A whole generation of Chinese rock fans were inspired by the ultimate master piece “Dreaming back to Tang Dynasty” where they encountered the term heavy metal for the first time. The picturesque heroism of Chinese ancient classics associated with warriors and swordsmen, long hair, martial power and imaginations of a long gone world of tales and sagas, put in frames perfectly by the heavy yet melodic guitar work of the mighty rock band Tang Dynasty. Maybe a coincidence, maybe a collective reversion in the spirit of time, also Taiwan’s front riders in metal Assassin featured elements of similar nature on their equally influential debut album “Your Home is a Zoo”. Also the first Chinese thrashers Overload and other bands featured traditional Chinese cultural elements in their early outputs. So since the dawn of Chinese metal the cultural heritage of ancient China has been deeply embedded within.

With the flow of time, development of metal music world wide has spread into all thinkable facets and directions, it seems a reversion to ethnical folklore culture and historical inheritance everywhere has always been in place in a global fashion. Starting from black metal originated from Scandinavia moving on to Viking metal and pagan metal to later what’s generally being called as folk metal. As metal music slowly becoming a global youth culture, metal from more and more parts of the world where people enjoy a long history of their own cultural identity are coming forth with stronger focus on the folk aspect both in music and lyrical expressions.

In midst of this progress, Painkiller Magazine was formed in the year 2000, as propagator of metal music and culture but also as its witness. Since the past 16 years, Painkiller Magazine has been reporting and watching international and domestic development of metal music closely, and to some extend even started being in action to be part of the progress to help present metal in more vivid ways of which was to actively support bands and promote live shows. The earliest Chinese pioneers of pagan metal Voodoo Kungfu, Chinese folk cult band Spring And Autumn or the first Chinese black metal band Ritual Day with their well-known features of oriental melodics, bands like these not only helped to shape and being an inspiration of today’s Chinese metal, they also has been long year companions along the path of Painkiller Magazine.

Even though Painkiller promotes more international acts on live shows these days, the Chinese metal propagators has always been seeking on new ways to support domestic units, especially to support and promote them aboard and internationally. Hongkong’s witchcraft black metal Evocation, north Chinese folklore metal format Dream Spirit, Inner Mongolian gallop metallers Nine Treasures, they all gained global recognition and reputation through Painkiller’s activities on international terrain in past few years.

If you follow recent movements of Chinese metal you will find an array of like-minded bands searching and exploring for a cultural identity of their own, emphasizing the cultural origins of the Chinese greatly. To emphasis and encourage such a quest of the new Chinese own metal it’s about time to put together carefully hand-picked pearls of this new wave to be presented and celebrated on a production never been seen before on Chinese ground.

Painkiller Magazine to its 16th anniversary will call out for such a great gathering on September 1st to celebrate the cultural craft of the east, revisited in form of sonic metal. This will be a momentum for an ancient eastern beast to rise again and to be crowned for a reign in full might. On this feast of Chinese own metal, a special collocation of lighting, sound, decoration and run down will be in place to provide this production with a quality of international standard. This will be an event to be remembered, make sure to be part of it to witness the rise of eastern metal!