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Biografie : Crescent Lament

Founded in 2007, Crescent Lament—a band that was specially mentioned and recommended by heavy metal band Chthonic’s leader Doris Yeh in an exclusive interview published by the magazine Terrorizer in 2011—is a folk metal band of the island country of Taiwan in East Asia.

By integrating sorrowful stories in Taiwan with folk metal music, Crescent Lament presents to listeners aesthetic melodies with a touch of grief. With relentless efforts, their work is recognized by prominent artists. In 2009, the band opened Lacrimosa’s Sehnsucht world tour concert in Taiwan. Subsequently Crescent Lament was invited by Chthonic to open their world tour concert in Taipei. In Epica’s 2013 world tour, Crescent Lament served as the support band of Taipei concert. In 2015, the band once again earned the opportunity to open Lacrimosa’s UnterWelt tour and Xandria’s Fire & Ashes tour in Taiwan.

In addition to the local concerts and festivals, Crescent Lament has been dedicating their efforts to spread Taiwanese cultures and music worldwide, and constantly interacts with foreign audiences through global social medias and overseas festivals. Among them, Crescent Lament attended Metal Female Voices Fest Xlll (2016) in Belgium, and got positive feedback from listeners and music critics.

Crescent Lament released their debut album Behind the Lethal Deceit in 2011. Inspired by the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, Crescent Lament related the tragic history in the country to Taiwan. Sharing a similar historical context, Taiwan has seen ethnic conflicts and outside invaders, which offered an anti-war theme to the album. The band ingeniously borrowed the dark and sorrowful elements from metal music to depict the foolishness and vice of war. Behind the Lethal Deceit has drawn attention of international music critics and received applauses.

In 2015, Crescent Lament released their second album Elegy for the Blossoms. Elegy for the Blossoms is a conceptual album recounting the sorrowful story of a Taiwanese geisha that happened in the late Japanese period and early Chinese Nationalist Party period in Taiwan’s history. The main character, A-hiong, was developed based on the life of Taiwanese geishas in history, and the story describes the helplessness of Taiwanese geishas behind their smiles when greeting their clients, as they had no say over their own lives. Different from the first album, Elegy for the Blossoms was written in Taiwanese, and blends Taiwanese history, culture, and metal music, while using traditional Taiwanese and Japanese instruments to create a sorrowful yet beautiful atmosphere. The album cover was designed by the well known Taiwanese illustrator KCN, with a modern retroactive image.

Crescent Lament’s third album噤夢 Land of Lost Voices was released in 2020. A sequel to their second album, the story continues from where Elegy for the Blossoms left off: the unfinished romance between A-hiong and her lover. Using the red thread of fate that binds the star-crossed lovers, this concept album fishes out from the river of time a heartrending tale of Taiwanese people—for all to see.噤夢 Land of Lost Voices was recorded and produced by Jesse Liu (Chthonic’s guitarist), mixed by Sweetspot Studio in Sweden, and mastered by Finnvox Studios in Finland. The band collaborated with Bu-hiông, the winner of Best Lyrics of Golden Melody Awards, in writing the Taiwanese lyrics, and invited the illustrator KCN again to design a noir yet oriental album cover, a visual metaphor for a series of historical tragedies that battered Taiwan in the post-WWII era.