As the new album from Taiwanese extreme metal band CHTHONIC undergoes mixing at Sweet Spot studio in Sweden, the work on the album's cover has also begun in Taiwan. After nearly 100 hopeful candidates replied to a casting call, which called for girls who were "at least 160cm tall, skinny, with light skin, and are ok with full-body painting," Chthonic bassist Doris Yeh and the art design team decided on Bu to represent the album's cover girl.

"It's certainly not an easy job for ancient Chinese emperors to choose their wives," said Yeh jokingly after several sleepless nights of deliberation. "I was even looking through the pictures in my dreams!"

With a concept in mind to have an elder, a girl and a child as the cover picture, and visualize the idea of armed body and mind through special makeup and computer graphics, the search began for candidates to represent the theme. Embodiments for the roles of the elder and the child were quickly decided. Hsu Ching-fu, a clergyman from the Gikong Presbyterian Church, and A-Chi, son of a well-known tattooist Ah-J, were picked to represent these figures.

The shooting of the album cover photo was completed late last month. The new album, the band's seventh overall, is slotted to be released in Europe, North America, and Asia in June on Spinefarm/Universal Music.

On March 8th, Chthonic joined fans in Tokyo, Japan at Rockaholic for a live battle of the band’s new mobile music app game Chthonic – Rhythm Crusher. Fans from all around the world were invited to join the festivities via the game's online Vs. Mode, with the winning fan in attendance taking home a brand new iPad Mini.

Chthonic fan, Satoshi Mukaide, took home the grand prize, despite losing the final match to Chthonic vocalist Freddy Lim.

Said Lim, "When I'm playing Rhythm Crusher, I can feel the energy from the music even more! I think that's why I'm so addicted to it."

Chthonic continues to battle online against fans every day. The band members can be identified by their personal screen names: FreddyLimTT, dorisyeh0919 and Jessefilth, so be sure to keep an eye out for the chance to battle the current Chthonic - Rhythm Crusher World Champion, vocalist Freddy Lim.

The game was released on January 29th and includes 12 songs spread through Chthonic’s six studio albums.

Check out the game trailer below:

More info on the game here.