Toria Dianti and Ismira Tsinadibrata
Last month, an unlikely trio became the first Indonesian band to perform at Britain’s famous Glastonbury music festival.
The band members attended Islamic middle schools, grew up in conservative parts of Indonesia, and play headbanging heavy metal songs with social justice themes. Oh, and they also wear hijabs.
Three metalheads in their twenties are known as Voice of Baceprot (VoB).
They made their debut at Glastonbury Festival, one of the world’s biggest music platforms, on June 28th, with a 9-song, 45-minute performance, and their performance received great reviews.
Bacheplot means “noise” in Sundanese, a language spoken in Indonesia’s West Java province, where the three women hail from, Garut city. The band consists of Filda “Marusya” Kurnia on guitar and vocals, drummer Eus Siti Aisyah and Widdi Rahmawati on bass.
Speaking to BenarNews after they returned to Indonesia from Glastonbury, Widdi admitted that the band had been nervous before the performance.
“I was nervous before going on stage because there were only two rows of people in front of me,” she said.
But that all changed when it was their turn to perform: they were the first to take to the stage on the first day of the festival, and were greeted by a packed crowd.
One reviewer added that while most of the audience was initially “intrigued,” their “curiosity had clearly turned to genuine excitement after 45 minutes.”
That’s because the Indonesian band demonstrated that stage position has nothing to do with the novelty of three hijab-wearing women belting out 1980s-style thrash metal, and everything to do with skill, writes a reviewer on loudersound.com.
“The reasons are clear: for a start, all three members of VoB have mastery of their instruments well beyond their years, with bassist Widi Rahmawati doing a masterful imitation of Steve Harris, darting up and down the fretboard with astonishing dexterity,” he wrote, referring to the leader of the famed band Iron Maiden.
“[E]Plus, Euis Siti Eisyah’s drum solo later in the set, usually the ultimate momentum killer, was met with thunderous applause,” he added.
VoB’s songs, he writes, are successful in conveying their themes despite being sung in Sundanese to an English-speaking audience.
“This band is passionate about the causes they speak about in their music, and while there is obviously a language barrier, their pro-environment, anti-war sentiments seem to come across even more strongly because of the unique perspective they bring.”
Another reviewer from kerrang.com described VoB at Glastonbury as “They’re dominating and fierce, but also a joy to watch.”
A critic from The Guardian said the band’s “good old-school metal influences hide behind their upbeat onstage vibe”, noting that the band’s members effortlessly delivered “piercing growls, clean-cut, soaring pop-metal melodies” and “frenetic slap-bass riffs”.
This will come as a surprise to few hardcore metal fans.
VoB was eventually invited to perform at the Wacken Open Air Heavy Metal Festival in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany two years ago.
The annual music festival is one of the biggest metal events in the world, and in 2022 VoB’s performer roster will include big-name metal artists such as Judas Priest, Powerwolf and Slipknot.
When VoB first came together as students at Galt in 2014, they didn’t initially set out to play heavy metal.
Their musical journey began with covers of pop songs, but a chance encounter with the music of Armenian-American heavy metal band System of a Down on a teacher’s laptop took their breath away.
“Down System [song] “Toxicity” surprised us. The drums were so complicated. [just] I had to learn that,” Siti told Benarnews.
“Then we started to get into heavy metal.”
According to news reports, the band members gained national and international attention in 2017 with the wildly popular video for their song “The Enemy Of Earth Is You,” a fierce condemnation of environmental destruction.
The band’s music isn’t just noise, but a platform to speak out about the social and environmental issues that are close to their hearts, the band members said.
Growing up in Galt, they witnessed firsthand the struggles of farmers facing unpredictable weather, dwindling water resources and crop failures.
“Women who are household managers find it difficult to get water for cooking and washing,” Marcia said.
“They also become victims of domestic violence when crop failure means their husbands cannot earn a living. In the end, girls have to sacrifice themselves by marrying young to ease the burden on their parents.”
VoB’s lyrics also confront what the band members see as intolerance and the patriarchal norms of the communities in which they grew up.
Similarly, they criticize Western journalists for focusing on the hijab, they told popular British magazine NME (New Musical Express) in an interview last year. They appeared on the cover of the music magazine in the first week of August 2023.
“God, Let Me Play Music” is an example of such a song that blames both sides.
As they sing in one of their hits, “(Not) Public Property,” “They still talk about appropriate dress, we’re forced to follow the unspoken rules.” [expletive] Rules. And we’re tired of people telling us that’s good.”
VoB’s growth has not been without challenges.
Initially, band members faced resistance from conservative families and neighbors who associated heavy metal with moral decadence, drugs, and promiscuity.
Now, all three young women say their parents are their biggest fans.
Then there were the skeptics.
“Some people say we only attract attention because we’re new,” Marcia says.
“But we practice hard and pour our hearts into the music. We want to be judged on our skills, not just our appearance.”
They wear the hijab because they are comfortable doing so, they say.
“It would be uncomfortable for us to perform somewhere and have people say, ‘Wow, you are all cool women wearing hijabs,’ because it would shift the attention,” Siti said.
“We’re more comfortable being judged on our musicality.”
Their determination to let their music speak for itself has paid off: VoB’s music and ethos have resonated with audiences around the world, garnering them critical acclaim and a growing fanbase.
Social media endorsements from famous musicians, such as Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, have further raised VoB’s profile.
But playing Glastonbury was an unprecedented feat, said Wendy Putranto, a music journalist and former editor of Rolling Stone Indonesia.
“This was a historic moment,” Wendy told BenarNews. “Never before have Indonesian musicians or bands performed at such a legendary festival as Glastonbury.”
While VoB may not yet be a household name in Indonesia, Wendy said she believes performing at Glastonbury will help raise their profile.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets even bigger after this.”
He praised VoB’s talent and determination, noting that the band has honed its heavy metal sound in a remote town with limited resources.
“They reject the idea that metal is only for men or non-religious people,” Wendy said.
“[A]And it challenges preconceived notions about Muslim women and their musical tastes.”
