Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

“Megaport 2021”, the live album, features CHTHONIC and Audrey Tang’s entire performance at 2021 MEGAPORT FESTIVAL. The album will be released with Chthonic’s anti-epidemic gear, e.g., designed masks, as a special album bundle.

Audrey Tang, who is now the Digital Minister of Taiwan’s cabinet, has actually been to Chthonic concerts many times before. He is an old friend of Chthonic vocalist Freddy Lim. In 2016, while Freddy got elected to Taiwan’s parliament, Audrey Tang also joined the cabinet. Both of them have attracted the attention of many international news outlets. Now, they have shared a metal stage together, which was quite an epic moment.

Watch the full show right here:

In addition to the “brain controlling” voice of Audrey Tang, the songs were recomposed to match the overall theme. Songs like Takao, Supreme Pain For The Tyrant, Defenders Of Bú-Tik Palace, Millennia’s Faith Undone, and Flame Upon The Weeping Winds were all infused with refined synthesizer effects. Moreover, Oceanquake and Set Fire To The Island have undergone an extensive Drum & Bass remix.

This album recorded Chthonic and Audrey Tang’s epic live performance at 2021 MEGAPORT FESTIVAL in front of 95.000 people, which was one of the few large-scale music festivals in the world that could still be held during the pandemic. Therefore, Chthonic releases the album with Chthonic’s anti-epidemic gear set.

Chthonic’s anti-epidemic gear set is designed on the base of the “Tai (台)” character. The set contains a Chthonic Black Armor Mask, a Chthonic Multi-colored Mask, a mask chain, a mask storage folder, a portable mask storage box, and a spray can. The “Tai (台)” pattern derives from the “Tai (台)” logo that evolved along with Chthonic’s concerts, from 2012’s “Mass Battle”, 2015’s “‘Defend the Nation”, 2019’s “Taiwan Victory” to 2021’s “MEGAPORT”. It has become an important totem of Chthonic. This time, the pattern has been developed into two styles. One is the armor style, symbolizing Taiwan’s will in defending freedom; the other is the multi-colored version, which symbolizes the spirit of Taiwan: unity in diversity.

Buy the album here: https://chthonic.tw/en/#newrelease

Aiming to let foreign friends know more about Taiwan, Chthonic lead singer & legislator Freddy Lim and Audrey recorded an insightful analysis of the live video, speaking mainly in two languages: English and Japanese. Freddy’s talkings on the stage in Taiwansese also were translated into English subtitles. They hope the video could bring courage and hope to Taiwan, which recently suffers from a surge of local epidemic. Moreover, they want to encourage people in Taiwan to overcome this challenge together and return to normal life as soon as possible.

It is a live commentary and reaction of Freddy and Audrey to the recent Megaport Festival performance. Freddy also spoke in Japanese, which he hadn’t spoken for seven years, to introduce the performance to the long-lost Japanese fans. Meanwhile, all Audrey could only say along was “そうですね～(I agree)”, creating some funny moments. In the video, the two opened by introducing their 20-year deep friendship. Audrey said with a smile that she was actually in Danshui that day. She participated in the performance remotely, almost like “hacking onto the stage”. Freddy replied that the audience might have felt their brains were “hacked” by her during the performance.
Freddy mentioned the flags waved by the fans, like the Tibetan National Flag, the Uyghurs’ East Turkestan flag, Hong Kong’s Black Bauhinia flag, and Taiwan’s Rainbow Flag. They represented the spirit of Rock & Roll: Support the oppressed, oppose absolute authority, and embrace diversity. Audrey said that when Taiwan was fighting for democracy, many international support was organized in Hong Kong. In many ways, Taiwan now plays a similar role to Hong Kong; as a tech person, she often thinks about how to support the oppressed by using new technology to send out the real local situations to the other side of China’s “wall”.

In addition, when talking about creative ideas, Freddy pointed out that he reads a lot of books about Taiwan’s history and mythology, which naturally cultivate his creativity; Audrey said that as a senior fan of Chthonic, she learned a lot about indigenous mythology from the band. One of Audrey’s favorite songs is “Defenders of Bú-Tik Palace”, she can even remember all the lyrics. Hearing this, Freddy couldn’t help laughing and said that Audrey’s memory was too good. Sometimes he couldn’t remember the lyrics himself.

Besides talking about the performance, the two also welcomed foreign fans to travel to Taiwan after the pandemic. Meanwhile, with the recent surge of local epidemic in Taiwan, they also talked about how to deal with anxiety and negative emotions. Audrey offered the simple but brilliant tip of “sleeping for eight hours”, facing the new day with a brand new mood. In the end, Freddy said that he hopes this live video can encourage friends all over the world who are facing this severe pandemic, and more importantly, encourage the Taiwanese people to overcome the current challenges together.

Watch the behind-the-scenes-video here: