Korean Heavy Metal

by u/Gheeman

Welcome to a primer about early Korean heavy metal. Obviously this only covers South Korean bands, since we can all imagine that there is absolutely no heavy metal from North Korea (if you really don't believe me, stupid). This is my first write-up so please excuse my perhaps sloppy writing. As a heavy metal geek with a huge interest of diving into obscurity and history, I always love to learn about metal from odd countries, the origin of heavy metal or interesting scenes where heavy metal bloomed. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the French, Swedish, Japanese and Spanish/South American scenes. Knowing only one band from South-Korea I decided to dive more into this county’s offering of heavy metal and where it’s coming from.

In here I'm going to introduce and inform you about the early heavy metal bands from this country, and it's mostly in the direction of traditional/speed/power metal. After heavy metal was established many more extreme metal acts formed in Korea, and the scene really started to bloom in the 90's, along with hardcore punk. An early band to sail that ship was the thrash metal band Crash, formed in 1989 in Seoul. Their debut album Endless Supply of Pain was released in 1994 and has somewhat of a Sepultura feeling to it. But this is not what this write-up is about, I'm only going to focus on the early traditional acts here. It's not a country that first jumps in mind when you think of "heavy metal" and their work can easily be swiped out by their Japanese neighbors and their heavy metal acts, but it's pretty interesting to see the music coming from such a country and how it all started. Note that I refer to all the bands in English.

So how exactly did heavy metal start in South Korea?

South Korea has always been under some censorship, which can be taken back as far as WWII where Korea was under colonization of Japan, which was followed by dictatorships and all political crap. Influences of music started to come from the US army with radio broadcasts, inspected and approved by the government. During the 60’s and 70’s, rock music was played in US army bases and made its way to smaller venues in the country. During president Park Chug-hee's time, music and albums imported from abroad were heavily censored by the government. In a culture where life was about graduating and getting a good job, rock music was seen as music for smoking and drinking trouble makers. The police would inspect the streets and people with hair too long got it cut off. In the late 70’s, president Park was assassinated and the country was politically unstable. Citizens and students started to protest and rally, and simultaneously rock and heavy metal started to emerge. Some bands actually did pretty well, selling a decent amount of records in that time.

A huge influence on rock and heavy metal was Shin Jung Hyun. He introduced the county to this kind of music before the country and radio stations were aware of it. After being exposed to rock music from his trip to Japan, he was inspired to make his own music during the 60's and 70’s. Another influence were the US army radio broadcasts that introduced him to American jazz and rock music. His most famous song, Beautiful Rivers and Mountains, was a protest song against the regime of president Park. In the 70's, Shin was captured by the government and his music was banned up until the 80's. Because of his influence as guitarist and songwriter, Shin is seen as the "Godfather" of Korean rock music.

Heavy metal from Korea really started to emerge during the mid 80’s, The band to carry the credits of first heavy metal band from Korea is said to be Sinawe, formed by no other than Shin Jung Hyun’s son. Formed in 1983, Sinawe released their first album in 1986, Heavy Metal Sinawe. The 70’s rock and heavy metal influence is clear in the music. This album made them one of the biggest names of the early scene, as it sold over 400,000 copies. The band split up in 1991 but later reformed in 1994 and continued with a more alternative rock sound. To this day the band is still active and managed to release 10 studio albums.

Something you might notice when you'll dive into the work of these bands is that a lot of albums contain ballads, this is because ballads were sort of a norm in music back then. One band that seemed to like playing ballads a lot was TAS (let's just refer to them as that), as we can hear from their debut album Tisams from 1988. If you don't like the typical 80's rock ballads then you can skip right ahead, but they actually are on Metal Archives and personally I quite enjoy stuff like this. There are several bands that went back to the style of melodic rock and AOR after starting out as a heavy metal/hard rock act. Later in the 90's, heavy metal in Korea suffered from the upcoming popularity of K-pop in the country and many bands split up. A decade later many bands, just like Sinawe, started to get active again and heavy metal was resurrected. Venues are played again by bands that once used to rule the early heavy metal scene.

Another early band was Baekdoosan, which was formed in 1986. Their debut album, Too Fast! Too Loud! Too heavy!, was released in the same year. It’s a little rougher, musically and production. The sound and energy are comparable to early Japanese acts. Their second album from 1987 is more straight forward heavy metal with more melodic influences.

These melodic, almost neo-classical, influences became more used other bands. Stranger from Busan, formed in 1989, is one of these examples. Their first and only album Sailing Out was released in 1990.

Another one of these Yngwie-esce Shrapnel-like bands is Dionysus, which was also formed in 1989. This was the first and only band I knew from South Korea before writing this. Releasing their debut in the same year as their formation, Legend of Darkness. It's filled with cheesy neo-classical European power metal licks and solos, lots of instrumental parts backed up by keyboards, and some decent actual song writing. Their second album from 1990, Excalibur, has improved production and is also quite fun.

A band that did pretty well internationally was from Seoul, Black Syndrome. The band was formed in 1986 and is still active to this day. They released their first album in 1988, Fatal Attraction. Their second self titled album Black Syndrome from 1990 did well overseas. Catchy but simple traditional heavy metal with pretty raspy vocals.

A name that I also wanna mention on its own is Im Jae-Beom, a famous rock/pop singer. He first appeared as the singer on the first Sinawe album, and later he joined the band Foreign Legion, formed in Seoul in 1987. Their debut album Julie was released in 1988. Great vocal performance and enjoyable songs, Japanese heavy metal fans will enjoy this for sure.

Later on Jae-Beom was starred in the band Asiana, formed in 1989 and also heading from Seoul. Leather, motorcycles and smoking hot metal. They only released one album in 1990, Out on The Streets. You hear more influences from the New Wave, and this album might be a tread for the USPM fans here. Asiana is one of the many bands that is guilty of the writing of ballads on their album. Soldiers Came was a song banned by the government, but is a great example of how powerful they can still be writing slower stuff.

Another name we see more is Kim Jong-Seo. After Jae-Beom left Sinawe, Jong-Seo picked up the vocal duty for their next few albums, providing the band of a new great front man. During his time in Sinawe, Jong-Seo was also in a little band from Seoul, Charisma. The band was found in 1987 and released their one and only album in 1988, Warning. The vocal performance on here is great, almost female-like, and the music may remind you of their Japanese neighbors.

Another one of the earlier bands to emerge from Korea was Little Sky (or Small Sky) from Seoul, formed in 1985. In their active time they only released two albums. Their debut album, Silver Lake, is from 1987. Their second album was released one year later, New Little Sky. Some solid heavy/power stuff here with clean, high pitched vocals. It's also said Jong-Seo was starred in Little Sky, but he did not sing on both of these albums.

Next up is Idea from Seoul, and one of my personal favorite so far. Not much is known about these guys, and they only released one album in 1989, Now Let us Not Stray Anymore. It sure is some really enjoyable, energetic and straight forward heavy metal.

Again from Seoul, this is The Club. Formed in 1990 and released their debut album in the same year, Maybe It’s Love. Their sound reminds me of Earthshaker from Japan. After a short time they spilt up in 1993, but are active again and in 2014 released a new EP.

Formed in 1986 together with other early acts, this is H2O from (guess what) Seoul. They started out as heavy metal and released their first album in 1987. Later on they changed to a more AOR sound and continued releasing album. To this day they are still active and have released up to 5 studio albums with their latest from 2014.

Let’s have another look at some more melodic stuff. Back to Busan, this is the power metal band Armageddon. These guys formed in 1989 and only released one album, The Tears of a King Bird. It is a pretty enjoyable album, worth to check out. You can hear some European influences in here and compared to Dionysus, this is not as over-the-top neo-classic as them.

Another power metal act was Blackhole and was formed in Seoul in 1986. Their first album Miracle was released in 1989, and one year later they released Survive. After that another string of albums came with a total of 9 studio albums, and these guys are stuff active to this day being a big part of the modern heavy metal scene in the country.

Here is a traditional act that leans more towards a doom metal sound. This is the band Eden and was already formed in 1984. Despite being one of the earliest acts from Korea, they didn't have any music up until 1989 where they first appeared on a compilation. Their first and only album, Adam's Dream, was released in 1993. To describe their sound, think of this as a cheap Korean bootleg of Solitude Aeturnus.

The next band is quite interesting, since it is an all female band. Playing melodic heavy metal, this is Eve. I can't really find any more information about this band, where they are from or when they formed. Their only release is from 1988, the self titled album Eve. The first release of this album didn't sell too well because the album cover was considered "too wild". In 1989 they re-released the album with a new cover of the group standing in a living room embracing their instruments with innocence.

Museros is a heavy/power act from Seoul, formed in 1984. You can compare it to US power metal acts, energetic, rough and catchy. They released their first album in 1988 and later split up in 1993. The band did return with another album in 2009, but their current status is unknown.

This band joined the scene a little late and by this time some bands already disbanded, like the above mentioned Museros. Formed in 1993, this is Nuclear. Nightmare is their only album and was released in the same year as their formation. It's a pretty good album so I wanted to include them as well here.

Are you still excited? Here is Zero G and their debut album from 1990, Exciting Game. It's full of energy and gives off an early speed metal vibe. The band was formed in 1988 and first appeared on a compilation album from 1989. They followed up their debut with two more albums, later heading towards a more pop rock orientated sound. Just listen to the joy in that guitar solo!

Back to some more obscure stuff (if Korean heavy metal in general isn't already obscure enough), this band was formed in 1985 and their name roughly translated to UV-rays. This band has only one release on their name, Lightning and Shadow from 1989. I'm going to make the comparison to Earthshaker once again, since this just reminds me of the cheerful mid-paced heavy metal goodness of their 1984 album Fugitive. I don't want to make another Korean bootleg joke here but that is something that you can keep in mind again.

I have a feeling this write-up is getting long, so I'm going to wrap it up with one more band. Similar to the project Hear 'n Aid, this is Project Rock in Korea. A super group that starred heavy metal members from many of the above groups like Sinawe, H2O, Little Sky, Foreign Legion, and that list goes on. Compared to Hear 'n Aid which only did one song, this group released one full length album. From 1989, this is Project Rock in Korea.

This was most of the stuff I could find about early Korean heavy metal, and it seems that this is all you need for a proper introduction to the origins of the heavy metal scene from this country. Like I said in the beginning, this is my first write-up. I hope it was informative, enjoyable and well written. And hopefully you get to discover many new bands and albums, since all of these bands have a lot to offer. I discovered some great stuff for sure and even though I dived into many of these bands, I'm still not done listening to all of it.

Thanks for reading!