Apr 06 2018
Purgatory
The majority of the Muslim world lives in Southeast Asia so a lot of the music has a lot of Muslim influence. But new bands have taken a more Americanized approach to the music scene, like purgatory. Purgatory is a type of Slipknot esque band based in Indonesia and their known as the godfather of the death metal scene in Southeast Asia. They have been around for the last 20 years with their base of operation in Jakarta here they have released a total of 9 studio albums with their best album being M.O.G.S.A.W. (Messenger of God Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam referring to Muhammad) this song puts a new twist to the stagnate Muslim style music witch has allowed them to pave there own path in the music industry. Although they have been around the longest they don’t see a end in site they like to change there style every now and again by bring a DJ in to the line up to mix the death metal with Electro music.
Link to the picture
The founders of this metal group where Hendrie on the bass and vocals, Lutfie on the guitar, Al on the drums and Arief also on the Guitar. There is no date of formation for the band they were just doing it as a passion between there friend group but we do known it was formed around 1991. We also now where the name comes from, it was inspired by the Horror movie A nightmare on Elm Street in the movie there was an arrow that had the word Purgatory written on it and that’s what inspired Lutfie and his little brother Al to make it their bands name. They underwent several legal battles from other bands with the same name, the courts final decision was that it was unclear who had the name first and allowed both to keep the name.
In 2006 this is when they released their third studio album witch ultimately got them famous. It got them a spot on The Art of Metal witch is a completion album with the two major labels being Germany and Indonesia. Purgatory choose to sing about the Muslim faith because of the area that they grow up in Southeast Asia is where the most Muslims live in the world and the ways that they sang allowed people to express there faith in a new way that has never really been done before the music is faster and sometimes has a DJ in to allowing the crowd to have more freedom in what they do during the song. The band was effected by globalization because the band that they based them self’s off was an American metal band and they also copied them with the idea of people in a mask while they are on stage but what they were singing about is completely different slipknot never really touches religion in their songs while Purgatory’s whole image is religion based even down to their name.
Purgatory’s music style was perfect for Indonesia because it was newer and had more freedom to it while the music that is being played in the main land areas like Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar, is still more formal and sticks to the base origins of the music still being played on traditional interments. Purgatory would have never survived on the main land making Indonesia the perfect place for them to call home.
Link to their song: M.O.G.S.A.W
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugu9oxKDIcI
