Overload ("超载" chaozai) is the first thrash metal band of Chinese rock. Gao Qi (高旗), the former guitarist and songwriter of the band The Breathing (呼吸), set up his own band Overload (超载) with guitarist Han Hongbin (韩鸿宾) , Li Yanliang (李延亮), bassist Wang Xueke (王学科) and drummer Zhao Muyang (赵牧阳), who were said to be the most talented heavy rock musicians in China at that time. The band made their debut on Halloween 1991.
The songs Gao Qi wrote combine western rock and Chinese literature and his performance burst the enthusiasm of both audients and players. The band built up a thrash metal style which had attracted a large number of fans in a short time. “Developing in a nation historically isolated from the West, China's rock musicians are adopting a foreign concept and adapting it to their own situation. Beijing's rockers reach deep into China's rich musical and cultural history for symbols and material.”(The Wire magazine, September 1995).
The first single of Overload, "the shadow of ancestor," was recorded on the album Rock Beijing which was the label record of Chinese Rock in 1993. Meanwhile, Gao Qi's knowledge in Chinese rock and modern Western music give him chance to be engaged as music producer and song-writer in China’s first rock movie long hair in the wind and as special freelancer for foreign music of Beijing Music Broadcasting. The band released their first album Overload in 1996, second one Magic Blue Sky in 1998, and the latest one Life Is An Adventure in 2002.