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Before the Official Debut (1995 - 1998)
CHTHONIC was formed in 1995 to 1996 in a heavy metal rock style. The name "Chthonic" is a Greek term referring to the earth and the underworld. The name is usually pronounced by the westerner fans as "Thonic". The original members were Freddy Lim and some of his classmates from high school and university. Before they released their debut album in 1998, the lineup changed a lot. In 1998, the lineup was Freddy Lim as vocalist and erhu player, Zac Chang as guitarist, Xiao-Yu as bassist, Xiao-Wang as drummer, and Ambrosia as keyboard player and backing vocalist. They released their first single “深耕” in early 1998, and by then, CHTHONIC had already been quite popular on the rock scene in Taiwan. They played to a full house at Vibe, the main rock club in Taipei at that time, and they were scheduled to play as headliners for the main rock festivals, such as Spring Scream.

In the early years, CHTHONIC tried different styles of metal. Freddy sang with a clean voice in “海息”, and the song “深耕” is more likely in a power metal style, but in the meantime “母島解體登基” is black metal. The female keyboard player, Ambrosia, sang in the early songs as well. Freddy Lim wrote some songs in Taiwanese and some in Mandarin.

Developing in Asia (1998 - 2002)
CHTHONIC’s debut album, Where the Ancestors’ Souls Gathered (祖靈之流), was released in late 1998. This album was recorded in Taiwan, having been produced by Danish producer Jan Borsing for mixing and post-production. This album was released by CHTHONIC members and friends on their own independently, and was #2 on the Tower Records pop music chart.

The band's stated goal is to use their music to bring ancient history and mythology into the modern era, especially the tragic pan-green history and myths of Taiwan (for example, those of the Seediq people).

In 1999, Zac, Xiao-Yu, and Xiao-Wang left the band and were replaced by Jesse Liu, Doris Yeh, and AJ Tsai. The band began preparing their second album 9th Empyrean (靈魄之界) later in 1999. The album was produced in Taiwan and released by Crystal Records in 2000 in Taiwan. It was #1 on the Tower Records pop music chart and was also considered one of the best 10 Mandarin albums of that year by the Hong Kong MCB magazine. This album’s lyrics, a conceptual, mythological story, were developed based on the song “母島解體登基” from their first album. The story describes war between Taiwanese aboriginal gods and Chinese gods. The music style of this album is more like symphonic black metal with Lead Singer Freddy’s screaming mixed with keyboard player Ambrosia’s female singing. The song “Guard the Isle Eternally” (永固邦稷) was the first song that mixed their local flavor of Asian pentatonic scales melody into black metal.

In 2000, CHTHONIC was invited to play the Fuji Rock Festival, one of the biggest rock festivals in Japan. Also, in the same year, they had their first international tour called “Tour in Ghost Month” by which they toured in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. In Hong Kong, they signed with Catalyst Action Records to release their albums, and in Japan, Soundholic was their distributor.

In 2001, keyboard player Ambrosia left the band and was replaced by Vivien Chen. They began to work on their 3rdalbum, Relentless Recurrence, based on the legendary Taiwanese ghost story “Lin-tou Jie”. They produced the album at Borsing Recording in Denmark, and it was released by Crystal Records again in Taiwan in 2002. This album is basically still symphonic black metal mixed with Taiwanese flavor, for example, with the Asian pentatonic scales melodies in “Onset of Tragedy”. Further, this album is the first album of theirs that was totally written in Taiwanese.

Compared with the previous works, this album has more female whispering instead of female vocals. They had their 2nd international tour this year after the album was released. By the end of 2002, they had their 7thAnniversary concert in the old stadium of National Taiwan University. They played with the lion drums (traditional Taiwanese drums) and a traditional Taiwanese orchestra.

Developing in Europe and the United States (2002 - 2008)
In 2002 CHTHONIC signed with Nightfall Records, an extreme metal and grindcore indie label in the US, and released 9th Empyrean (English version) in North America. Ever since then, CHTHONIC has released their albums internationally with English versions. Besides Japan and Hong Kong, they now played at the Milwaukee Metal Festival in Wisconsin and the Metal Meltdown Festival in New Jersey. They also toured with Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral in Japan later that year. At the end of 2002, keyboard player Vivien left the band. In 2003, Luis Wei joined the band as keyboard player. In the same year, they released the single “Satan’s Horns”, which was used by a movie company in Taiwan as the theme song of the movie Freddy vs. Jason. In 2003, they won the Best Band Award at the Taiwan Golden Melodies Award Ceremony.

In 2004, their lineup changed again. Alexia Lee replaced Luis Wei as keyboard player, and Dani Wang replaced AJ Tsai as drummer. The band started to work on the 4th album, Seediq Bale, which is based on the Wushe Incident. They recorded the album in Borsing Recording in Denmark in early 2005 and released the album later that year by Music 543, which is owned by a famous music critic Ma Shifang. This album is still symphonic black metal mixed with local flavor, but the use of the erhu was increased a lot, and the use of female singing was increased, too. Also, they had Sandee Chan, a pop singer in Taiwan, to sing on the album as a guest singer. In addition, the use of the drum technique “Blastbeat” was increased, too. The lyrics of the Taiwan version are in Mandarin, and the international version is in English. Both versions are integrated with some Seediq and Japanese. This album also supported donations to the movie project Seediq Bale directed by Wei Te-sheng. He also provided the movie trailer for CHTHONIC to use in the music video for “Quasi Putrefaction”.

After the release of Seediq Bale, keyboard player Alexia left and was replaced by CJ Kao; the erhu player Sunong Zhao also joined the band. In early 2006, they had their “A Decade on the Throne” concert in Huashan Culture Park, Taipei. They released a DVD of this concert later that year, and a series of activities for their 10-year anniversary were held, too. They released their 10-year anniversary book CHTHONIC Dynasty (閃靈王朝) by Eurasian Books, and they released the Best of CHTHONIC compilation later by Music 543.

Seediq Bale (English version) was released in 2006 to 2007 in many countries. In Japan, it was released by Howling Bull; in North America, it was distributed by Megaforce; and, in Europe, it was distributed by SPV. This album was also released in some South American countries and Asian countries. It helped CHTHONIC to be featured in international metal media, such as Revolver magazine considering CHTHONIC "The Band to Watch", and Alternative Vision in England awarding them "Band of the Month". Members got endorsement deals from international instrument companies, such as Ibanez, Caparison, Zildjian, Mapex, etc.

In early 2007, CHTHONIC played in the Midem in France. Chthonic were featured as a second stage act at the 2007 Ozzfest tour. In total they played 77 shows, and they named that tour the "UNlimited Taiwan Tour". The name "UNlimited Taiwan Tour" is to show that, unfortunately, Taiwan is not recognized by the United Nations, and Taiwan’s international relations have been limited. The band wanted to protest this situation via the tour, which was covered by the US mainstream media, including ABC television, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, etc. While taking part in Ozzfest, they also toured as a support act for Nile and as a headliner. In addition to Nile, they toured with Daath, Obituary, and Cradle of Filth. Also in 2007, Chthonic played at the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany. [12] Unfortunately, their instruments were not delivered on time, so Su-Nung had to play a keyboard instead of his erhu.[13] By the end of 2007, the tour continued in Europe, touring Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and more, totaling 28 shows. They played with Marduk, Ensiferum and 3 Inches of Blood on this tour of Europe.

After their “UNlimited Taiwan Tour”, Eurasian Book Publisher released a book, GUTS!, of their diaries on this tour.

Recent (2008 - 2012)
In early 2008, CHTHONIC began preparing a new album, Mirror of Retribution. Freddy, as the original member, had been the spokesperson and chief of the band to work with management, labels, and booking agents, but in 2008, he decided to hand over these affairs to be purely a band member, and Doris was elected by the members to be the spokesperson and chief since then.

Er-hu player Su-Nung left the band in 2009 to follow his own career path.[citation needed] In the summer of that year, CHTHONIC went to Los Angeles to record, as Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano was producer.

Later, CHTHONIC was signed by Spinefarm Records/Universal Music, and Mirror of Retribution was released in 2009.

Mirror of Retribution is a concept album based on the 228 Incident, and through the main character’s traveling through Hells, this album shows the vision of Hells in East Asian culture. This album has more local flavor in it, such as “Blooming Blades”, “49 Theurgy Chains” and “Bloody Waves of Sorrow”; the Asian pentatonic scales are obviously there. In this album, they had Sandee Chan as well as Francine Boucher from the band Echoes of Eternity to be their guest singers. Besides the increased use of Blastbeat, the thrashy riffs of guitars were used more, too. The Taiwan version of this album is in Taiwanese, and the international version is in English. After this album was released, Sunong left the band. Although he was to still play on later albums of CHTHONIC, for live performances, the erhu is played by either Freddy or computer backing tracks. Mirror of Retribution was in 2nd place on the “博客來” popular music charts in Taiwan, and the music video for "49 Theurgy Chains” was #2 of Taiwan's most popular music videos per Youtube’s chart. The British music magazine Kerrang! considered the album as "Top-notch” metal, and Freddy Lim was on the cover of Terrorizer magazine. At the end of 2009, Terrorizer’s annual readers' polls recognized CHTHONIC for: #2 Best Band, #2 Best Album and #2 Best Performance. Freddy Lim was #3 Best Singer; Doris Yeh was #2 Best Bass Player; Jesse Liu was #7 Best Guitarist; and, Dani Wang was #8 Best Drummer. Doris and Freddy were also #9 and #10 respectively as Best Individual, and CHTHONIC was the only band to have 2 members in the top 10 for Best Individual.

In the second half of 2009, CHTHONIC started to tour with Satyricon and Bleeding Through in North America, and they also headlined their own UK tour. The next year, they toured in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore. In 2010, Chthonic digitally released the single "Painkiller" which is a cover of the Judas Priest's song. The single also features a Taiwanese version of the song "Bloody Waves of Sorrow," the original version of which appeared on the 2009 album Mirror of Retribution. In October, they played Japan's largest heavy metal music festival, Loud Park. By the end of the year, they toured with Swedish band Arch Enemy in the UK. In the first half of 2011, they played Hammer Fest in Wales, which is organized by Metal Hammer, and at Germany’s Wave Gotik Treffen music festival, as well as Britain's Download Festival.

In the first half of 2011, CHTHONIC also started to work on their 6th album, with Rickard Bengtsson as their producer. The album Takasago Army was released in 2011, preceded by a single and video for the track "Takao." It was released worldwide by Spinefarm/Universal in July 2011. The album is a concept story that is based on Taiwanese soldiers for Japan in the Pacific War, and it also linked their previous 2 albums together and made them as a trilogy. The main song writers, Freddy and Jesse, said in an interview that, in the past, they usually wrote songs in a metal format first and then added Taiwanese/Asian elements; however, the process for writing Takasago Army was reversed. They first wrote the songs in a traditional/folk Taiwanese format, then later made them heavier into a metal way. They had Yu Tien and Chan Yawen as guest singers, as well as the Taroko tribe musician Pitero Wukah to play the pgaku flute. Doris has stated in an interview that the Western definition of heavy metal style, whether it is black metal or death metal, cannot easily define CHTHONIC’s style; thus, having to choose a term, CHTHONIC will use the genre "Orient Metal".

Takasago Army was released in July 2011 and hit #1 on the “博客來” Taiwan pop music charts, and the music video of "Takao" was #2 on Youtube’s most popular music video chart, and this video was nominated for the 2012 Golden Melody Award in Taiwan for best music video. This album was #109 on the Japanese Oricon pop music chart. Besides being featured in metal magazines like Revolver, Terrorizer, and Metal Hammer, this album was chosen as the Best Melodic Black Metal Album on Metal Storm, a well established music critic site. Furthermore, Boulevard Brutal, a French music critic site, selected it as the 2011 Best Black Metal Album. Japanese rock magazine "Burrn!!" chose it as #7 Best Album of the Year, and #23 Best Heavy Metal Band, as well as the Most Expected Concert in 2012.

After playing the Busan Music Festival in South Korea in 2011, CHTHONIC started a worldwide tour of the US, Canada, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries, and they also played the Damnation Festival in the UK. During these shows, they played with Arch Enemy, Devil Driver, Skeletonwitch, etc. In October 2011, they organized a concert at Sing Ling Temple in the deep mountains of Taiwan, which is an old battlefield and the key location mentioned in their 3 most recent albums. For this show, they had their good friend, Randy Blythe from Lamb of God, to be their guest singer. For this concert was organized a competition for fans outside of Taiwan. The fans who uploaded videos of themselves singing the chorus of “Takao” in Taiwanese would have a chance to win a flight ticket to Taiwan. Of course, this made CHTHONIC’s fans around the world participate, including fans from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Vietnam, Japan, Germany, Poland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, China, etc. It followed that this competition was widely reported by Taiwanese media, including TVBS, ETTV, Sanli, FTV, CNA, Liberty Times, etc. [18] In early 2012, this concert’s DVD was released. Also in early 2012, CHTHONIC played some special unplugged performances in Eslite bookstores in Taiwan.

Later in the year, CHTHONIC supported Lamb of God in Taipei in Taiwan as well as Tokyo and Osaka in Japan.

In 2012, ESP released the customized bass “ESP Andromeda D” of Doris and the guitar “ESP Katana” of Jesse.

By the end of April CHTHONIC played as one of headliners of the Hammersonic festival in Indonesia. This festival had 35,000 people attend. In the summer, CHTHONIC were to play at not only German festivals, such as Wacken Open Air, Rock Harz, and Devilside Festival, but also Portugal’s Vagos Open Air and the British Bloodstock Open Air. Once again, they have been invited to play the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, and CHTHONIC recruited former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman to be their guest guitarist.

From 2008 through 2012 and so on, Doris has been the spokesperson of the band, and her publicity has increased tremendously. Her image mixes the spirit and ideals of the band with her sexy rockstar persona. She talked about public issues and ideology in the UK magazine Monocle, Japanese magazine Metropolis, and Taiwanese Cacao magazine. On the other hand, she has been selected as one of the Top 100 Sexiest Women in the World by FHM magazine (Taiwan) for 4 years in a row since 2008. The British magazine Front has selected Doris as the magazine's favorite artist, and Revolver magazine has also selected her as one of the Most Sexiest Rockstars in History.

Public Issues
Lead vocalist Freddy Lim is notably active in the political scene and supports Taiwanese independence. Freddy has been involved in human rights movements and joined the activities of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and some other non-governmental organizations. In 2003 and 2009, he promoted the Free Tibet Concert in Taiwan. In 2007 Lim and other artists organized an international music festival to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 228 Incident, entitled "Spirit of Taiwan: With Justice We Cure This Nation". It follows that CHTHONIC has been awarded as the “Best International Artist” by Tibetan Music Awards. Freddy served as President of the Taiwan section of Amnesty International since 2010.

In addition, bassist Doris endorsed the Awakening Foundation, women's rights activists in Taiwan, in 2007.

In February 2009, Lim and bassist Doris Yeh participated with human rights activists at the Taipei zoo panda exhibit, which symbolizes China's attempts to establish soft power relations with Taiwan.

In August 2009, some aboriginal tribes’ villages were heavily damaged by Typhoon Morakot, and CHTHONIC held 2 concerts and donated all the profits to an Aboriginal organization. The lead singer, Freddy, carried supplies into the disaster areas. Later, in March 2011, after the northeastern Japan earthquake, CHTHONIC raised and donated over one million NT$.

During CHTHONIC’s 2011 North American tour, they received a threatening letter from unknown Chinese people. The band is also banned in parts of China for their political views.