It is fairly well known knowledge that Indonesia has a thriving heavy/extreme metal scene but apart from the odd album or EP popping up here and there we in the rest of the world don't really have much clue about what else is going on down there. Those odd albums, from bands like Shankar and The Ring, do however point to there be a pretty healthy stoner/heavy psych scene happening in Indonesia and the sudden arrival of The Broken Heroes excellent debut "Whoreshiper" would seem to confirm that.
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"Whoreshiper" opens with the instrumental "Exordium" a nicely crafted blend of driving stoner rock riffs and rhythms and off kilter excursions into psychedelic haziness offset with searing guitar pyrotechnics. Vocals enter the fray for next song "Hidden Lies", melodic, clean, heavily filtered and possessing hardly a hint of an accent they sit nicely against the crunching doom tinted heavy rock that serves as their backdrop. "Live In Tomorrow" follows a thrumming proto doom/heavy psych opus with a green message, lyrics like "every step forward we take bring us nowhere but closer to death. is this the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end" may seem slightly cliched but they still manage to hammer home their point. A gnarly bass motif introduces following track "Burn In Hell" then the rest of the band join in on a hazy psychedelic groove that despite its also slightly doomic dynamic boasts a surprisingly gentle and lilting vocal melody. Up next is "Paradise Worshiper" a proto-doomic barnstormer enhanced by some nice shifts in tempo and a brief but effective vocal. "Why" follows and finds The Broken Heroes vocalist reverting to his own native tongue over a backdrop that mixes strident stoner metal with bluesy heavy rock and leads us to final number "Son of Universe" a stunning amalgamation of gentle acoustic and subtle electric guitar noodling taken to another level by a beautifully delivered lilting vocal, it may not be the closing number you were expecting but its a good one nonetheless.
If you are coming to this review having never dipped your toes into the Indonesian underground rock scene then The Broken Heroes excellent debut "Whoreshiper" would be a great place to start your journey from, its muscular riffs, punchy rhythms and lilting clean vocals combine to create a wonderful amalgamation of crunch and haziness that is as good as anything of a similar nature coming out of North America or Europe.
Check it out ....
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