I went to a concert recently with Tertius and my girlfriend. Since he used to be a journalist, Tertius decided to write an article about it and send it in to a local magazine. Here it is, unedited, for your reading pleasure.
SHREDDING ALL CYNACISM WITH NARAKAM
By TJ Lazer and the ED 209 Unit.
The night is cold and merciless as a group of us gather outside the BeforeSunset Bar to see Narakam, a band that has been boldly advertised as “Chinese Thrash/Death Metal Legends”.
Albeit that watching Narakam perform live will be a wonderfully refreshing change to the meat grinder, bunny-hopping club music I’ve been forced to get accustomed to on a Saturday night out, my associate and I traverse the pay point with a small degree of cynicism.
We are, after all, foreigners and therefore highly accustomed to the intricacies that define Metal culture.
Thus far, I haven’t encountered anything that remotely constitutes as a Metal band in China and other interpretations of Western genres such has Hip-Hop, have been unfortunately rather dismal.
Inside the small, but cozy bar the atmosphere is almost surreal.
No-one in the crowd actually looks like your stereotypical metal fan. There are no dopey-looking kids with long hair, teenage moustaches and body piercings.
In fact, everybody looks like their college students straight out of an economics lecture.
Even opening band Wu Zheng’s appearance does not resemble a typical group of hell-bent, heavy-metal maniacs, but rather like the guys next door who have decided to form a band in their garage.
However, all of this is some sort of illusion.
The minute Wu Zheng opens up with an intense high-powered riff, the condescending sneer on my face is transformed into a gaping maw wrapped in awe and mild confusion.
This band (for the want a better phrase) kicks ass.
The lead singer’s lanky physique and aloof posture is deceiving – he belts out raw lyrics like a man possessed sending the so-called mild college students into a frenzy of banging heads.
The music itself is intense and fuelled with energy, not at all put on.
Soon a small mosh-pit has formed at the centre of the small stage and the game’s afoot.
By the time the next act, Ling Jie, is underway the mood is set. I would have expected some of these people to make for the door the minute the vocalist for Lin Jie shrieked over his groups overlapping and complex guitar scales, but the crowd is rooted and so am I. The music is heavy and there’s electricity in the air.
Finally, Narakam graces the stage and the energy permeating through the crowd is at a peak.
It’s obvious that Narakam are well-seasoned veterans in this genre of music. They look and act the part. In short, they are living the dream. The mosh-pit has turned into a fierce (yet friendly) battleground, enough to leave me with a damaged knee that I know will plague me for days to come.
But there is no stopping Narakam.
Every song is a shred-fest with vocalist Kui, Tan toying with the crowd like a puppeteer.
He gets them to mosh harder, to cheer harder, to drink more beer – all of this with a smile on his face as the band belts out heavy distortion riffs to the background of a pounding heavy double-bass drum kit, mastered languidly by the drummer.
This band has talent and they pull the show off with ease until the end.
As we exit the bar I find it hard to hear my own voice, or even that of my associate and the passing traffic. My knee is aching and my stomach churning with warm beer, but I’m in a beautiful world of pain.
The bands tonight have far surpassed any of my expectations and all skepticism and cynicism has come crashing down like a badly constructed sand castle in the face of a typhoon.
Band’s like this need more support instead of being marginalized in the face of commercialism, because they posses something that very few of their Pop counterparts have – actual talent and sincerity.
This is what goes a long way and it is good to see that the Metal flag has found a home in Xi’an.