Singaporean Metal Scene

Yes, you read it right. There is actually a metal scene in this disciplined, neat and clean country. Okay I have to admit, that it is not very big and it operates somehow under the surface. But nevertheless there are some nice metal concerts here - you just have to find out where and when...

At the NTU I found some metal soul mates among the exchange students here and we always tried to find out if there is something like a metal club/disco. But we never managed to find something like that. Finally one of them came up with a death metal concert in a club near Clarke Quay (the night life centre of Singapore). Although death metal is not our favourite genre, we (Sigrid from Sweden, Andrea from Germany and me) went there anyway - and we didn't regret it. After we found the location the first thing that caught your eye were the Asian metalers. In whole Singapore I hadn't seen that many guys with long black hair (the Japanese lead singer had bleached hair!) and black clothes. :-) The club was rather small and the crowed wasn't very big - but the people really rocked (head banging, crowd surfing,...). There were 6 different bands playing (4 Singaporean band and 2 from Japan) and they were definitely not bad. Although most of them played real death metal - strong distortion and growling vocals - all of us liked the music and the show. Unlike most of the European death metal bands they didn't take themselves "dead" serious. Their performances were sometimes really funny and a bit self-ironic, which contributed to the nice atmosphere in the club. Unlike some other live performances I've been to, this really felt like a concert.

The best part of the evening was just chatting with all the metal guys and band members. After the concert almost all the bands and groupies went to a pub and had some more beer. So we joined them of course and we had the chance to talk to all the guys. Everybody was - in contrast to the somewhat dark and evil appearance - really very kind and open and we had a lot of fun. Now we are initiated to the Singaporean metal scene and we always get to know when something is going on...

The next concert followed soon (last Saturday). This time only me and Sigrid had time - so we went there together. The title of the concert was "Mosh Party" - so there was a bit of moshing going on. The concert itself was very different from the first one. The location was a kind of youth club, so the average age seemed to be something like seventeen - you even couldn't get a beer there. The bands were not as professional as in the other concert, but some of the were pretty good anyway. Despite the incredible heat in the room we enjoyed ourselves. Let's see what the next concert will bring...