South Korea’s other music: metal makes an underground noise far from the mainstream
- South Korea’s tiny contingent of metal fans gather in an underground mosh pit in Seoul
- Monsters Dive guitarist Kim Sangwan admits that Korean metal is very much a niche genre
Headbanging away in the shadow of the multibillion-dollar K-pop industry, South Korea’s axe-wielding heavy metal bands shred a modest trail of destruction. And in a society where conformity is widely expected, the mosh pit masters are as clean-cut as any average Seoul citizen.
In the intimate, subterranean surroundings of a cramped basement room, the five members of Monsters Dive took part in a battle of the bands before a small audience, mostly seated until frontman Chu Yeonsik ordered them to their feet.
“Are you ready?” screamed the 25-year-old nursing student, transformed into a fist pumping alter ego leaping around the tiny stage as if he were gracing a large-scale arena. The band’s blistering set was meted out with the kind of technical precision typical of the rigorous training of the country’s intensive educational system.
“Usually I never listen to metal music,” said audience member Nam Ji-eun, 23. “But the performance was great. Even though I don’t know anything about metal, the songs were catchy and I have the tune stuck in my head now. I would like to go and see other bands too.”
But Monsters Dive founding guitarist and music producer Kim Sangwan, 35, acknowledges that the genre remains a niche subculture. “I don’t think metal music in Korea will ever become mainstream because it’s a noisy genre with only certain followers. In Korea, it’s minor even among the minors,” he says.