Although there are only a few live houses left in Shanghai and the road of rock is getting increasingly difficult in the city, the remaining venues carry on and deliver the best.

                    
Long-time rock venues Ark and Yuyintang are very different in terms of their styles, decorations, and even fans, yet their perseverance in organizing exciting live rock shows make them comrades in the limited Shanghai rock scene.

Next Thursday, Ark will present two gothic metal bands featuring powerful female vocalists from Austria - Edenbridge and Visions of Atlantis. And tonight, Yuyintang introduces an industrial metal band from Changchun in Jilin Province - Institutional Crush.

Just as many Westerners see China as exotic and mysterious, to many Chinese the continent of Europe is mysterious and filled with legends and excitement, too.

Legends of knights and elves, distinctive classical music and literary classics rooted in history and culture are all to be reinterpreted in a modern era of new technologies and new music.

Edenbridge revives the ancient tales in a modern "gothic" ambience with crisp and lingering female voices. The trend of delving into magical old European legends originated in the early 1990s.

Mermaids and fairies from the continent find new life in a gothic renaissance, through the combination of rapid electro guitar, ornamental classical music, and atmospheric female voices. Soon, the combination swept the Western music scene.

In only a few years, newcomers like Finish melodic rock band Nightwish, Norwegian gothic rock pioneer Theater of Tragedy and Dutch soft rock group Within Temptation emerged and won the hearts of rock fans.

The trend reached its commercial peak when the American gothic star Evanescence launched its 6.5-million-sale album "Evanescence."

Edenbridge, though not among the most commercially successful bands in the trend, exemplifies the essence of the style with its fine balance between hard rock and soft classical.

Edenbridge was founded in 1998 by Lanvall, by then a top New Age guitarist. He had released three hit albums of guitar performances and wanted something more exciting.

Sabine Edlsbacher has a flowery and poetic voice - the kind of voice Lanvall had been looking for to make a sharp contrast with his thunder-like brisk guitar.

Compared with Tanja Turunen, the vocalist of Nightmare who brought operatic and coloratura-like voices into melodic metal, Edlsbacher's voice conveys less power but more grace, providing her listeners with the key to imagination.

With Frank Bindig on bass and Roland Navratil on drums, their live performances are as addictive and exciting as their albums.

Lanvall, though a master of technique, does not show off his skills as most guitarists. He plays rapidly, yet his performance is filled with a romantic presence, making him appear more like a prince from a Baroque-style palace than an exciting guitarist on stage.

The drums and drummer are probably the most visually impressive element of Edenbridge. While Bindig, Lanvall and Edlsbacher all perform in a more or less refined manner, Navratil qualifies as what people usually think of a rocker.

With a large tattoo on his left arm, Navratil often appears shirtless in performances and appears rather ferocious, representing the German power metal element.

Strictly speaking, Visions of Atlantis is not exactly a member of this trend since it features a singing duo - Nicole Bogner and Mario Plank.

Founded in 2000, the band launched a mini-album featuring legends of the lost continent of Atlantis and held their first concert with Edenbridge the same year.

All members are fanatic about representing tales of the lost land of Atlantis through their music and they favor legends and love stories of the lost empire.

If you want to get warmed up before the Austrian guests arrive, Yuyintang will be a good place to rehearse your yells tonight for China's Institutional Crush from Changchun.

The band has Yang Bin on vocal, Shan Shiwen on guitar, Zhang Ji on sampling, Li Wei on bass and Chen Junhong on drums.

Founded in 2002 with only Yang on vocal, Li Shihan on guitar and Chen on drums, the band soon realized they needed to reconsider their style, because there were so many bands in northern China. After the addition of Shan on guitar, Zhang on sampling and Li Wei on bass, Institutional Crush were stabilized with a colder, clearer and delicate style.

Tonight, as guests from Changchun, they promise to tear down Yuyintang with local rock fans.

Edenbridge and Visions of Atlantis

Date: January 4, 8pm
Address: Ark Live House, House 15, North Block, Xintiandi, 181 Taicang Rd
Tickets: 180-480
Tel: 021-6326-8008

Institutional Crush

Date: December 30, 8pm
Address: Yuyintang, Bldg 100, 200 Longcao Rd
Tickets: 30 yuan
Tel: 021-6436-0072