Hailing from Salatiga, Central Jawa, Death Prophecy are yet another band from the everflowing current of slamming brutal death metal bands coming from Indonesia. Armed with the crushing riffs and blastbeats, they bring to our attention an era long gone – Japanese Meijin Restoration.
That itself was a reason enough to get in touch with Aryo to ask a few questions about the band and album. So, brace yourselves, here we go.
Hey, guys, how are you doing? I hope you – and your families – are safe and healthy during the ongoing pandemic…how the situation looks like at the moment in Central Java?
Hello Indokult, some of us are not well, they have the corona virus, but I hope they can get through it.
n Central Java, the cases are quite high, so some places and large-scale activities cannot be carried out because of policies.
Now, let’s start with a more positive vibes, what do you say? So, for those who have no info about Death Prophecy, can you, please, introduce yourselves to our readers? When have you started the band? Have you played (or maybe you’re still playing) also in other bands?
This band was formed in late 2010, I (Aryo) just joined this band in 2011, as I remember, haha! So, due to the personnel changes we have only been able to release demos and album promos for quite a long time, and could finally release the album at the end of 2020 through Gore Sepsis Records.
The band is now driven by Randy (Vocals), Aryo (Guitar), Raka (Guitar), Yoga (Bass) and Fadhil (Drums).
I’m still actively playing with other bands.
The thing which has really caught my interest (apart from the excellent cover from Adi Dechristianize, who was responsible also for the cover of the debut album of Jakarta death metallers Vox Mortis, see review here) was the overall album concept about Japanese Meiji Restoration era. Why such an interest in Japanese history? From your point of view – and here we may enter the realm of amateur historians – do you view Meiji Restoration as a positive or negative thing?
Yes, we are interested in the matter of telling our version through the album, because the slamming band is synonymous with gore and violence, but we try to make it not only present the aggressiveness of music but also a history, basically the story of that era, but we still insert our own imagination ideas.
From my point of view, that’s a positive thing, because after the end of the Tokugawa era, Japan experienced rapid progress after 300 years of closing itself off from the outside.
I will continue the subject from the previous question, if you don’t mind. Meiji Restoration was to modernize the feudal Japan (and, to a very great extent, it has succeeded). Do you see any paralels with the Western influences in your home country, Indonesia?
Honestly, the music we play is adopted from the West too, so I think it’s also part of the western nations’ success in incorporating their culture into all regions of the world, haha.
Indonesia (among other countries during WW2) was occupied by Japanese forces and even after so much time passed many people in those countries can’t forget it. Did you encounter any hostile comments over that interest in above mentioned subject?
No one talks about it. It’s part of history, everyone must have had a crime in the past, let it pass and be a lesson for the future.
All these things have nothing to do with music, we and Japan have a good connection about music, many bands also tour there and vice versa, the relationship is warm and good.
OK, enough of history now :), let’s talk about music. Before releasing your debut album early this (2021) year, you’ve released two promos, one in 2016 and the other in 2019. The songs from these promos have found their way into the debut album. I am quite often seeing it takes quite a lot of time for bands to release their debut album (considering the time of the band’s formation). Is it because of the lack of time to write new songs, or maybe it’s a financial problem (as we all know, studios are not cheap even now)…so, what did take Death Prophecy so long to release the debut album?
As I said in the initial question, we were very hampered because of the change in personnel, making production constrained and late.
In 2018 we just started getting serious about working on the album, at that time our finances were also not stable, but the label’s contribution really helped us for the release of our album.
The album is now available for some time, what reviews and responses from the public and media have you received so far?
There must be pros and cons, but it’s all a matter of taste. We will continue to try and be totally dedicated to music writing and composition.
All bands will definitely go through a musical maturation phase, so we just follow the flow hehe.
The COVID-19 situation has made it almost impossible to promote the album through live performances (and that’s true for many other artists around the world). Have you had a chance to play this album material live yet? If not, are you already planning any live performances?
We’ve already performed it live during the pandemic, before our album was officially released.
It’s not fair for us, because we can’t be do the maximum in promoting this album, we just hope the pandemic will pass soon.
As for new material, are you working on any new songs at the moment?
Yes, we are writing a new single, it’s finished just lacking a vocal pattern. Maybe it will be a leak of our second album later, just wait for the time.
Now, let’s talk a bit about your local scene. I have to admit, Salatiga is not a place with many known bands (at least to me), compared to, say, Bandung or Bekasi (not to mention Jakarta). What can you tell me about your local scene? Any good, promising bands to check? Any local record labels or gig promoters?
There used to be a lot of death metal bands in Salatiga, but many were not active, maybe it was because of the people are busy.
You can check Death Curse, they are working on their debut album, and I think 80% is done.
There is a label here, called Toropconz Records, it has released many releases.
For those interested in your band’s merchandise, what can you offer to those fans of yours and where should they look to get it?
For merchandise, we sell it through our bandcamp and several merch distributors such as Brutal Mind, Ikhtus Merch, Death pressive for the worldwide market, so if you want merch from us, you can contact them or our label now.
And, to close this nice little interview… any final message to our readers?
Thank you for having us! For readers, we hope you are always healthy there, keep supporting your idol bands, buy their physical releases, because with that our scene will always be solid and will never die, thanks to Rudolf and Indokult, MANTAP !!!
Thanks a lot for your time!!!
Death Prophecy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deathprophecyofficial/
Death Prophecy Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/death.prophecy.slamming
Death Prophecy Bandcamp: https://deathprophecy.bandcamp.com/releases
Goresepsis Records IG: https://www.instagram.com/goresepsisrecords/
Goresepsis Records FB: https://www.facebook.com/goresepsisrecords
