Siksakubur began musical creation in late 90s and released debut album
The Carnage in 2001. Among five studio albums in a decade, probably
Eye Cry is the first stuff that you should consider a listen.
Eye Cry is the first album with Andre Tiranda as guitar player replacing Ade Godel who quitted the band for his daily full time job. This album could be somekind of omen for Siksakubur. It has gotten major attention from metal scenes across Indonesian archipelago.
Eye Cry also marked Siksakubur as one of the most potential band in South East Asia death scene. Within 10 tracks and 39 minutes of music, in my general point of a view, I could say
Eye Cry is adequately fast and brutal with some melodic elements. Just like two previous albums, Andyan Gorust's drumming style still becomes band's trademark. Gorust is renowned with his strong principle; minimizing drums track edit (for recording process) and trying hard to stay away from using drum's technology which's capable enough to slave any drummer under its strong temptation spell.
Alongside with Andre Tiranda, Andyan Gorust is one of Siksakubur protagonist. Gorust's awesome drumming style; thrashing and alternating downbeat and upbeat blast tempo, make Siksakubur worth enough a listen. You can hear Andyan Gorust's awesome drumming in whole track. However, tracks such as
I Am The Worst and
Pasukan Jiwa Terbelakang are the best examples if you want to know Andre Tiranda's musical touch in his first credit for Siksakubur. Vocally, Japra has nothing special, but he fitted death metal genre. If you're a fan of death metal and acknowledge the taste, then you could imagine Japra's vocals if I said he has middle growl and guttural vocals, sometimes with low polished growling style. Beside that all, Siksakubur also threw some backing clean vocal to the songs -
Renounce Me and
180898 are good examples. Then what about guitar bass part? I have to be honest, I couldn't find something special yet unless as the real important complement of instrument. Can you imagine a metal band without bass player (or sound)? Hell no! That's it man, you'd know what I mean. Lyrically, Siksakubur used both English and Indonesian
Bahasa. In lyrical themes, I guess they still tell about social problems. Anyway, I brave myself to confess; I didn't pay much attention to lyrical themes. When I was writing this review, I still have no idea what words exactly Japra sings about. I couldn't hear his articulation well. Yeah man, if you search words of wisdom you could go to Nietzsche's
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but if you insist to understand the lyrics, just go googling. Simple, isn't it?
If we compare
Eye Cry to predecessor albums,
The Carnage (2001) and
Back to Vengeance (2002), I have to say
Eye Cry is slightly better in recording quality. However Siksakubur two following albums
Podium (2007) and
Tentara Merah Darah (2010), are better in recording sound quality, and both albums have vast melodic element beside their somewhat progressive part. Although
Eye Cry is adequately superior to its predecessors, but in art cover part,
Eye Cry is the worst and ugliest among other Siksakubur art covers. This opinion, at least came in my personal first impression looking at
Eye Cry's art cover. Whoa, man! It's very awful art cover of death metal album that I’ve ever seen. The cover is seemingly designed by an amateur one. However, just remember! The Wiseman always says; don't judge a book from the cover. Yeah man, whatever! For the final words, I would always say; this is a superb release. You have only two choices here; considering this album as superb stuff based on my words about it, or you could consider proving me wrong and preparing the words to opposite my opinion.
**
Trivia note:
- Siksakubur = literally means
torture of the grave
- Destitusi Menuju Mati =
destitution goes in directly to the death
- Dunia Menjerat =
world's tricky
- Pasukan Jiwa Terbelakang =
the troop with mentally disorder
- Terlahir Sampah =
born scum
- Parade Luka =
the wound parade
- Tentara Merah Darah =
red blood army
