Seoul hosts China-Japan-Korea heavy metal tour

By Jon Dunbar

Expat metalhead Dan Orozco at GBN Live House on Dec. 30, 2017. / By Jon Dunbar

One of Korea's oldest active underground musical movements is heavy metal. But who keeps it running? It takes a lot of people working together, making connections and keeping the spirit alive.

Guatemalan/American metalhead Dan Orozco came to Korea to teach English, but while this country has produced some great metal bands, he found it needing help.

"Been into metal since I was 10, hearing of Metallica from watching Beavis and Butthead, and from there on thrash metal became one of the biggest loves of my life," he told The Korea Times. "I of course like a wider variety of metal, from speed, heavy, epic, speed, doom, death, black, and power metal."

He's been here for several years, but during that time he's gone overseas frequently to sate his thirst for heavy metal at major festivals, such as True Thrash Fest in Osaka.

When he started telling bands to visit Korea, he found himself press-ganged from inviter to promoter. His love of heavy metal brought him into a position where he could act as a bridge between international bands and local organizers. Last year he helped bring the Japanese thrash metal band Riverge here.

"I didn't think I had what it took to be an organizer to be honest, but I just went ahead and gave it a try. I hardly ever get to hear thrash metal in Korea so for me to bring such a band from the 80s here to Korea, and seeing all these people enjoying what I put together, it was a very great and humbling experience," he said.

"I decided I wanted to start doing more of these shows so that I can try to help and develop the Korean metal scene."

His latest project is inviting the Japanese band Guevnna and the Chinese band Alpaca here for a two-day tour.

On Friday, they're at Club SHARP in Mangwon-dong, western Seoul, with kraken-roll band Octopoulpe, sludge-metal band Smoking Barrels and d-beat bands Myrtyrs aand Distruggle. On Saturday they're at GBN Live House in Mullae-dong for a show with grunge band Pakk and doom metal bands Gawthrop and Leper Temple.

"We are a very small and tight knit community full of good people on all sides," Orozco said. "Yeah sure, we don't 100 percent get along all the time, but I love the people of this scene. We do what we can with what we've got in order to bring the good bands to Korea. I'm no millionaire and I wish I can do more for the band that I have invited to perform here. There are a few organizers besides myself who are bringing in some amazing bands to Korea and I really respect what these guys do."

Look up Korean Metal Live Scene on Facebook for more information.