Iron Lung live @ Rossi Musik, Jakarta, Indonesia (10/03/2011)

So, last month South East Asia were graced by Iron Lung first-ever tour to this region. Drummer Jensen Ward however, mentioned that apparently it wasn't his first time. He had played Thailand a few years ago with his previous band, Artimus Pyle. Massive props for the guys and girls at 7x0x7 for bringing them over and organizing the tour. South East Asia DIY music scenes are infinitely growing, and having international bands touring definitely help keeping the scenes alive and fresh.

Iron Lung is a two-piece act, hailing from Seattle. They play a unique take on powerviolence/grindcore influenced hardcore punk, with start-stop rhythm and soaring feedback. I don't listen to much of these stuff, but Iron Lung manages to keep things interesting. The songs are short and fast and in your face like most stuff in the genre, but they are somehow able to incorporate memorable riffs or drum fills in almost every song. Having only a drummer and a guitar also gives them the freedom to play with unusual song structures and tempos. Other band who is kinda similar in the approach is Agents Of Abhorrence whom they did split and tour with.

Iron Lung first show in Indonesia was to be held at Rossi Musik, Jakarta. It was an exciting night, with Jakarta pulling all the big guns across the spectrum of hardcore/punk/metal (see flyer above). The biggest surprise for me was Wicked Suffer from Jogjakarta whom i had never seen before. They were good, fast, and most importantly, tight. I have no shame in admitting that they put on the second best performance on Jakarta show after Iron Lung.

It was late at night, and the room was packed. People were trying to get a good spot for Iron Lung. I was on the stage, standing about a feet away behind the drum kit. Let me just say that i wished i had brought my earplugs with me that night. The first snare hit Jensen did during their set-up almost made my ears bleed. It was so so so loud. It was just a taste of whats about to come.

Iron Lung played a relatively short-set. It went for about 15-20 minutes. But goddamn it was intense. During song breaks, Jon would let his guitar squealing feedbacks like crazy. There wasn't any moment to catch a breath. Every song hits harder, and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. There were quite a few moshing and stage-diving actions happening during the set which really says it all.


Pictures were taken by Saiful Haq. All credit goes to him.

Here's Iron Lung full set, divided into 5 parts. I missed the very last song they played, which happened after the crowd practically beg them to play more after they finished their set. I was already chillin' outside the room by then. Oh well, enjoy the videos!

Ghaust

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Starting out as a hardcore punk band with metallic influences or as some people like to call “crossover”, Neurosis slowly but surely ditched their initial style for a more experiment sound. Taking cues from bands that doesn’t fit into the standard of “metal” such as Godflesh and Swans, their later sound is heavy, repetitive and yet sparse. There is more focus on the atmosphere being created. Synths, tribal drumming, chants, acoustic guitar passages were all being utilized to achieve a big, thunderous, epic sonic assault.

A band called Isis similarly followed their steps a few years later. Guitarist/songwriter Aaron Turner is also the founder of Hydra Head Records which has produced countless of new generation of bands playing their own twists of extreme music rooted in hardcore punk and metal.

It was only a matter of time before the world took notice. Thanks to the presence of the internet, bands started popping out from different parts of the world. The term “post-metal” and “post-rock” was on people’s lips on internet messageboards and music forums. And before you know it, bands like Russian Circles, Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky got invited to play music festivals all around the world.

I saw Ghaust for the first time in December 2008 and to be honest, it didn’t make much of an impression on me (the fact that their songs are longer than 5 minutes didn’t really help, I have an attention span of a 10-year old). However, with subsequent listens I became more and more absorbed by the music. One day it just clicked with me and I said to myself “this is good!”.

It would be easy to dismiss Ghaust as simply trying to ride the “post-metal” wave since there are only a very few bands playing this sort of music in Indonesia. But if you listen to their music closely, then you’d find that they actually put their own spin and ideas and it’s actually pretty damn excellent.

Consisted of only a guitar and a drum, Ghaust choose to keep things straight-forward, riffs to riffs, one section to another. They don’t rely on huge built-up, subtle chord progressions like Isis did. What makes their music interesting is the fact that they can go from a melodic mid-tempo section, to a fast hardcore-punk inspired bit, to a quiet ambient/post-rock passage in a blink of an eye. The closest I can compare them to would probably be Pelican's early stuff. They share similar guitar tone, although Pelican's is more bass-y and Ghaust’s has more clarity and crisp. They both have that doom but melodic riffs thing going for them. Neither of them have vocals, either.

For a relatively new band (starting in mid 2005, I believe), Ghaust have made a name for themselves. They’ve released a self-titled cd and few splits with Pazahora from Singapore and Aseethe from USA, and Black Waves from Germany. They’ve also just returned from what I heard, a relatively successful Malaysian and Singapore tour along with another local, Kelelawar Malam.

I believe that Ghaust has a potential to improve themselves with each release. Looking at their level of productivity and ambition, a tour to a western country doesn’t seem that far out of reach if they can manage not to break up too soon.

Here are a couple videos from their set at Tribute to Joneh show at Rossi a few weeks ago. It’s a shame that their set was so short. I will say that it’s not the best Ghaust performance I’ve seen. The drummer looks a bit tired and unenthusiastic although the latter is probably just how he looks :D

Enjoy the videos, fellas.

Ghaust - Return Fire



Ghaust - Sleep And Release