Shirt Stains: Chthonic Suitcase Cover
Sail Into The Suitcase’s Fire
I’ve enjoyed Chthonic’s music for a long time now. The Taiwanese band manages to blend black metal, symphonic metal, and regional influences to make a unique, yet ever-evolving sound. I still wear their “Free Tibet” shirt I got when they were on Paganfest back in 2014. One time, a Tibetan man came up to me in Trader Joe’s of all places and started talking to me because of the shirt.
Over the years, their musical output has been somewhat sporadic due to the members’ busy schedule, in particular Freddy Lim becoming a member of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan. That schedule will be even busier now that he is Taiwan’s ambassador to Finland. He’ll be travelling a lot more for work. What’s a politician to do when he wants to travel professionally, but still show he’s metal?
Make your band’s own suitcase?! We’ve talked about specific band merch before, but this is above and beyond. We’re slipping into KISS territory. Do you feel the need to rep your favorite band while standing in endless TSA lines and hoping there’s enough air traffic controllers working?
Actually, it’s not an official Chthonic suitcase. It’s a suitcase cover, which, is still a bit extra, but is far more reasonable than a band-specific suitcase. I don’t fly much, so the idea of giving your luggage a ‘skin’ like it’s a gun in Counter Strike doesn’t quite compute. Is this a popular thing? Heck, I still use the same suitcase I’ve had for 20+ years. It holds my stuff, has wheel, and the zippers work. Good enough for me.
I suppose it’s easier to find your bag that way, especially when you’re jet-lagged and mad about paying $28 for a burger from Johnny Rockets. It gives you a chance to talk to other metal fans that might recognize it. And it gives you the chance to punish people who make the mistake of engaging you and asking “What’s that?” Or it gets you dirty looks for chuckledicks in Make America Great Again hats.
