'The Underground in China' brings together more than 350 pages of photography, interviews, and first-hand observations from inside a thriving alternative music scene that rarely reaches Western audiences.
 
About the book:
In 2013, Ryan Dyer arrived in China with little idea of what lay beneath the surface of its music scene. Within a week, he found himself at an underground show featuring the band Rectal Wench. That night opened the door to a world few outsiders ever see.
 
Over the next eight years, Dyer travelled across Beijing, Tianjin, Suzhou, and Shanghai, documenting the country’s explosive punk and metal underground. Armed with a camera and a journalist’s curiosity, he attended hundreds of shows, capturing bands that express what it means to be an artist in modern China.
 
The Underground in China: Metal, Punk, Hardcore and Noise 2013–2021 brings together more than 350 pages of photography, interviews, and first-hand observations from inside this thriving scene. Featuring over 100 bands across genres including grindcore, black metal, hardcore punk, noise, and experimental music, the book offers a rare glimpse into a creative community that seldom reaches Western audiences.
 
FEATURING OVER 100 BANDS INCLUDING: The Dark Prison Massacre, Nine Treasures, Torturing Nurse, Frozen Moon, Scare the Children, Rectal Wench, Impure Injection, Suffocated, Dreamspirit, Ritual Day, Black Kirin, Gum Bleed, Dummy Toys and more!
 
Part photo archive, part cultural document, this is the story of China’s underground as it was lived—loud, chaotic, and defiantly alive.
 
About the author:
Ryan Dyer is a graduate from the University of Calgary, obtaining a degree in Communications and Media Studies. He has written for the publications MetalSucks, Metal Injection, Rue Morgue magazine, Absolute Underground magazine, New Noise magazine, Neocha and others.
 
234 x 156mm
394 pages
Full colour throughout
 
Officially publishing 12th June 2026, you can pre-order your copy now.