Lead vocalist Freddy Lim of the heavy metal band Chthonic burns a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) flag during a concert at Sing-ling Temple in Puli Township, Nantou County, on Saturday.

Photo: Loa Iok-sin, Taipei Times.

More than 1,000 people from across Taiwan and overseas rocked the sleepy town of Puli (埔里) in the mountains of Nantou County on Saturday night for the first heavy metal concert to be held at one of the nation’s temples.

A little after sunset, music accompanied by waves of loud shouting could be heard coming from the parking lot of the Sing-ling Temple. Unlike the traditional music one normally hears at a temple during religious festivities, this was the sound of the bass, electric guitar and keyboards, and the shouting did not come from the faithful, but from fans of the local heavy metal band Chthonic.