"Flames Upon The Weeping Winds", the new video from Taiwanese metallers CHTHONIC, can be seen below. The song is taken from the band's latest album, "Battlefields Of Asura", which was released on October 12.
The "Flames Upon The Weeping Winds" clip salutes the classic movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" and was directed by Chuang Chi-wen, director of CHTHONIC's previous music videos "Forty-Nine Theurgy Chains", "TAKAO", "Broken Jade" and "Defenders of Bú-Tik Palace".
"Flames Upon The Weeping Winds" synopsis: "What is hell? Someone said the room in classic movie '2001: A Space Odyssey' is. Tsing-Guan is stuck in front of the Mirror of Retribution, facing the end of time. Giving away the divine powers, ultimate darkness swallows the hell, swallows Chen Cheng-po and Huang Tu-Shui's last work accompanying him till the end, swallows everything. Or, this is reborn? After all, someone says '2001: A Space Odyssey' is about REBORN."
Many tracks on "Battlefields Of Asura" are associated with different Taiwanese gods and goddesses. "A Crimson Sky's Command" is one of them and was inspired by the god of war "Te-ia-kong", or "Xuantian Shangdi" in Mandarin. Since it's about the god of war, the lyrics naturally take on the warpath and aggressiveness. However, vocalist Freddy Lim stated that on top of the imagery at the face value, it also represents the courage we need to face, confront and overcome our own weakness.
According to CHTHONIC, "Battlefields Of Asura" depicts the adventure of deities in Taiwan through eleven songs carrying messages about resistance, freedom and fraternity. The journey is full of hostility, adversary, impregnable fortresses and desires but also inspires infinite courage to search for eternal wisdom. Anyone deeply touched by this album will eventually realise that it is the origin of all thrilling epic stories portrayed in the past albums. This album sounds like gods versus devils and fights among evil spirits on the surface; however, everyone can feel the empathy of fury, grief and even strength of resurgence from the lyrics.
When asked why the band named the new album "Battlefields Of Asura", Doris Yeh, the spokesperson of CHTHONIC, stated that "this album is the prologue of the albums released in the past and was inspired by and dedicated to the activists of Taiwan's first modern political reform movement back in 1920s."
"Battlefields Of Asura" track listing:
01. Drawing Omnipotence Nigh
02. The Silent One's Torch
03. Flames Upon The Weeping Winds
04. A Crimson Sky's Command
05. Souls Of The Revolution
06. Taste The Black Tears
07. One Thousand Eyes
08. Masked Faith
09. Carved In Bloodstone
10. Millennia's Faith Undone
11. Autopoiesis
Formed in 1995, CHTHONIC has toured in over 40 countries, played hundreds of concerts and festivals, and become the most visible Taiwanese metal band with international publicity. In the past five years, all five members of CHTHONIC have turned a new page in their lives respectively. Lim formed a new political party and got elected into the Taiwanese Parliament in January this year, while the other members established their families. Nevertheless, they have not forgotten their promise to release new material to the fans.
