My Top 10 Favorite Chinese Metal Albums

I listen to a lot of J-metal bands but I definitely don't talk enough about the metal bands from China.The metal scene in China is just as terrific as the metal scene in Japan. 

When I started my deep dive into exploring the metal scene in Asia, I started in the East Asia region and with China. I used YouTube and Spotify, and eventually Bandcamp. I have learned that many bands in China really don't use Spotify but if they do, they use their native language which makes is difficult for me to find bands like Ritual Day (black metal band) and Mysterain's most recent singles, or that artists on record labels like Mort Productions and Pest Productions won't use streaming services. That's okay. I am fine with buying the works of DengeL (gothic metal band from Beijing) and Twilight Blooming (folk/metal band from the Sichuan province) on Bandcamp and/or Discogs. 

2 of my favorite go to sources to discover new music (to me) from China is the YouTube page Fan Dragon Xiangzi and the Facebook page Chinese Metal Music, run by 2 completely different individuals. I am a super huge fan of both of these accounts especially Fan Dragon Xiangzi who introduced me to the gothic metal sounds of DengeL whose music I absolutely love. S/he also introduced to me the post-punk sounds of the Beijing darkwave band of Sonicave, another favorite band of mine. 

I found bands like Black Kirin, Ephemerality, Ritual Day, Inchaos, Mysterain, and Silent Elegy on my own. I think Bliss-Illusion I found through Chinese Metal Music FB page. Based on my research, China has an impressive black metal scene. Go check out the Chinese record labels Pest Productions, Awakening Records, and Mort Productions. Their content is quite substantive. They also sign bands outside of China too. 

01. DengeL: Promised (gothic metal) 


02. Ritual Day: Unholy Year (black metal)


03. Silent Elegy: Gone with the Wind (symphonic metal) 


04. Twilight Blooming: Song of the Warrior (folk/metal) 


05. Mysterain: After the End of the Valley (folk/metal)


06. Bliss-Illusion: Shinrabansho (post-black metal/shoegaze)


07.Black Kirin: Qian Nian (folk/black metal)


08. Ephemerality: Ephemerality (melodeath)


09. Inchaos: A Reason to Be Found EP (metalcore)


10. The Samans: Khan (folk/melodeath)