Backstage At Indonesia's Biggest Metal Festival

The seeds of Rock In Solo were first conceived in 2004 when it emerged from the shadows of the slums of the Central Java city of Surakarta in Indonesia as a small music showcase to channel the chained passion and the creative indulgence of the city’s rock and metal fans – with only one stage and seven local Indonesian bands taking the helm.

Billed as a music festival dedicated to rock, metal and other alternative styles of music, the second edition of Rock In Solo was launched in 2007. And then again in 2009, which saw the seeds of a monster sown and the event attract its first international band to the lineup.

The hard yard were worth it and since 2009, Rock In Solo has been held annually and has evolved to become one of the major fixtures of the Indonesian music festival calendar. In recent years, the festival attendance levels have steadily grown in number and it commands a presence from both local and international punters, tempting legions of intercontinental metal fans into making the pilgrimage across the pond to party with their Indonesian metal brothersinarms.

In comparison to the small but strong swarm of 1,500 from Rock In Solo’s first incarnation, the 2012 event drew in 37 bands that performed on three stages and pulled a solid crowd of approximately 8,000. The 2013 edition – a huge twoday event saw in excess of 10,000 people pass through its hallowed gates.

In previous years, the festival has attracted the likes of such notable international bands as Death Angel, Kataklysm, Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus and Polish powerhouse, Behemoth. Bringing the surgical steel to the table this year was the mighty Carcass, a gruesome outfit hailing from the United Kingdom and largely considered to be the founding forefathers of melodic death metal in the early 1990’s and a major influence for OG deathgrind/goregrind bands to this day.

The other bands set to tear up the stage on the 2014 line up included a cocktail of Indonesian outfits such as Piston, Fraud, Biang Kerock, Salahudin Alayubi, Warkvlt, Rising The Fall, Godless Symptoms, Bandoso, Disinfected, Revenge The Fate, Siksa Kubur, Down For Life, Revenge, Death Vomit, Edane and Perth’s very own emerging HM2 death n’ roll outfit, Earth Rot.

With an early morning whiskey in hand, it is indeed the local Perth boys from Earth Rot, escorted by their their viper-tongued sound engineer and party spirit guide, Sam Allen from Electric City Studios, that I find myself lounging back with in the poky little overpriced bar of the Perth International Airport. All of us locked, loaded and liquored up to ride the molten night skies to the far off lands of Surakarta, Indonesia.

Following on the back of the EP release of ‘Dirt’ in February, 2014 has proven to be a huge year for Earth Rot with the release of their debut album Follow†The†Black†Smoke in August 2014. This will be Earth Rot’s virgin voyage to Indonesia and the band’s third strategic move away from their home base on the west coast of Australia and second leap onto the international tour circuit, following up on their tour in Victoria and their debut international tour with Dark Tranquility in South Korea in March. No mean feat for a band only in its infancy. And it is exactly that rough and raw tour life that I seek to capture on this spur-of-the-moment overseas project an expose of the music and the madness if you will.

Ah, Indonesia. The ‘land of the hope’. Spanning 5,120 km from east to west, Indonesia is an archipelago comprising of a cluster of some 18,306 islands (Fun Fact: According to the CIA fact book, there are only 17,508 ), making it the fourth largest country in the world and the largest country of South East Asia. Home to an estimated population of around 249 million people, consisting of a mainly Muslim populace, with substantial Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities and indigenous tribes from Borneo to Irian Jaya, Indonesia is a rich cultural tapestry and the keeper of untamed wilderness.

Historically, the Indonesian people are natural born artisans, musicians and storytellers.They are a deeply creative people with traditions drawing inspiration from life’s simple pleasures to forge fascinating local legends and myths, weave vibrant and colourful fabrics and construct beautiful traditional melodies. It is now also a hot bed of brutal and technical death metal talent and home to a surprisingly large constituent of die hard metal fans.

Yes, if there is one thing you can say for our neighbours across the pond . . . they fiercely love their brutal death metal. So much so that even the newly anointed Indonesian president elect, Mr Jokowi Widodo – the former carpenter who was born in a slum and rose to prominence as a popular reformist mayor and governor to win a bitterly contested election for the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) in July of this year – joins the ranks as a loyal fan.

Indeed rumours were already swirling on the grapevine that President Jokowi Widodo himself a Napalm Death fan and a man notorious for dropping in on events unexpectedly would perhaps be taking time out from his whirlwind of political and presidential duties to make an appearance at Rock In Solo 2014 to catch the putridity that is Carcass.

PART one: SOLO CITY AND THE CRADLE OF FILTH

And so after a long and tedious voyage, three separate flights, one near miss in Jakarta that saw us flinging children and dawdling patrons out of the way with guitar cases and bags as we made a mad dash for the runway, copious amounts of booze, abhorrent plane food and one intense interrogation by a very strange, wild eyed pseudospiritual numerologist who seemed to believe that the magical spirit guides of the LSD cosmos had whispered in his ear to inform him that we were the overlords of some kind of death cult, we finally arrived to the sweltering heat of Solo City. Minus one box of Earth Rot merch that mysteriously vanished into the abyss enroute somewhere between Perth and Surakarta. 

Solo and its sister city of Yogyakarta, located some 60 km to the west, are indeed the absolute cradle of the ancient kingdom of Indonesia. Solo is a former Royal city and the homebase of two Royal enclaves the Kasunanan Kingdom and the Mangkunegaran Principality and as the city is not a provincial

Solo boasts close proximity to the Hindu temple complex of Prambanan and the Borobudur the largest Buddhist stupa in the world. It is an ancient monolithic structure dating back to the 8th century that is nestled in the heart of the Kedu Plain and has an ethereal backdrop comprising of clusters of volcanoes that loom up over the two cities, including the violent Mt Merapi (which translates quite literally to ‘Mountain of Fire’), the most active volcano in Indonesia, which still has a tendency to belch ash and molten debris into the sky in a passive aggressive manner even today.

But there would be no such tourist activities for the boys and I this trip! We meant strictly business. And so it was that after a hectic death ride winding our way through the plethora of traffic jams on the main drag, the Australian entourage arrived tired, weary and battle worn to a warm welcome by the pleasant staff at the lush quarters of the Lampion Hotel.. and the unpleasant sight of a local on a green bicycle being obliterated outside the hotel by a wayward vehicle that left the unlucky chap dazed and confused on the cement and the mangled, twisted carcass of his steed in its wake.

After sending our sympathetic regards to the bicycle man, a hearty feast of traditional nasi goreng and rounds of Bintang to quench our thirst, our logic would override our party brains to dictate that it would be best to turn our wasted souls in for the night and bunk down in an attempt to snatch some precious last minute zzzz’s from the sticky humid night air for what would surely prove to be the dawning of a debaucherous day of metal and mayhem.

PART two: ROCK IN SOLO: DECADE OF REBELLION

It was another early start. We rose from our boozeladen sleep in the early morning to another sweltering hot day. I indulged in some cheeky shots of vodka before we hauled guitars and equipment down to the road side in preparation for the trek to the host venue the ancient and foreboding Vastenburg Fortress.

Located some 2 km away, this beautiful and iconic fortress dates back to 1775 and stands as a relic from the era of the colonial Dutch government. Steeped in historical significance for the important role it played in the history of Solo during the XVIIIXIX period, the Surakarta administration and the private sector have been making concerted efforts since 2013 to turn the fortress and its grounds into a public cultural space. Various cultural events have since been organised to promote this wondrous piece of architecture as a tourist attraction including the Solo Carnival, Grand Gamelan Concert, the Solo City Jazz Festival and the Solo Culinary Festival to name a few and upon entering its looming gates, it was immediately apparent why.

With its ivy clad walls, domineering arch ways and the large encased grounds that echoed the whispers of aeons of untold human stories, the Vastenburg Fort cut a handsome and awe inspiring presence as it beckoned us in through its gates and across a thatched bamboo bridge the perfect setting to herald in a decade of rebellion and host a day of metal, mayhem and spine crushing brutality.

The show was set to kick off at 12 noon and it was already a scorching 37 degrees celsius. With a stifling 70% humidity. The relentless heat of the sun was palpable but it was still no deterrent for the legions of local foot soldiers who were already beginning to pour into the gates and fill the dust bowl in the bowels of the venue in a churning sea of black.

Backstage, it was also a hive of activity. With guitars in tow, we negotiated our way across a parched landscape jutted with canvas military tents towards the flimsy thatched roofed structures that were sheltering the brewing chaos of musicians and minders stringing guitars, strapping on obscene bullet belts and liberally applying corpse paint. Skirted around the borders of this mess was the bizarre sight of the local police lounging on crates and a contingent of military guards in their finest regalia lounged back on deck chairs in the blips of the shade, watching over the madness quite indifferently.

Already succuming to the first signs of inevitable heat stroke, we arrived at the Earth Rot HQ to dump the battle axes and were engulfed by various members of local Indonesian bands, who were most pleased with the presence of their Australian metal allies to the ranks and we all exchanged warm welcomes and charmed handshakes before we excused ourselves from the chaos to embark on a Carlsberg mission and to check out the first few bands set to hit the stage in the searing inferno of the midday sun.

First up to hit the stage were Piston, a crossover band that formed in South Jakarta in 2011 and comprises of founding members, vocalist/guitarist Argi Tendo and guitarist, Aditya Samdhoko, as well as drummer Nozanda Rangkuti and bassist Yulio Abdul Syafik. Piston kicked Rock In Solo 2014 into high gear with their unique blend of heavy metal and hardcore punk infused with rock and roll followed up by a midday beat down from the boys from hardcore/metal outfit Fraud.

Stoner rock band Biang Kerock took to the stage next, with their anti-authority circa 1990’s heavy metal era sound. Taking strong influence from classic bands such as Metallica, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Van Halen and Judas Priest, Biang Kerock recorded their first song in 2008 titled ‘The Routine of the Ordinary’, telling the story of the metalhead dedicated to the ideology of antihypocrisy and brotherhood and a story that encapsulates exactly what this band is all about.

Local Indonesian fixtures Salahudin Alayubi, a metalcore band from Solo, black metal troupe Warkvlt and Rising The Fall smashed up the stage next as we took the liberty to wander around exploring the grounds and the fortress’s labyrinth of old stairwells and turrets. Quickly boring of this, we hit the Sepsis Records merchandise HQ and the beer realm at front of stage to party amongst the rising energy of the ever swelling ranks of metalheads that were still steadily flooding in through the arched gates of the Vastenburg.

At 2:15 PM, it was time to break for the Asr prayer the daily prayer recited by practising Muslims at the peak of the afternoon. The merciless sun was blistering hot as we respectfully took our place beneath the futile offerings of shade the canvas tents provided and douse ourselves in any water we could find before the crossover hardcore/thrash outfit Godless Symptoms booted the afternoon brutality back into shape.

Hailing from Bandung, West Java and led by frontman Baruz, a hardcore legend on the late 90’s local scene, Godless Symptoms unleashed round two of Rock In Solo with a set list including fixture songs such as Pathetic and Lost, Paranoia, Kerajaan Ilusi and Negeri Neraka.

Bandoso then took the reins with their atmospheric black metal followed up by the sociopolitical criticism and brutality of death metal/grindcore act Disinfected. By the time symphonic deathcore band Revenge The Fate took the stage, the Vastenburg Fortress was filled to capacity and was beginning to rumble with the rough and raw battle field energy of the surging crowd.

After a hasty two minute sound check, it was 4:30 PM when the Earth Rot boys hit the encroaching heat of the stage, delivering a crushing set that showcased to our Indonesian friends the filthiest of the gems from the Follow The Black Smoke album, including Hunger, A Dark Ill, The Serpent Tongue, Stares Of Sempiternity and The Pact.

Despite the nefarious heat, Jared Bridgeman dominated with his vicious stage presence and powerhouse witch vomit vocals, while Tom Waterhouse and David Steele slayed on guitars and Alex Wilson proved his chops with some solid bass wizardry.

And despite losing a stick at the start of the set in a hilarious gaff, drummer Chris Gebauer didn’t skip a beat and proved his worth by smashing out one of his most stunning, energetic and ferocious live performances to date, drilling the drum kit with flawless military precision.

As the first waves of the final song The Pact thundered out across the ether, I was scrambling my way back through the media pack frenzy to wobble my way up atop a crate to perch and it was here I was suddenly compelled to lower the camera for a moment to take in the awesome sight before me. A sea of blackclad revellers stretched out to the horizon.

Thousands upon thousands of swarming angry youth, drenched in the sweat of the pit and their eyes manic with the exhuberation and aggression that only the worship of sinister heavy music can bring. Some adorning masks, others in hijabs, youngbloods and the old school alike . . . all of them standing united, side by side, with the devil horns splayed in solidarity for the Earth Rot contingent.

It was a breathtaking view to behold. And as I raised the camera back up to snap the sea of manic, fist pumping metalheads in this fleeting moment of savagery, I suddenly understood the raw thrill, the energy and the feeling of pure, unadulterated exhilaration of being on stage in front of a passionate crowd doing what you love, that all bands braving the live circuit must surely chase.

As the dust began to settle from the circle pit and the Earth Rot boys kicked back in the sweet rush of sweat, adrenaline and high spirits to bask in the first hints of a majestic sunset peeling across the city horizon, the outstanding Jakarta-based brutal death band Siksa Kubur took their turn to rip the stage into shreds. Taken from Sepultura, “Siksa Kubur” means “grave torment” or “punishment of the grave” in Indonesian . . . a name inspired by the Islamic concept mentioned in the Hadith regarding the period following death and prior to the Day of Judgement, where the souls of the unrighteous are punished in their graves. Siksa Kubur delivered on this narrative with a gory, rage-infested set that saw the crowd pumped up into a further frenzy as the mercy of darkness threatened to finally fall upon us.

As Siksa Kubur left the stage, the dusty grounds of the fortress soon fell quiet for Maghrib —  the sunset prayer of practising Muslims — before the self-described kings of Rock In Solo Down For Life booted the energy of rebellion straight back into high gear with another pummelling set. Super tight Jakarta-based brutal death metal band Revenge took over the dust cloud next to unleash a crushing wall of fierce grotesque technical depravity upon the Vastenburg and the smouldering ocean of black that had swelled to the fence line to greet them.

Formed in 2006 and signed to Sepsis Records one of the most prominent labels emerging from the Indonesian archipelago Revenge are on the verge of releasing their third skull-cracking album. Headed by the charming and ridiculously talented Rifki Bachtiar on vocals, these boys destroyed the night with one of the most fierce and stand out sets of the day that saw the circle pit kick up a ferocious dust cloud of violence and carnage into the simmering night sky and Earth Rot’s Jared Bridgeman take the stage for a cameo appearance.

Following Revenge came another wave of annihilation from the likes of Death Vomit. Hailing from Yogyakarta, Death Vomit have close ties to the west coast metal scene and last dropped by our shores in September 2010 on their Australian tour, alongside the likes of Dying Fetus and Napalm Death. Formed in 1995, Death Vomit first crushed the Indonesian metal scene with their debut album Eternally Deprecated, which was self-released under Demented Minds Records in 1999. The band has since gone from strength to strength and now signed under underground label Xenophobic Records, they have continued to bring the hatred and their uncompromising death metal brutality, slamming down with their latest concoction ‘Forging A Legacy’ in August 2014, with high hopes to visit the land down under for a national tour in 2015 to coincide with the album’s international release. 

Thoroughly liquored up to the hilt, the Earth Rot boys and I lay in canvas tents in the backstage area wallowing in the mercy of the cool night air and an abortion of booze, cigars and good times with some newly acquired Indonesian friends, discussing all manner of politics and the dialogue of gentlemen, when suddenly a palpable sense of rising excitement rippled through the vibe. It was soon immediate apparent by the swarm of photography fiends that the members of Carcass had entered the grounds early to grace us with their presence and prepare for their headline set, while local legends Edane entered the ring to represent the final round of the Indonesian metal band legion.

Standing as one of the most notorious talents in Indonesia’s rock history, Edane drew a thunderous response from the crowd and appeased the frothing masses with a series of battle tunes spanning from the 90’s years to offerings from their latest album Edan. A highlight of the set was the smash hit crowd pleaser Kau Manis Kau Iblis, which conjured up a mass singalong from the foot soldiers on the ground that echoed up from the fortress walls and spiralled out into the night sky.

It was not only a palpable sense of excitement that rippled through the crowd at this point but there was also a palpable sense of trepidation that rippled quietly through the Earth Rot entourage. For via the ancient and universal art of Chinese whispers, the word on the street had twisted its way up through the grapevine and upon our inebriated ears to tell a disconcerting story that Immigration officials were looking for us miscreants back at the hotel.

Jared, ever the staunch business man, immediately disappeared into the ether on a mysterious documentation mission back to the hotel. The rest of us sprung into action, flinging guitar cases into a pile and fisting anything we could find into bags, confused and bewildered by the longterm side effects of drinking liquor in a 40 degree furnace coupled with the knowledge that there was now an apparent sudden need to engage with government officials.

Our Bintangaddled minds were already convinced that our imminent deportation from these fabled lands must surely be on the horizon and so we sat on crates and consoled our creeping panic with the knowledge that Earth Rot’s killer set was done and dusted . . . and at least it would be a direct flight home and a story to tell. But to cut a long and confusing story short, after some networking on the ground and a hasty collection of telephone calls full of an array of colourful language by our Indonesian counterparts, the officials were finally lulled back into slumber with the knowledge that Earth Rot were honorary guests to the local government and the emerging crisis was averted as quickly as it had been born. Just in time for the headline act of the night the mighty Carcass.

In the years since their hiatus and a circuit of reunion shows, Carcass rose again to the occasion in 2012 to record a new album Surgical Steel. The offering held up to their classic repertoire and would appease any fan of the Heartwork era, with such highlights as the impeccable The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills and Mount of Execution.

Alongside Bill Steer and Jeff Walker, Bristol-based drummer, Daniel Wilding of deathgrind band Trigger The Bloodshed, was brought in to perform drums, while the original drummer, Ken Owen, recorded backing vocals. Also joining the new Carcass lineup on the axe was Ben Ash of Pig Iron, Desolation and Liquefied Skeleton.

By May 2013, Carcass had been signed to Nuclear Blast records and the band cut a deal with Trooper Entertainment in Japan for the release of ‘Surgical Steel’, with the album unleashed across the board in September of 2013 to rave reviews and earning the band a top 50 position on the US Billboard 200 charts.

With undertones influenced by death metal and grindcore bands such as Death, Repulsion, Master, Macabre and other metal acts like Slayer, Wargasm and King Diamond, Carcass carved up the Australian shores earlier this year under Soundworks Touring. Tonight it would finally be Indonesia’s turn to be placed on the surgical steel table chopping block for pathological annihilation by these death metal pioneers. And with their sound engineer extraordinaire, Clem Bennett from Canberra manning the sound desk at front of house... annihilate they did.

With Jeff Walker’s signature snarls and rasps set to a sinister background of surgical tools and elaborate lighting, Carcass dropped a pummelling and flawless set of surgical precision that spanned their back catalogue and proceeded to haemorrhage the Vastenburg from the inside out, with punchy songs including 1985, Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System, Carnal Forge and No Love Lost. The recipe for mayhem also included some medley cocktails composed of the old and new, including mash ups of Noncompliance to ASTM F 89912 Standard/This Mortal Coil/Reek of Putrefaction, Genital Grinder/Pyosisfied (Rotten To The Gore)/Exhume To Consume and Black Star/Keep On Rotting In The Free World.

There was a surprisingly lacklustre response from the bewildered crowd who were perhaps too young to be familiar with the the significance of the metal force that stood before them in the form of Carcass and the slow emergence of a small sporadic mosh pit even prompted humourous frontman Jeff Walker to take a jab at the fans and jokingly scold: "Are you tired? C’mon my friends, this is Rock In Solo, not Sleep In Solo!"

But soon enough the crowd began to churn with some wicked energy and with their musical prowess and aggressive stage presence, Carcass proved once and for all that the kings still reign supreme and are still entirely capable of reinventing that blastbeat, animalistic nostalgia of yesteryear to whip up an electric charged atmosphere of headbanging pandemonium.

And so it was with heavy hearts drenched in putrid sweat and the onset of mass tinnitus that the curtain fell upon Rock In Solo 2014. Eleven plus hours of blistering sun, booze and carnage had left us all battered and bruised but nonetheless content with life’s jam... and only hazy memories of exactly how we managed to find our way back to the hotel with a cache of guitars through the winding streets of Solo in the early morning hours... with a feast of 30 rotten, maggot-ridden double cheese burgers that would eventually be poetically regurgitated out of a fifth story window the next morning and meet their grisly demise.

All in all, travelling through foreign realms is a whirlwind adventure at the best of times. You encounter strange things and new cultures, meet great people with stories to tell, forge many new friends and alliances and always inevitably come away with a few bruises, a story or two to tell and a whole new perspective on life. But to couple it with music and the mania that is touring with a rising metal band is something else entirely.

It is a mind-bending, chaotic and surreal experience and is, in essence, what is and always will be at the very heart and soul of the liberation that is the subculture rock n’ roll lifestyle. It is truly the definition of living. Rock In Solo 2014 was an unforgettable experience for both the Earth Rot lads and this humble writer and the supreme quality of the raw musical talent pouring out from the heartlands of lndonesia is enough to rival any other internationally acclaimed band and is indeed a force to be reckoned with.

The Indonesian metal scene is ripe to explode onto the world wide stage. It is a hot bed of talent, with a youth subculture movement that refuses to obey the rules or the mainstream worship of pop culture and the annual extreme music festival calendar as a whole is an absolute must for the bucket list of anyone with metal running in their veins.

One can only hope that in an uncertain global future, Australia’s ties and sense of solidarity with the passionate and talented musicians and fiercely loyal fan base that reside within the Indonesian archipelago will only grow from strength to strength in the years to come and we will continue to unite together as one under the banner of rebellion and a mutual love for extreme music.