The below album review was written for the Chinese heavy metal band WILDEVIL's single "Sweet Imagine." Posted and distributed via my personal Douban account, the target audience for this review was metal music enthusiasts and potential consumers.
See original posting here.
The first documented metal band in China is stated to be Tang Dynasty, an oriental twist on typical heavy metal. Besides being the forefathers of metal in China, Tang Dynasty could be cited as creating a new subgenre of heavy metal that is particularly Chinese. Regardless of if you refer to it as “oriental heavy metal” or “agriculture metal,” this distinctively Chinese subgenre has given harvest to some of China's most popular and globally acknowledged bands, such as Dream Spirit (梦灵).
WILDEVIL is another such band that can directly trace its roots back to what Tang Dynasty started in 1988. Dr.F, Bonzer and Z.Q's homage to the gloomy heavy voltage that gives oriental heavy metal its signature quality is apparent in their independently released single entitled Sweet Imagine (甜蜜的想象). With the dreamy, slow guitar entrance to the doomy heavy metal body of the song, and even to the lyrical content's message of whimsical exploration, Sweet Imagine is a textbook example of oriental heavy metal/agriculture metal. Its lethargic, romantic atmosphere will spellbind even the most entrenched heavy metal puritan.