format: LP
year: 1987
country: Malaysia
label: Polygram
#: 833640-1
info: white labels with cassette labels glued to them
style: Doom Metal, Epic Metal
Side A:
Side B:
Is there anything more frustrating than an almost-awesome album? Well, an almost-awesome band I guess, but more on that later...
This debut from one of Southeast Asia's most unique Metal acts has at least one thing in common with the rest of its local brethren: there's waaaaay too many ballads. This is a flaw you learn to handle rather quickly after diving into the Mal/Sin HM scene and you kinda grow accustomed to skipping those tracks on autopilot. The real problem arises on albums like this, when the Heaviest bits are so - Bloody - MONSTROUS. These weak interludes ruins so much of the pace and flow here. Simply put: there is such a thing as too much diversity.
Let's just break down this album song by song and you'll see what I mean. They start off strong with their opening theme-song, a heavy, sludgeing, semi-doomy Hardrocker reminding me of The Obsessed, especially on the chorus. Then, way too early in the game it's a deep dive to the bottom with the sappiest schmallad of the album, then a tiny step up with another ballad, this time with a pop-metal chorus. With "Jiwa Perajurit" we finally get what we came for, but only after suffering some out-of-tune guitars in the first of the song's 6+ minutes. Despite this minor flaw, this is a simply amazing Doom Metal tune, which absolutely mournful ending part didn't meet its match until years later, with the emergence of bands like Russians SCALD or UK's WARNING, and you may quote me on this: The first contemporary band to cover BELANTARA's "Jiwa Perajurit" will fucking WIN Doom Metal. Ending side A is "Sutra", yet anoter ballad, but at least the band's anthemic aspirations does shine through some here.
Side B
opener "Jentera Pemusnah" puts us back on the right track with a vengeance with what I guess we could call their 'trademark' Epic Metal sound, only matched on their home turf by the similar tunes on their relatively less obscure "Infiniti" swansong (..or possibly the odd VIKING or LOVINGBORN track). Almost Viking Metal-like in its pounding yet majestic stride, here they invoke the feel of a slightly more exotic DOOMSWORD. And then comes an aor track. Of course. If anything it makes the following 2 ballads slightly less insufferable, but it should be said that both "Rintihan Menara Gading" and "Nostalgy" do share some redeeming factors as they include some heavier riffing and especially the latter gets really heavy & gloomy towards the end. Speaking of endings, "Negaramu Yang Utama" presents us with a happy one by being a truly morose and melancholic Hard Doom Rock tune right up just about everyone's alley.
I figure I should squeeze in a few words about the band's sophomore effort "Srikandi Di Sisi" here at the end, since I won't bother with giving it its own review anytime soon. Together with this debut it would defintiely count among the absolute top rarities among the infamous Malasian "DJ LPs", but unlike this and the mighty "Infiniti" album it has exactly one (1) worthwile track - the fast, darkened Power Metal "Perintah Berkurung" - the rest is all schmallads & pop-rock. It would make a great opening to a future "All Their Proper Tunes On One LP" vinyl reissue tho'...