PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
EAST ASIA’s premier Metallers, CHTHONIC, return to the Wacken Open Air festival on Friday, August 1st, and this time they’re not coming alone…
For their third appearance at Germany’s premier metal event, CHTHONIC – based in Taiwan – will celebrate their first-ever main-stage appearance (the ‘Black Stage’) by combining their exotic brand of hard rock with the Chai Found Oriental Orchestra, who perform using a variety of traditional instruments, including hena, ruan, box zither, pipa, yangqin, flute & sheng.
The Chai Found Oriental Orchestra is an award-wining group who have appeared onstage with CHTHONIC in the past, performing four songs at a selection of concerts in Taiwan; these special events were duly recorded / filmed, and form the basis of CHTHONIC’s ‘Ián-bú’ DVD, released in February of this year.
For the 45-minute Wacken show, however, the orchestra will be expanded from four musicians to 10, to make the overall experience that much greater – ‘Orient Metal’ meets traditional Asian musicians, with both sides delivering to the max!
“We are very much looking forward to returning to Wacken,” says CHTHONIC bassist, Doris Yeh. “It’s a legendary festival with a great history, and we see this as a very important stage in our music career. We’ve been using lots of traditional sounds over the past seven studio albums… this time, we will bring both an oriental orchestra plus a VJ to play the show! We hope to give fans a truly unforgettable memory!”
In addition to the Wacken appearance, CHTHONIC have a number of other major festivals lined up for the summer, including Brutal Assault (Czech Republic) and Summer Sonic (Tokyo & Osaka, Japan); last year, the band played more than 70 concerts in Europe and the US, and previously they have appeared at Ozzfest (US), Fuji Rock & Loud Park (Japan) and Download & Bloodstock (UK).
Once their summer touring schedule is complete, CHTHONIC – who have played more than 500 concerts in the past 10 years – will return to Taiwan to start work on a new movie project (a comedy in which the band members play themselves), after which pre-production for the next studio album will kick in.
With CHTHONIC, there’s never a dull moment – and certainly never a quiet one!
