CORE IN CHINA | Official Release Post | Tell Us What You Think

Hereby the compilation record CORE IN CHINA is officially released worldwide! It had been some busy five months (January – May 2012) that we worked on getting the songs lined up, mastered and uploaded on various internet services for the global release.

As such, cutting things short and keeping it essential, download the album (ZIP) or go to either bandcamp, soundcloud or last.fm to listen to it online and download it. All songs have been mastered by Björn Sonderman in Germany and we have received two splendid cover arts which were contributed by Joe Wu and NERVE Magazine!

Spread the word! Share the compilation and send it to your friends! CORE IN CHINA is alive and the twenty bands we have chosen for this first edition are hungry to show you what China is: Heavy! Whether its the electronicore of Thyhazard or the hardcore of King Ly Chee, these bands deserve to be listened to!

Please tell us what you think of the songs, of the bands, the cover, the project itself, the impression you got and what you think of when you listen to “Liar” or “End of Me”. Write it in the comments below!

Tracklist

1. Why Lazy – Dying in the dream 04:35 (mp3)
2. NewTank – The Dreamer 04:22 (mp3)
3. Meat Sucks – Buried the Truths 04:54 (mp3)
4. Ordnance – Ask for a justification 03:44 (mp3)
5. Partisan – Selfish 03:18 (mp3)
6. Monkey King – Until You Come 05:31 (mp3)
7. Multi-Ego – End of Me 04:01 (mp3)
8. Mensheng – 故謠 Ballad of Fallen 04:54 (mp3)
9. Die In Velvet – 每天生每天死 03:59 (mp3)
10. Ashtemato – Joker 05:06 (mp3)
11. Saving Molly – To My Friend 02:58 (mp3)
12. Luktomo – We Are Luktomo 06:41 (mp3)
13. Beyond Cure – Self Destruction 04:34 (mp3)
14. DustFall – Dawn Late 06:02 (mp3)
15. Thyhazard – Liar 04:58 (mp3)
16. King Ly Chee – 在路上 feat. Andrew Neufeld (Comeback Kid) 03:29 (mp3)
17. Shut Up! Shut Down! – Bros Holds On Firm Bloods 03:14 (mp3)
18. Raving Jokes – No Vain 04:07 (mp3)
19. The Falling – Circle II Circle 04:50 (mp3)
20. Mary Dolls – 2012 04:14 (mp3)

Download the whole album as ZIP.

Gimnicks

Not only is the overall compilation free, but Rock in China has also compiled further information on the ‘core scene of China that will help everybody to understand what is happening in the scene:

1. Read The ‘Core of China – Deathcore, Metalcore, Post Hardcore, Nintendocore, our accompanying article about the CORE scene of China.
2. Regional Love: CORE IN CHINA has been listened to, shared, downloaded and talked about in France, Germany, the USA and China.
3. Since the inofficial release as sneak previewed by Beijing Daze,  CORE IN CHINA was downloaded over 600 times (bandcamp), with additional 200 downloads on Soundcloud and it was listened to over 5000 times across various servers.

Interview with Why Lazy | Henan Metalcore from Zhengzhou

Our first official confirmation for CORE IN CHINA had been Henan metalcore band WHY LAZY. And while submission is hereby closed as March 15th 2012 has been reached, Rock in China is currently evaluating all submitted songs and reaching out to the bands for interviews and further information. Here is the interview with Why Lazy:

Azchael: Hi folks, I would like to interview you.

WL: Great! Its our pleasure to have the interview with Rock In China.

Azchael: Can you please introduce yourself and the band?

WL: We formed in 2007 with Nu-metal style,and then transferred
to metalcore, post-hardcore. Anyway, u can still find nu-metal feeling in our music a little bit.

Azchael: What instruments are you using? What brand?

WL: In our opinion,the instrument is serving for musician.W e try to work out the best effect in the limited condition is always fun.
GUITAR1:LTD PD-1,distortion IBANEZ TK999,overdrive IBANEZ ts-9,delay biyang ad10,denoise BOSS NS-2
guitar2: cort m600,distortion Blackstar ht-5,overdrive MAXON OD808,delay MXR M169,denoise BOSS NS-2,reverberation EH Holy Grail Nano.
bass:fender 013 6760,preceding stage MXR m80,compress MXR M132
drum:Pearl,dw9002,zidjian

Azchael: How is the metal scene in Zhengzhou? What are the livehouses like? How many people come to the gigs there?

WL: It was amazing in pasting time.but most of nice bands have been dismissed.7 Live House is the most professional venue in henan,the number of the audience is still growing.because different style can attract different fans,so its diffcult to estimate it.

Azchael: With most of China’s metal acts located in Beijing, is it difficult for you to play your music in Zhengzhou?

WL: Frankly,everywhere is the same.But the attitude is most essential.making music at my hometown can make us feel more light from the pressure of economy,but the scene of it or the opportunity will worse than in beijing.

Azchael: You are going on tour this year through a number of China’s cities. What are your expectations?

WL: we hope to contribute something for this heavy music market,and try to let more people know the new school core music.let it into a good development is essential.To sum up,i hope every city can rock our hearts!

Azchael: What do you think are the influences for post hardcore in China? Which foreign bands impress you most?

WL: The Falling and Multi-Ego do impact on us domestically.and our favourite is THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA ,OF MICE & MEN ,miss may i oversea.they are wonderful.

Azchael: Your EP Precipitation was released by Mort Productions last year. How did you get discovered by Mort Productions?

WL:we just wanna release it ourselvs at first,but the boss of mort productions found us in douban.com,and then we sign the recording contract with them,and all u can know is the coming happened.

Azchael: How do you promote your music? Do you also do promotion overseas?

WL: we do the promotion by douban.com ,myspace.cn or something website else more often.but we still have no plan to promote overseas

Azchael: What is underground for you? Are you underground?

WL: underground is an attitude for us,in chinese rock music scene,the model of development has been changed a lot.to the major groups,we are still underground.

Azchael: What other Chinese bands do you like?
WL: Yaksa, The Falling, Multi-Ego, New Tank, Four Five and so on…

Azchael: What do you think of Rock in China?
WL:RIC is greatful to china,different rock bands can promote themselves to the people have no idea of chinese rock n’roll in such a medium.RIC is an useful promoter for china to the world.

Azchael: Thanks for the interview!
WL: Its our honor to accept the interview from you!thanks!

Interview with Villain | Macau Metalcore

Rock in China is proud to announce that also a band from Macau joined the CORE IN CHINA compilation project and submitted a song. Here is our interview with them about the Macau scene and metalcore. Azchael for Rock in China.

Azchael: Can you please introduce yourself and the band?
Villain: Villain is the only metalcore band in Macau at this moment.  The band was formed in 2009 by five locals: Lone (vocal), Celestino and Jerry (guitars), Fernando (bass) and Meatball (drum).

Azchael: Which instruments are you using, which brand?
Villain: Celestino – Gibson SG Standard (replaced the original pickups with EMG 81/85), Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier and Line 6 POD HD500.

Jerry – Jackson DK2 (replaced the bridge pickup with Seymour Duncan JB), Engl Powerball and Tech21-Sansamp GT2 (for gigs outside of Macau).

Fernando – Ibanez SR505, Hartke HA500 and MXR Bass D.I.+.

Azchael: Macau is a fairly small scene and city, compared to Beijing or Wuhan. Can you describe the music environment in Macau?
Villain: The music scene in Macau is very weak. Most of the bands in Macau are pop rock bands; and there are some bands playing other kinds of music such as post-rock, alternative rock, electro, etc. You may like to check the bands like Why Ocean, Forget the G, L.A.V.Y., Scamper and Evade, etc….

Azchael: What is the reception of metalcore music in Macau? It certainly isn’t mainstream, so how big is the scene?
Villain: Most people may find Metalcore more “acceptable” compared to other kinds of metal, so it will be easier for Metalcore to gain popularity among the young people. Like I said, we are the only metalcore band here in Macau. We used to have some good metal bands in the past like De-Aqua and Uni-k, but they stopped playing for some reasons.

Azchael: As I see that you have played in various cities in the Pearl River Delta, including Zhuhai and Hongkong, what was the reception of the audiences there to your music?
Villain: Undoubtedly, the audiences in Hong Kong and Mainland China are much more enthusiastic than those in the Macau. They never fail to show a tremendous amount of passion and enthusiasm in every concert they attend. We have had so many great experiences performing onstage in Hong Kong and Mainland China as we were thoroughly encouraged by the way the audiences supported us. In contrast, Macau people are generally passive and quiet. Can you imagine there are only 5 or 6 out of 150 audience doing mosh pit in the gig and the rest just stand there with their arms folded? Fortunately, the audiences in Macau are becoming more involved and we definitely look forward to a bigger scene in the future. We also hope that Macau will have more bands playing different kinds of music other than pop rock. We have enough pop-rock bands here.

Azchael: Have you ever thought about touring in China?
Villain: Sure, but we would like to record an EP before the tour and we hope we can do that.

Azchael: What do you see as the major influences in metalcore for your band and the current Chinese scene?
Villain: As metal is still not very popular within Macau’s music circle, we believe that Metalcore is a good starting point to draw people’s interest in it. For those who just have their first encounter with heavy music, Metalcore is more “acceptable” and relatively “softer”. Once the audiences have got used to metalcore, they will go for something heavier.

 

Azchael: Do you have plans to release a CD or EP anytime soon?

Villain: Yes, we are trying to produce an EP in near future.

Azchael: How do you promote your music? Being in Macau, do you rely on Douban or Facebook?

Villain: We are promoting our music through a variety of social network such as Facebook, Douban and Myspace. We have already uploaded some demos to Douban and Myspace.  Please check the following links –  http://www.myspace.com/villainmac or http://www.douban.com/artist/VillainMac.

Azchael: Do you promote internationally (except China)?

Villain: We seldom do that on purpose, but those who are interested in our music can check us on Douban or Myspace.

Azchael: What do you think of RockinChina.com?

Villain: Honestly this is our first time to hear about RockinChina.com, but we will start checking this site regularly from now on!

CORE IN CHINA | Bands that applied, bands that will be part of the compilation

CORE IN CHINA is coming to a closure in submissions and a first roundup of songs and bands brought out a couple of gems in the music scene of China: Why Lazy, Multi-Ego, New Tank, Die In Velvet and Monkey King.

Why Lazy is a metalcore band from Henan and surprised us with a very straight forward song which name I don’t want to give away right now.

Multi-Ego is from the Tongzhou district of Beijing and started 2008, heading straight forward.

New Tank, another representative of Beijing, is focussed on emotional post hardcore and also started in 2008.

Die In Velvet is one of several Hongkong bands that answered our call and submitted a song. They are HC.

Monkey King is a band that originates in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, and moved from screamo to hardcore, something that can still be heard in their music.

Rock in China is still collecting further songs until March 15th and we are looking forward to a number of promising songs that some of the bands are still recording.

Photo: Multi-Ego at their Nanjing gig

Ashtemato | Chengdu Metalcore

Found by the wonderful Douban, Ashtemato is a Chengdu based metalcore band, around since 2010 with a couple of songs on Douban for listening.

As with most of the bands I find these days, none of their songs is downloadable, so I can’t give you a youtube link for it, but I can only recommend to check out their page and give it a listen.

Why Lazy – Dying in the dream | Henan Metalcore / Post Hardcore

Henan post hardcore / metalcore band WHY LAZY and their song Dying in the dream. Formed in 2007 they recently got featured on the Resurrection of the Gods 7 compilation record of Mort Productions. Cool song!

Interview with Ayumi of Broken Promises

Shanghai’s metal band is as heavy as Beijing’s – Ayumi

Broken Promises is an upcoming Shanghai metalcore band and the interview took place via MSN on Saturday, October 1st 2011, with Broken Promises shouter Ayumi. From Rock in China, Azchael led the interview.

Azchael: First of all, can you please quickly introduce yourself and the band?

Ayumi: Yes~Actually I began to listen these music like metalcore,deathcore from 2009. My friend asked me to watch a live with him then I went, It’s my first time know that,Oh, people can play music like that! very interesting!
At the same time, I came to know our bassist (2D), It’s October 19th, 2009, 2D told me that he want to organize a band, ask me if I can be the vocal
then Broken Promises was born~

Azchael: And what is the meaning of “Broken Promises”?

Ayumi: the “Promises” is a song name of “the cranberries”. When I was in university, someone asked me to join their band, the first song I played with them was “Promises”..but I didn’t stay long in that band. About “Broken”, em…it’s because I broke up with my ex-boyfriend in 2009~haha. And I think everyone have their broken memory, or broken dream, even someone promised never break it …yes.that’s broken promises

Azchael: Understandably. Looking back at those two years, which moment do you think was the most defining, the most important moment of Broken Promises?

Ayumi: can I say every moment~hah~ the most important moment of BP, I think it was our first time to have a show in December 2009, we went to Fudan university for their music festival

Azchael: What happened there?

Ayumi: Because it’s our first show,everyone was excited and a little nervous. I still remember we played a song of SUM41~haha.  After the show, we went to eat some snack, then two girls came to us and tell us that they very like BP’s show, and ask me if can take a picture..but it’s our first show..we all feel very happy

Azchael: of SUM41? Did you make it in deathcore style or punk?

Ayumi: yes it’s punk.Because when we just organize the band, we like metalcore but we dont know how to compose it,and we still need some time to make members get familiar with each other so at the start, we played some punk songs, and try to compose original song ourselves.

Azchael: I have listened to some of your original songs on Douban, which are still demos and I know that you are going to record your songs now formally. What is your plan? Do you want to release a record? Or just have better recordings?

Ayumi: At first we want to have better recordings, many friends always ask us to release a EP or sth, I think we’ll do it when we’re ready~

Azchael: How many songs do you have at the moment?

Ayumi: Actually we have 6 songs and another one in composing. But 2 of our old songs we want to revise, so we always play 4 songs in show

Azchael: If we look at the local scene, Shanghai metal is recently (two years?) been organized by two major players: Hell United and Playful Warrior. What is your opinion on them? Does your band belong to one of them?

Ayumi: Actually Hell United and Playful Warrior are the same organization.~~ now Playful warrior organize shows and also established label named Playful Warrior Record. And BP belongs to Playful Warrior.

Azchael: Shanghai and Beijing are often compared with Beijing being the rock haven and Shanghai being the more commercially oriented city. What about Shanghai metal compared to Beijing metal?

Ayumi: There’re more metal bands in Beijing that’s true, many people from other countries go to Beijing to achieve their rock dream. But in attitude, I think everyone is serious, especially the members of metal bands. We all know very clearly that it’s hard to make money through our band, it’s just because we like it.we like metalcore.

If we organize a band for commercial purpose, maybe we can play pop, or punk, or sth else. What I want to say is, Shanghai’s metal band is as heavy as Beijing’s. Nothing different from the attitude.

Azchael: Broken Promises has recently opened for German metal act THE OCEAN. What was your impression on that band and their experimental sludge style?

Ayumi: Yes.What they very impressed me was their performance on the stage, full of passion and impression. About the experimental sludge style, I dont know very well myself, but our guitarist said he like them so much. I think there’re much more for me to learn

Azchael: Ayumi, thank you very much for answering the questions to me. It was a very good interview and I thank you for your time.

More information:

• http://site.douban.com/brokenpromises/ (check out their demo songs)

Yaksa – 舞.悟 | Beijing Metalcore

Metalcore legends YAKSA, hailing from Beijing, and a song from their latest EP.

Formed under the name Nevermind in Sichuan in 1995 by Hu Song (Vocals), Wang Yue (Bass), Li Yu Chuan (Guitar) and Liao Xiang (Drums), the band changed their name into Yaksa and moved to Beijing in March 1997. At the end of 1998, the following lineup was fixed: Hu Song on vocals, Jiang Jie on guitars, Wang Yue on bass and Chi Gong Wei on the drums. Yaksa became more and more involved in the underground scene of Beijing until at the end of 1999, it stood out as the representative hardcore band of Beijing.

More info:

• http://wiki.rockinchina.com/w/Yaksa

Yaksa – 惩罚之鞭 | Chinese Metalcore

Beijing metalcore legends (?) Yaksa and one of their new songs.

Hongkong band “Innercore”

Found at Bunny Warren, please see listen to Hongkong’s Hardcore Metal band Innercore…