Lurking under the surface of Shanghai's glamorous and glitzy cultural milieu is this city's heavy metal music scene, at times thriving – evilly, demonically, wickedly – and at times in an icy slumber, dormantly awaiting a diabolic rebirth to rise, thrash, and terrorize anew in a fresh incarnation.

The metal scene in Shanghai isn't exactly huge, but it's dedicated. At any given time there's a handful of bands doing the Dark Lord's good work, local kids and expats playing smaller and medium shows in thrash, death metal, doom, stoner, sludge, and groove genres. Larger European legacy metal acts frequently pop up with a Shanghai date on their touring calendar and play for some really decent crowds. And in the past 20 years or so, there have been anywhere from 1 to 1.5 dedicated metal bars to host the local scene in their drinking down time. It's a subculture you have to seek out, but it's pretty open and welcoming.

Enter Reaper, a new metal bar on Kangding Rd, next to Yugo Grill, replete with an already completed line of merch, their own IPA, and a really cool-looking grim reaper logo. It's your new neighborhood metal hang.

The logo, incidentally, was designed by Ed Repka, himself, the creator of Vic Rattlehead, Megadeth's skeletal mascot, as well as a slew of top tier album covers over the years. Huh! Interesting!

Reaper comes from the founders of Shanghai's own Inferno, this city's original heavy metal bar that opened back in 2011. For the original incarnation of that bar, the formula was pretty simple. A wall of Scando death metal on the stereo, free pool, horror movie schlock on the bar TVs, and a sufficiently evil atmosphere in which to drink 10 or 20 beers. They went through a couple incarnations over the years before suffering a COVID-related fatality at the start of 2023. The city's been thirsting for its return ever since, with a couple venues approximating the vibes but never really replicating them.

We're happy to say that Reaper reminds us of the first version of Inferno on Yongjia Rd. There's no pool table, which is a shame, but size-wise, it's pretty similar in that it's just a straight-up pub with a decent heavy playlist, cheap beer, and the option for better tasting, more expensive beer. And the horror movie schlock is back on the TVs.

Martin A., the aforementioned Inferno owner, was also the man at Stone Brewery and still Mikkeler and he's got a good eye for putting together a beer menu that provides options both in terms of wallet and taste. Two varieties of Asahi on draft, including the Super Dry Back, which you don't really see around (35 yuan and 40 yuan). Three Heart of Darkness beers on tap – a brewery out of Ho Chi Minh – (a lemongrass wit and two IPA) for 55 yuan. Don't miss out on their own Reaper Double IPA cans for 50 yuan. They've also got several Boilermaker special options – whiskey and a beer –for 80-100 yuan. That's a good idea. House cocktails are 80 yuan, including a few that have made the way over from Inferno. Growlers are on the way too for people who want to play the home game.

The daily Power House runs from 7pm to 9pm, with 20 yuan drinks – a robust happy hour option indeed.

Events-wise, look for some Inferno classics to carry over – the air guitar competition, vinyl record nights, movie nights, maybe even a metal themed thing on two. (Beach metal! Horns up!)

But more than that, it's just a really fine pub. One with its black heart in the right place. Hit it up whenever you're in the mood for some booze and sick riffage.