Various Artists - Core In China (2012) (8,5/10)

“Core In China” is a free compilation of different Chinese Core bands. You get everything in here from Post-Rock over Metalcore to Screamo and Emo music. The project was kicked off by the recommendable website Rock In China and I hope that the website will realize similar projects in the future.

What we have here is not only quantity but also quantity. Usually, I’m not all too much into the Core subgenre because I think it’s sometimes too hectic and aggressive but I have already stumbled over a few great Chinese bands with Metalcore influences like EGO FALL or TAROT SAINT for example and I somehow like the Eastern genre bands more than the Western ones because they often mix their sound with original elements from folk instruments over electronic samples. That’s why I had checked out this compilation and I didn’t regret it at all and know a few more talented newcomers from a fascinating country now.

The first song by WHY LAZY already surprises the listener with discordant guitar sounds. It then includes slow and dark passages but also quite aggressive up-tempo parts as well. Apart of the strange clean vocal effects, it was the calm closing part with a girl speaking along in English that really grabbed my attention. To keep it short, this band already includes more ideas in one original song than other bands put in entire albums.

Another highlight for me was the song by MEAT SUCKS where harsh vocals meat great and passionate female clean vocals. The melodic parts of the song and especially the dreamy piano closure with the breathing noises create a fascinating melancholic atmosphere. 

PARTISAN surprise with a few Punk and Thrash Metal influences while the melodic chorus sounds really cool in contrast to the harsher verses.

MENSHENG offer a quite weird contribution by presenting us a song with desperate out-of-tone vocals, spoken word passages and quite calm parts that are almost progressively inserted into the unchained harsher parts. If Metalcore would always sound that original and diversified I would listen to it way more often. These bands are not only great ambassadors for the People’s Republic of China but also for the Core scene that many traditional Metal fans underestimate.

The greatness doesn’t stop there. ASHTEMATO mixes Death, Groove and Thrash Metal with Dubstep. This sounds really weird at first try but this original track is quite a grower even though it remains tough to digest. Only the melodic vocal parts could still be a little bit less out of tone to get a better result.

Another favourite song of mine comes from the band LUKTOMO that mixes laid back but original electronic music with emotional Metalcore elements. With a length close to seven minutes, it’s by far the longest song on here but it never gets boring and doesn’t fail to impress and surprise at each new subtle turn and twist. The musical concept of this band is surely interesting and I will try my best to listen to more music from them.

THYHAZARD is another band with amazingly vivid electronic influences, sharp riffs and extreme vocals. The band is though pure chaos like STRAPPING YOUNG LAD or you can also imagine a dark Metalcore mixture of UNEXPECT and SYSTEM OF A DOWN for example. That’s probably the kind of music KORN wanted to create with their electronic album experiment two years ago. This kind of music requests a lot of attention and time but in the end you often get rewarded as even such a chaotic track has its catchy parts.

As you can see, there are a lot of courageous, dynamic and experimental Core newcomers that gathered their forces to contribute to a truly rewarding compilation record. There are a few misses here and there among the twenty artists from my point of view but the number of captivating acts largely exceeds the bands that I like less.

If you are honestly open for diversified Modern Metal music and ready to discover new shores instead of sticking to all too traditional values, this compilation was also made for you. Anyone who profoundly hates the Core genre and thinks it has no place in the Metal scene won’t get convinced but he or she wouldn’t even give these great bands a fair chance anyway. If you belong to the first category of Metal music fans, go on and give yourself a little gift by enjoying the entire compilation for free under the following link:

http://coreinchina.bandcamp.com/

(Online September 5, 2013)