And here I am once more trying to bring to your attention one of the hidden Eastern metal treasures I have come across with. This time around I present to you the greatest (pff, I daresay the only worth mentioning yet) Chinese Heavy Metal band 'Tang Dynasty'.



Formed in 1988 in Beijing writing songs for Chinese movie soundtracks, Tang Dynasty continues being the pride of Heavy Metal all across China. Amongst the members, Chen Lei, lead guitars, is considered the greatest guitarist in the country and has also released some solo material in the past few years.



Current Lineup:
Ding Wu - Vocals (Black Panther)
Liu Yi Jun - Guitar (Lao Wu)
Lei Chen - Guitar
Gu Zhong - Bass
Zhao Nian - Drums

Look at them hot daddies.



Their first album 'Dreaming back to Tang Dynasty' (梦回唐朝) was released in 1992, and in 1999 their second full length 'Epic' was released. After that, the band stopped recording for a long, long time. Having released only two full-length albums in more than 10 years, it came as some sort of surprise when suddenly last year they released their third full length entitled 'Romantic Knight' roughly translated, and I am not a very huge Heavy Metal fan, but this band I like, their songs have such a Chinese feel to them as they also incorporate traditional instruments in both ballads and the heavier songs, and the lyrics talk about... well, who the hell knows, it's all Chinese, but listening to heavy metal in this language is a particularly interesting experience.



Last but not least I leave you with a link to their Official Website where you can hopefully listen to some samples if not full-length songs, do enjoy!

http://tangchao.ent.163.com/media/#ting

If the url doesn't work, I'll post some direct links, so lemme know.

All information taken from Metal Archives, Tang Dynasty's Official Website http://tangchao.ent.163.com/index/ and a very nice, English Fansite http://www.geocities.com/le_asiansky/band/la-td.html

I listened to some and I really didn't like it.

Written by GT on 17.02.2009 at 21:36

I listened to some and I really didn't like it.

I listened to some because of just watching Global Metal and I think they're quite good. Weird thing is of course that the guitar player was born in the US and grew up there.

I checked out their official website to listen to one of their songs, but I couldn't read Moonspeak, so I went to the fan site. I'm listening to one of their songs right now, and they're pretty good.

As with Marcel, i became aware of them through Global Metal as well. interesting band, wouldn't mind hearing more.

Might have to check them out again. I only saw a video and the sound on that wasn't the best, so that might have an influence

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 17.02.2009 at 23:56

Written by GT on 17.02.2009 at 21:36

I listened to some and I really didn't like it.

I listened to some because of just watching Global Metal and I think they're quite good. Weird thing is of course that the guitar player was born in the US and grew up there.

Really? Which guitar player? I really wasn't aware of this, weird indeed.

Written by Linak on 18.02.2009 at 17:05

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 17.02.2009 at 23:56

Written by GT on 17.02.2009 at 21:36

I listened to some and I really didn't like it.

I listened to some because of just watching Global Metal and I think they're quite good. Weird thing is of course that the guitar player was born in the US and grew up there.

Really? Which guitar player? I really wasn't aware of this, weird indeed.

I think it was Kaiser Kuo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynasty_(band)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWhpJmijuQc

Kaiser appears about 3 min in.

Well, quite an interesting listen, as I still haven't seen Global Metal, I didn't know about them. And well, I listened to the two songs on the fan page, and Choice is nice. The Sun is too, but I can't stand such a huge amount of cheese in one song...

Written by Linak on 09.01.2009 at 12:20

and the lyrics talk about... well, who the hell knows, it's all Chinese, but listening to heavy metal in this language is a particularly interesting experience.

I thought that Choice had some English parts, with an heavy Chinese accent of course, but I'm not sure.

Dude at the far left on the second pic looks like some dude from a martial arts movie