and 1945, they
banned traditional aboriginal practices, including facial tattoos, which
were considered marks of honor. The Seediq, part of the Atayal, one of
the 12 officially recognized indigenous peoples in Taiwan, rebelled in
1930, resulting in the Wushe Incident, an infamous massacre in which most
of the tribe were killed, with women and children hanging themselves in
trees to let the warriors focus on fighting. Revolver magazine called
Chthonic's album "a booming blend of beautiful brutality and theatrical
gloom." (There's an intriguing trailer for an as-yet-unreleased feature
film, also called "Seediq Bale," about the conflict at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS8Ojljcy7A.)
As the band's album covers, videos and photos show, Chthonic makes dramatic
use of facial tattoos, also known as "corpse paint." Painted
rockers go back to Alice Cooper and Kiss, and death and black metal bands
in the '80s and '90s, particularly those from Scandinavia, embraced particularly
dramatic, foreboding imagery. As with the Oskorei, a legion of ghoulishly
painted dead souls found in Norse mythology, Taiwanese folklore had the
Eight Generals, painted deities empowered with the eight Taoist spirits
to be judges of good and evil.
"The makeup that we have is very traditional," Lim says. "Taiwanese
Taoist priests would have to communicate with the gods and ghosts, to
let the spirits into their bodies to transcend themselves. And because
our songs are about Taiwanese ghosts, we need to be strengthened on the
stage as well. That kind of makeup lets our fans know about Taiwan, and
they become more and more curious about Asian culture. And it lets our
music fit into the whole Chinese culture, lets people not think it's weird
to use heavy metal to express Taiwanese history and culture."
Chthonic's sound is generally familiar: Guitarist Jesse (the Infernal),
bassist Doris (Thunder Tears), keyboardist CJ (Dispersed Fingers) and
drummer Dani (Azathothian Hands) deliver machine gun/jackhammer accompaniment
to Lim's throat-shredding, guttural screams. But you'll also notice Su-Nung
(the Bloody String) on erhu (hena in Taiwanese), a two-stringed traditional
Chinese violin. It's often buried in the tumultuous sound mix but sometimes
gets a solo showcase that capitalizes on the sad, morose sounds that have
made the instrument a favorite in tragic or melancholy films and plays.
Lim once said that the band tried the Western violin but that it "was
just not sad enough."
"There are a lot of die-hard fans who always know when the hena
will come out," Lim says. "In our performance, you can see those
big eyes as they stare at it. Many people cannot figure out which part
is the hena [and] which part is the guitar or keyboards because all things
are mixed together, but that's the beauty of symphonic black metal."
Since its second album, Chthonic has recorded Mandarin and English-language
versions, though Lim is clearly more comfortable in his own language.
"Some parts are really difficult to translate from Taiwanese, particularly
the ones that are speaking of the gods or the spirits, and I don't want
to write in English because it doesn't feel natural. It is not too difficult
for us because we work with many writers in Taiwan to do something in
English, but I feel like in extreme metal the fans maybe don't really
care about the lyrics."
This last observation is both pragmatic and personal, Lim says. "I
like Emperor, I like Immortal [black metal bands from Norway], I like
In Flames [from Sweden], but I don't really know what they are singing
about. I know that they are writing about Scandinavian myths and some
Satanism stuff -- that's all I need to know. I don't really have to look
at the lyrics sheet -- it's a different kind of music." And his own
lyrics are sung with such brutal energy that the actual language hardly
matters.
Chthonic, Nile, Azrael and Aeturnus Animus Appearing Monday at Jaxx More
than a concert T-shirt: Concertgoers can always pick up souvenir CDs and
tour T-shirts, but Chthonic is likely the only band offering paper doll
versions of themselves. It's traditional Taiwanese folk art, and fans
will find six dolls modeled after the members of Chthonic (with their
instruments), along with others representing the Eight Generals.
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