As Satyricon kicked of their latest tour in the fair city of Copenhagen, they had a support band which was anything but local with them – Chthonic from Taiwan!
According to frontman Freddy Lim, this was far from Chthonic’s first visit to our small country, but it was interestingly enough the first time they were to play here!

Taking this into consideration, I found it odd that they didn’t introduce themselves prior to the concert but instead went straight for the throat with a blasting song – as I am no expert in their material I sadly cannot say which one it was, but it was energetic, loud and gave a good start on the evening!
Visually, Chthonic took a more laid back approach to things than I have come to understand they usually do – there was of course a nice, big backdrop, but costumes and make-up were kept to a minimum except for in the case of keyboardist CJ Kao who was seen in full attire and the large helmet he is seen wearing in the bands most recent videos, and drummer Dani Wang who was also sporting his mouthpiece.
It was still the music and the performance that were the most important aspects of the show however, and sonically I am glad to say that Chthonic had been blessed with a very good sound-mix which let their music come across as well as possible. The set was also a fine display of the variety of ways the band’s music has in it, with mostly fast and brutal stuff, but intertwined with slower more melodic stuff as well. Lim’s erhu didn’t make an appearance until the final song of the set, Takao, which was sad as it definitely lends an even more specialized and personalized air to the music, but I’m glad it did come out in the end.
The performance was engaging although due to the circumstances a bit rushed – there was a lot of headbanging going on and the front three, Lim, bassist Doris Yeh and guitarist Jesse Liu all had good eye-contact with the front fans. I can’t complain about standing on Yeh’s side of the stage, but I wouldn’t have mind if Liu and she would have changed side with each other once in a while, just to liven things up a bit more.

To liven things up was more an issue on the crowd side of the action however.
It’s hard for me to say how well known a band like Chthonic is around these parts, but I would say that at least the name should have gotten round a bit by this time in their career. Still, there weren’t an awfully large amount of people inhabiting Amager Bio as they were starting their set. Which in a way was lucky I suppose, as they didn’t have access to the normal backstage room, and instead had to cross through the audience to get to the stage...
More and more people did file in during the set though, and in the end there was an ok group of folks listening in to what the Taiwanese group had to give. Be it lack of recognition, beer or something else I cannot say, but the crowd never got very intense however. Sure, there was a little bit of headbanging throughout, but despite the bands efforts it was a calm crowd at this point in the evening. Cheers were raised between songs, but that was about it – two or three persons in the front did shout out song title requests though, and this made the band smile.

Regardless of how it seemed that the band was received, I still say that whoever decided that Chthonic should only be allowed five songs this evening should be ashamed of themselves! The band delivered as best they could in the short period of time they had, they managed to showcase what they were about and create a good atmosphere for the rest of the evening to build upon – what more could one ask for?
This was only the second time I’ve seen Chthonic, but I sure do hope that they will not pass up another visit in the future – I just hope more people have opened up their eyes to their music by that time.

Setlist (incomplete):

Sail Into The Sunset’s Fire
Quell The Souls In Sing Ling Temple
Takao