Waking the Cadaver of China’s Brutal Metal Scene – Rectal Wench By Ryan Dyer

Waking the Cadaver of China’s Brutal Metal Scene – Rectal Wench
By Ryan Dyer

Wearing butcher’s outfits on stage complete with luchador wrestling masks, Beijing’s Rectal Wench (or RxWx) are ready and rearing to thrust out tracks on stage like a spear embedded dildo. They are making their return to the scene after a multi-year hiatus, and will open for US band Waking the Cadaver and the UK act Party Cannon on their Asian tour in Beijing in October. Previously, they had put on shows in Beijing called Gore Feasts, which showcased the death, gore and grind metal bands of China before taking a break from live shows.

Named after the infamous pornogrind band Lividity song of the same name, Rectal Wench goes into darker, tighter areas of subjectivity than most bands in the middle kingdom, including gore films and sexual perversity seen in the lyrics of bands in the same genre. “When I was young and do not know what pornogrind was. One day I read an interview which said Lividity was the most Niubi (Chinese word for fucking awesome) brutal death/pornogrind band on the planet,” says guitarist Laoshi Guo,
“So I first heard the song “Pussy Lover”, which has the lyrics ‘Rotting clitoral decay! On your knees now, face to the floor, hands tied together, legs in the air, pray for your virginity as I rape your pink asshole!’ It made me aware of all of the colors of pussy.”

Since 2010, Rectal Wench has experienced several member changes. At first, the band was comprised of the guitarist, vocals, drums, and a temporary bass player. Afterwards, some members came and went due to reasons of work and life. “Now we have a relatively stable lineup, which can create, rehearse and perform,” says Guo.

The stage outfits are common in extreme metal but also represent the pornographic elements of the band. Before, Rectal Wench wore ski masks which resembled gimp masks – giving an intimidating home break-in effect to their appearance. Now, with the luchador wrestling masks, the band resembles a bloodthirsty tag team ready for a hardcore match on stage. “We have a penchant for Mexican culture, which explains why we wear lucha masks”.

Foreign horror films also influence the band. A snippet from Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 and the recent Japanese gore film Grotesque serve as intros to tracks. Are the musical, horror and pornographic influences more or less the same for every pornogrind band regardless of where they are from? “I think the music we love and the horror and porn culture is the same, but we may lack some of the skills and experience to properly record music. There are some small Asian ideas on the choreography of the songs.”

The band is set to release a split release CD with four other bands from various countries via Endwar Records in 2020. While the style of music is more or less accepted abroad, there are still challenges getting people interested in it within their homeland. “Chinese extreme music is still a minority culture. Rock music as a whole, including the heavy metal
market, is moving forward. However, we still believe that more efforts could be exerted to promote the culture of extreme music and open the way for young people to understand and love it. You will find most young people at generic dance clubs. Because of this, we play very infrequently – once or twice a year, and it is mainly a social gathering with like-minded fans and musicians.”

The band recently played Brutal Fest in August, which also featured three Japanese brutal death metal acts. I was interested in knowing the differences between the bands from China and Japan, and if they aren’t so different. “Our drummer has been working in Japan all year round, thus we are quite familiar with circumstances in Japan. Japan has a more sophisticated mainstream metal market compared to China, with more underground extreme metal styles, and numerous extraordinary bands and musicians.”

Several months ago, Chinese famous metal music company Mort Productions invited Rectal Wench to play with Waking the Cadaver, an opportunity that the band doesn’t take lightly. The band also has aspirations to take their show abroad like a select number of Chinese metal bands. “RxWx will take every show seriously and bring the crazy freak show to our fans. We would definitely like to have the opportunity to tour around the country, and we would also like to tour Asia or participate in the Obscene Extreme Festival in the Czech Republic (Beijing pornogrind band Cave Have Rod took the stage there in 2013).”

Catch Rectal Wench with Party Cannon and Waking the Cadaver on October 17 at 13 Club.