August 2018 - Scoot In-flight Magazine

ABOVE:
Be Persecuted
rocking it out
during a ‘live’
show.
It’s Friday night in Nanchang,
and the volume is building
towards a loud crescendo.
East of the Ganjiang (or Gan)
River, in the claustrophobic
melee of the old city, locals
crowd into strip-lit restaurants
to clank beer bottles and tuck
into the freshwater fish
banquets that is a feature
cuisine in Jiangxi Province.
Later, the atmosphere will be
dialled up a notch as the city’s
party people migrate to the bars
and clubs on Ming De Lu Street
and Fuzhou Road – two of the
most buzzing spots to dance
and imbibe the night away.
Nobody would call this
release of energy at the end of
the working week subdued; but
it is positively cathedral-like
compared to the unholy racket
emanating from the downtown
rehearsal space where local
heroes Explosicum are putting
some new material through its
deafening paces.
One of China’s leading thrash
metal outfits, Explosicum have
released three studio albums
and starred at music festivals
around the Middle Kingdom
and in Asia. And as they crank
into crowd-pleasers from their
latest release, Living’s Deal, it’s
easy to see why they have
grabbed the attention of
China’s ever-expanding
contingent of metalheads.
Songs such as “Endless
Killing”, “Kill Them All” and “Die
For Thrash” pass by in rapid-fire
succession: atonal melodies,
grunted lyrics, and shredding
lead guitar producing a sound
that is horrific for cosy
singalongs but perfect for
heaving mosh pits populated
by angst-ridden Asian youths.
Their brutal power and
breakneck pace of their songs
are clearly influenced by US
thrash metal Godheads such as
Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth.
The artwork on their album
sleeves, meanwhile, features
familiar tropes of the genre such
as gore, lighting and skulls.
But Explosicum is a product
of their surroundings as much
as they are beholden to the
heroes of the thrash scene.
For example, the sleeve art on
their second album, Raging
Living, shows tattered posters
of a faceless Mao Zedong on a
wall while a figure bearing a
strong likeness to China’s
one-time leader is shown
being swept away on a river of
molten lava.
The growing popularity of
the Nanchang band is
indicative of the diversification
of the music scene in China.
From major metropolitan
centres such as Beijing,
Shanghai, and Guangzhou to
the second tier (but still
massive) cities such as Harbin,
Kunming, and Sanya, an
eclectic spread of genres
ranging from all stripes of metal
to hip-hop, dream pop and
indie-folk are breaking through
and thriving.
A CREATIVE
FLOWERING
The capital of Jiangxi province is
storied for its tree-lined streets,
easy urban charm, and its
PHOTOGRAPHY PEST PRODUCTIONS, INFREE RECORDS, UNITE ASIA
42 SCOOT