During the recording process of ChthoniC’s new album “Mirror of Retribution”, I was trying to express the high-pitch black metal screaming tone. Our producer Rob interrupted me and said, “We don’t need another Dani Filth.” I was stunned for a little while, as Dani Filth’s high-pitched voice might have been somewhat in my mind. My brain turned blank after hearing that and I didn’t know how to approach further.

After trying for a while, Rob told me, “You have a very good death metal voice!” Therefore we applied more of the death tone to the composition.

I realize this recording process has become my own self-development. Throughout many times of such conversation, I searched for, found, and got to know more about Freddy Lim.

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We went to the LA Dodgers stadium to watch a game today. Even though it’s not my first major league experience, it’s my first time to see a Taiwanese - Chin-Lung Hu - playing in the MLB. As of now there are 3 Taiwanese major leaguer - Chieng-Ming Wang, Hong-Chih Kuo and Hu. Thanks to the arrangements of our agent we were also able to meet him before the game. Even though he didn’t have a great game today, the sound of him hitting or catching the ball simply got me excited! To watch my fellow Taiwanese competing in the best baseball league in the world really motivated me a lot more than the stadium and games itself.

After the game we drove to the studio. We finished the recording of the drums today. I am sure it’s gonna be an awesome album. I told myself I have to work as hard as those Taiwanese players in MLB!

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The producer of our new album is Rob Caggiano, who’s work was nominated by 2006 Grammy awards. It’s the first time we work together and there are many differences between him and the previous producer - Jan Borsing from Denmark, such as the volume of the monitors. Jan like to keep it low saying that it’s clearer but Rob likes to keep it very loud also saying that it’s clearer.

Rob rented the a Studio in Hollywood. Courtney Love was also working in one of the rooms in the studio and I was very curious. Heavy metal veterans “Dio” was here, too, and they are still as cool as they have been. We took some pictures with them.

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by Freddy & Jesse

Doris was doing pretty well today, Rob said she was kicking ass! We were very happy when we left and I guess that’s why we drove a little too fast on the way home.

The next thing we know, a cop’s car with flashing lights was right behind us. At first we don’t know what they are doing so didn’t stop and kept listening to a Deathcore band “Job for a Cowboy” very loudly. Shortly the cop’s car was getting very close to us and when I turned off the music we heard they were yelling to us to stop. We were like “shit we’re gonna be beat up”
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Before we got started today, our producer Rob Caggiano and his assistant brought a bag of “Crispy Chicken Nuggets”, which is a traditional Taiwanese snack, with 2 cups of bubble milk tea. They were enjoying the food and saying something like “Thai food is really great!”. That pissed me off immediately and I was like “Come on man!! This is TAIWANESE FOOD!!!”

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by Freddy @ Illingen, Germany, 2007/12/15

Yesterday CJ showed off his cooking skill again and made a good dinner for all bands & crews before the show. Naturally for us it’s great to eat some hometown food, but those people from other countries enjoyed the food as well and claimed that it’s the best during the whole tour. After the dinner we got rid of all the tiredness and finished a great show in front of more than 1200 audeince. Also the bassist Sami from Ensiferum and our oriental violinist Sunung covered for each other for 1 song.
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by Jesse @ Brno, Czech, 2007/12/12

We’ve been touring with Ensiferum recently. On their promo picture they always wear Vikings armor and look atrocious. But in private they are very cute and funny. Especially the bassist Sammi, he is actually a kindergarten teacher. Every time he sees a kid on the road he always has the look of dear mom on his face, which is totally different from what he looks like on stage.
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by Freddy @ Cologne( Köln), Germany, 2007/12/08

Today we had a show in Cologne. We went to Kölner Dom this afternoon and were amazed by such a grand architecture masterpiece. It carries the heart and soul of the Cologne city.

Tonight’s show was a full house and we were so excited. However during our performance there were 2 or 3 guys right in front of Jesse, they kept giving us the middle fingers. They even mocked at other people around them who were screaming and banging heads. A lot of fans couldn’t enjoy our show and frowned at those guys but there’s nothing they can do .
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by Dani @ Vosselaar, Belgium, 2007/12/7

Belgium beer has become popular recently in Taiwan. Our show today was at Vosselaar, Belgium. We tried some beer but somehow still felt like the one we drank in Taiwan is better. Maybe we are homesick and miss everything from Taiwan.
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by Jesse @ Leeuwarden, Netherlands, 2007/12/06

Today we came to Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Before the show in the restaurant I heard the waiters were speaking Dutch English like how Gold Member speaks in the movie “Austin Power III”. It reminded me of the Dutch sound engineer Oscar whom we worked with during the Finnish/Baltic European tour. Before I knew him I didn’t believe Dutch speaks English like that, I thought it was exaggerated by the movie.
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