by the way, I made a massive update of malaysian early releases on M-A, including every possible existing version of each individual release (tape, vinyl, promo, alternative cover, unofficial indonesian version wth different artwork/title)... there should be lot more bands to be included but i don't know if they are going to accept them.... as far as only half (or less) of the songs are pure metal and the rest is just shitty love ballads (cinta = love, rindu = to miss, air mata = tears, hati = heart: these are the most "dangerous" words when you come across a malaysian release
), there is a high possibility they could not be included, but the list of malaysian/singaporean bands who released interesting stuff is endless:
-Blackshed/Bloodshed
-Masa/Masa Scarecrow
-Vagrant
-Ella & The Boys
-Shima & The Boys
-Iklim
-BumiPutra Rockers/BPR
-Sofea/S.Y.J.
-Lefthanded
-Olan
-Febians/D'Febians
-Gersang
-Belantara
-Ekamatra
-Burnmarks
-Metalian
-Gamma
-Analisa
-Gravity
-Melissa
-Medicine
-Lestari
-Junction
-Kris
-Helter Skelter
-Heavy Machine
-Villosa (they have some really interesting songs in their only tape album)
-Ruhil & Metal Child
-Sherox (an all female hard rock/quasi-metal band)
-Potensi (the only band from Brunei who played "rock kapak" and released a full lenght tape album in 1992)
and others.... most of them have been reissued recently or there are early 90's first press on cd or even promo vinyl edition.
More or less we can say the same about Indonesia, who was a sort of minor-scale copy of the malaysian scene until mid 90's when suddenly bloomed the brutal scene, but also Indonesia had several interesting hard/metal bands not yet listed (and probably, never going to be) on Metal-Archives, such as Axe Gang )with a female singer), Armada Borneo, SAS, Kayakas, Mel Shandy (the indonesian answer to Ella), God Bless (a seminal band which marked the juncton between hard rock and early metal music in the country, with the album "Semut Hitam" and the followings)... but none of these have been ever released on vinyl.... the indonesian market had been considerably poorer compared to malaysia and only bands on "major" labels such as Logiss Records could get a CD treatment in the best case.
and there are some bands who appeared on compilation only, like Whitesteel, Trashed, Last Minute, Menara on the various "Battle of The Bands", "Clash of the Bands", "Juara Juara Rock" as well as other less known compilation like the three "War Metal Rock" compilation on Mutiara Records (the 2nd volume is the most interesting with Stroyer, BC Rockers, Dewanaga and Kejora and also the 3rd volume with Cakrawala and Eyes Killers, Spring being the only band who went to release also full albums. They have been reissued on very hard to find cds a 4-5 years ago), or the "Selekta 1" compilation tape or the two Gegaran '88 (a split tape between Medusa and Hurricane, who never released anything else) and Gegaran '95 (which, on the contrary has only shitty glam stuff) and much more....
the problem of malaysian/singaporean "rock kapak" (that's how it is called this kind of commercial metal which may range from savage metal/speed to tons of cheesy slow rock/soft love ballads) is that maybe only 2 or 3 songs are properly metal, and even of really high quality, usually at the beginning and end of each side of the cassette but topped with tons of cheesy slow rock/love ballads to please the audience and the radio station....
And I am studying the malaysian music production of the late 80's and early 90's.... apparently around 1991-1993 there has been a massive production (inclding reissues of album previously released on cassette only) of CDs which are almost impossible to find nowadays as they all are in the hands of few collectors who stock hundred of copies of each of these first pressing. But I was surprised to see how many releases were issued or reissued on cd (including also compilation, split, sampler...) during 1991-1993 and then disappeared. To find these early 90's pressing nowadays is impossible unless you have trusted contacts on the spot and additionally malaysians rarely share or sell these rarities to foreigners as they want to keep this stuff for themselves only. (sad).
And-, at the same time, around 1988-1991 there was also a massive vinyl production when most of the albums (particularly on Warnada, Life Records, NSR/New Southern Records, Mega Records, Emi/Polydor) were issued for radio station. Usually big/major label issued n vinyl the full lenght album while other minor/smaller label issued a shortened vinyl version omitting a couple of songs per side.
But to find all this stuff nowadays is very hard unless you go to malaysia and you bring a lot of money. it rarely circulates or it is never offered to foreigners unless you are willing to pay double or triple the (already fucking priced) local price
then the second half of the 90's and the whole 2000's have been flooded with hundred and hundred of totally useless compilation by major labels to milk as much money as possible with reissues, best of, split, best of the best of, selection of best of that can easily be avoided. but until 1992-1994 the market was interesting. after 1994 everything became commercial, mainstream and really shitty, in general. most of bands disappeared or released more and more commercial albums. and tons of compilation, best of and absurd split with pop/non metal bands only.
