Chthonic is the first Taiwanese band I ever wrote a review about. Their album was released in 2002 and only available in Taiwan untill Deathlight Records heard it and deceided to release Relentless Recurrence unto the European market. This album is a warming up release for their DVD and double live album that will also be released this month by Deathlight Records.
Chthonic is an extreme black metal band that is very big in Taiwan and Asia. They won the Golden Melody Award in Asia; you can compare this with the Grammy Awards. And now Chthonic is ready to conquer Europe and the rest of the world.

The artwork from this album is great, only for this it’s already worth buying. In the digi-pack you’ll find eleven cards which represents the songs. The lyrics are written in Taiwanese on the cards. Luckily for people who can’t read this there’s also a card with the lyrics in English.

In ten chapters Chthonic shows you black metal the Asian way.

It’s not very different from the European or American way but this band is more interesting then just an ordinary pure black metal act.
Relentless Recurrence starts with some church sounds and meditating monks. After the long intro the up-tempo music starts. The first song has got some nice riffs but is a little bit boring after three minutes. The rest of the album isn’t boring at all. The tour the band gives you will take you through different styles, tempo’s and story’s. The idea of black metal is more the theatrical and that’s exactly what Chthonic gives you.

This album is a nice introduction to Chthonic. All the theatrical black or gothic metal fans outside Asia check out Chthonic.

Website:www.chthonic.org
Myspace: www.mspace.com/chthonictw