唐朝 / Tang Dynasty - 梦回唐朝 / A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty (1992) - Chinese majesty meets Western energy - 98% (12/04/12)

Tang Dynasty are often cited as one of the first Chinese metal bands that ever existed and they are even less respected than many of their exotic brothers in arms like Aria or Loudness. When I first stumbled over the band and discovered that the band had produced many truly well done video clips for several songs on this album, that the lyrics are very poetic and well written as far as I can judge it with my minor Mandarin skills and that the sound of this record is nearly as good as of any other classic Western heavy metal record from the eighties, I never thought that this was the debut record of a band as they already sound very professional.

The opening track, probably their most famous song to date and only track that got some minor airplay outside of Asia is already an absolute killer. Each time I start the record, I'm not even able to get to the second song because I push the repeat bottom at least twice after the amazing opener. The song starts with a mystic and epic intro that creates many images in your mind and makes you think about Chinese culture, history and nature. "A Dream Return To Tang Dynasty" is indeed already accomplished after a few minutes. When the might drums get in and create a hell load of tension you can't wait for the song to kick off after the majestic introduction. When the track finally starts, it's even better than what you might have expected. The melodies are catchy, the vocals very emotional and somewhat high pitched and operatic but always diversified and never annoying. The chorus is unforgettable and you simply have to sing along to it which mind sound and look very ridiculous in my case. The Chinese vocals fit surprisingly well to the classic heavy metal guitar solos that could directly come off an Iron Maiden record. The atmospheric bridge leads to heavy riffs filled with emotions and come back to the excellent chorus that lead to an energizing fade-out. Yes, energizing fade-outs exist to my big surprise and even though I usually don't like this technique, it sounds very well on this song.

What can you do as a band when you pull off an album with a one hundred percent killer track like this? You can't top this kind of heavy metal song and the band did the right thing. After so much energy, they put a very calm, inspiring and truly meditative song on the second position with great acoustic folk passages. You really feel "The Sun" rising while you listen to this track. The calm and hypnotizing vocals, the great tribal drums and the mysterious back vocals and acoustic guitars lead to one of the best choruses on the whole record. It has a great folk feeling and is truly addictive and touching. Once again you sing along to one of the band's masterpieces. This track is nearly as perfect as the opener.

To keep it short, these two songs are extremely close to perfection and remain my favourite tracks on this excellent debut record. The other songs are all very good but not as essential. There is not a single stinker on the whole record that varies between classic heavy metal, calm hard rock and diverse folk elements. Great guitar solos, very charismatic vocals and poetic lyrics dominate all songs on this release. Just to give you an idea, the track "Choice" even has a very dominating bass guitar and reminds me of glam rock bands such as the legendary T.Rex in the chorus or the music of Cat Stevens in the laid back passages. This means that the band has a high degree of influences and is truly open-minded. At the time of the release, classic heavy metal bands didn't release heavy metal albums of this high quality anymore and the Chinese keep the flame of that genre alive and add their very own touch to it on this album.

Even the Chinese version of the "Internationale" is truly epic and fits to the rest of the record. While the other tracks praise the Chinese culture and history, this album closer was omitted from the original release for political reasons and it's though somewhat sad that this great album has this song as a bonus song now because art and politics should be separated. In many Chinese albums, books and movies, there is though quite often some kind of political propaganda which seems annoying to a person like me that is not very patriotic. In fact, the socialist revolution has nothing to do with the fascinating and long era of the Tang Dynasty and I think one should not have included this closing track on the recent reissues of the album.

Any fan of melodic and epic heavy metal and hard rock music with some folk elements and an exotic touch should definitely try to purchase this record and spread the word about it. This band is definitely in my all time favourite bands of the classic heavy metal genres and one of the greatest things I discovered in music this year. I never thought that there were so many amazing Chinese metal bands out there but the discovery of groups like Tang Dynasty, Screaming Savior (who did a quite good symphonic black metal cover of this record's opener that you should definitely check out), The Last Successor, Fu Xi, Magic World Fantasy and many more proved me wrong and I start to dig deeper and deeper into this emerging and fascinating metal scene. Thanks to globalisation I discover more and more outstanding music from these countries that were still rather isolated from an artistic, cultural and also political point of view not even three decades ago. I hope you also take a chance and ride on these wings of tomorrow to open up your mind for this kind of music from a very charming country that offers much to discover.