Ai Weiwei, China's most renowned dissident artist, has released a new heavy metal song as the first part of his music album on Wednesday.

The title of the album is a reference to the 14th century poem by Dante, in which the Florentine writer vividly depicts levels of hell, purgatory and heaven. In , Ai tells the story of his own 81-day extrajudicial detention in 2011.

"Being in that environment makes me realise that for these people, the only available release or means to kill time is music," the 55-year-old Beijing-based artist said in a press release.

"I felt deeply sorry that I couldn’t [sing there]. Either I was not in the mood or I didn’t think I could sing. The only songs I knew were the revolutionary ones. It is the same for many Chinese people; we had to memorise every red song. Creating music is a way to break through that situation."