皇者令 (Orders of the King)

Over the past few years, the People's Republic of China has become a breeding ground for promising black metal bands such as Terminal Lost, Screaming Savior, Holyarrow, Esthète Sinistre, Deep Mountains and many more. Each band has a quite unique approach to the genre. Terminal Lost has a strong melodic and symphonic touch. Screaming Savior varies from spacier and more progressive sounds to occasional folk elements. Holyarrow focuses on epic and historical lyrics and atmospheric soundscapes. Esthète Sinistre has a depressing post-metal sound. Deep Mountains focuses on calmer neofolk sounds and traditional Chinese soundscapes. Where does XieJia fit in?

In a certain way, the band offers a solid mixture of all bands mentioned before and is also clearly influenced by Western bands such as Dimmu Borgir. The band convinces with disturbingly distorted guitar sounds, pitiless and almost mechanic blastbeat sections as well as bestial and throaty vocals on one side but also with depressive mid- and even slow-paced passages that increase the record's melancholic and mysterious atmosphere with occasional doom metal riffs, sad folk instrumentation and sinister monk choirs that could also fit on a gothic metal album. The band sounds incredibly balanced, diversified and experienced and uses its know-how accumulated in almost one and a half decades. While the shorter tracks hit hard and take no prisoners, I particularly like the group's more epic tracks that really take the time to develop a sinister atmosphere while adding many surprising elements as in the blackened folk metal track ''Kings of Hell'' or in the gripping gothic black metal epic ''Transmigration''.

To keep it short, XieJia represents China's incredibly authentic, creative and diverse black metal scene perfectly. If you aren't familiar with this scene, XieJia are actually a perfect band to start your journey because the group offers elements of different black metal sub-genres in a coherent and talented way.