Chthonic - Ián-Bú |
Published March 03 2014
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| Genre | Heavy Metal/Metalcore |
Freddy Lim
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 21 |
Jesse Liu
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 105 Min. |
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Guitar
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| Label | Eagle Rock/Spinefarm |
Doris Yeh
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Bass
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| Release | 25 February 2014 |
Dani Wang
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Drums
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| Country | Taiwan |
CJ Kao
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Keyboard
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| Similar artists | --- | ||
- Additional personnel: Hsu HsiaoTing (Hian-A Violin),
Lee JouHsuan (Zhongruan), Yu TienShun (Shehnai Oboe), Su MeiYu (Pipa)
and Tsai PeiYun (Dizi Flute) as Chai Feng Traditional Orchestra. Tang,
Mei-Yun (Vocals) and Ellen Pan (VJ).
- Live concert recorded on August 4th 2013 at the Formoz Festival at
Yuan-Shan, Taipei City, Taiwan.
Directed by Alulu Kuo. Audio producer: Jesse Liu.
I honestly must say that before I put this disc in my player, I hadn't
heard one single second of this Taiwanese outfit. What I got was a 43
minute live video recorded at an outdoor festival, comprising music
that I find somewhat repetitive in its totality and that goes for the
singer's efforts as well, who more or less ends up in the same key all
throughout. I think the combination however addresses to my senses and
with five additional musicians playing on traditional instruments to
fill the sound picture, they deliver a confident appearance that I pretty
much enjoy.
Although the music's backbone derives from the Western world, it's cool to hear their domestic elements as well. The vocals sound a little like live in the studio and in any case it's leveled too high. All the flashing lights and the big screen that displays old war scenarios probably work great when you see this spectacle live. Yet on this film, it has its disadvantages and the contrast blurs a little to the other sections of lighting.
When I watch a DVD, I prefer less concert pictures and more things like documentaries or other interesting stuff. This edition is no exception and it's in the bonus features I find most value.
Formoz Afterwords is 2,5 minutes where all five members talk about their performance and the festival in general. Chthonic Fashion follows and the band discusses its makeup, masks and costumes during 6 minutes in an extreme pace. All sections throughout the disc are subtitled to English and I find myself often looking at the bottom of the screen, because I have to focus on the texts and therefore it's rather tough to see who says what and some pictures get lost without reaching my retina.
Chthonic Bú-Tik's Music Videos includes 22 minutes and 5 of the band's videos. Several fans have probably seen these clips before and without getting to much into detail, they are recorded in different environments mostly and with a predilection for water and blood. Sidelights contains just over 30 minutes of behind the scenes-material and concludes with an occasionally pretty funny interview.
A balanced release with a pretty strong bonus section,
preceded by a decent live appearance that probably would have looked
better, if the film was shot exclusively for Chthonic on a stage indoors,
where the band would have hired its own gear to film with and not what
this festival provided.
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Production
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Vocals
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Compositions
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5 |
5 |
6 |
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Extra material
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7
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Summary
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6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe |
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Related links: www.chthonic.tw |
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