User:Hyggefrost/Hoplites

Hoplites (stylized as Ὁπλίτης) is a Chinese one-man black metal band from Ningbo, Zhejiang, led by Liu Zhenyang.

History
Liu is from Ningbo in the Zhejiang province of China, near Shanghai. The first albums he bought were the Trivium discography online, as he said there are no record stores in Ningbo.

Liu began releasing music under the name Vitriolic Sage. He preferred to perform music on his own rather than in a band because of his introversion. While recording the third album as Vitriolic Sage, Liu decided to experiment with releasing music in other languages, leading to the beginning of Hoplites. Liu has knowledge in nearly a dozen languages, although he only claims fluency in Mandarin and a Wu dialect. Liu moved to Paris in 2022 to study linguistics.

On Hoplites releases, Liu sings in Ancient Greek. His lyrics have covered topics such as the injustices suffered by women in Xuzhou. This allows him to bypass Chinese censorship laws. While performing the song "Θεῖα δεσμά" [English: "Divine Shackles"] in a September 2023 concert with Sigh, the lyric refers to a Chinese leader as a "piece of shit", but as it is sung in Ancient Greek, Liu pretended the song was about "happiness and joy" when asked to submit a translation to the governmental Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Discography

 * Ψευδομένη (2023)
 * Τρωθησομένη (2023)
 * Ἀντιτιμωρουμένη (2023)
 * Παραμαινομένη [Paramainomeni] (2024)