Inspired: Longtime US crossover band D.R.I. was one of the metal festival’s highlights.With over 20 bands scheduled to perform in only one day, the Hammersonic International Metal Festival in Jakarta on Saturday had no choice but to move fast and hard, like the musical style it champions.

And while during the press conference before D-day somebody commented cheekily about “getting a metal kid to wake up in the morning”, in reference to Hammersonic’s kickoff time of 9:30 a.m., the festival’s punctuality ended up being one of its most praised qualities. 

At around 11 a.m. that day, black-clad metalheads were already sprawling around the Lapangan D Senayan open grounds where the event was held, and some were forming a long line at the ticket redemption booth outside. 

Australian melodic-metalcore band Dawn Heist was performing to a moderate crowd on one stage while the other adjacent stage was getting prepped for local band Human Like Monster, which was next on the line up list. 

The festival maintained this pattern consistently – leaving barely any idle time between bands playing one of the two stages. 

“The aim was to create a metal festival with international standards … because from what I have seen, there is yet to be something that can be called a festival. We already have jazz, rock and R n’ B festivals but not metal,” Ravel from Revision Entertainment, which was behind the festival’s concept and organizing, said. 

The festival, which was dubbed the largest metal festival in Southeast Asia, includes various sub-genres of metal, such as death metal, metal core and grindcore, Ravel said. 

At first, US hardcore band Agnostic Front was also scheduled to perform, but the performance didn’t work out due to flight problems, Coki, the event’s publicist, said. 

While all of the bands had the connecting thread of the metal music style of heavy and hard chords, their performances were more or less varied. 

Local band Noxa, which enjoyed great enthusiasm from the crowd, for example, made their set lively by cracking jokes, asking the singer from Swedish band The Arson Project to join them on stage. Noxa’s singer Tonny even stage-dived and engaged in some brief crowd-surfing. 

Chthonic from Taiwan incorporated traditional folk elements into their music, such as the usage of the bowed string instrument the erhu, while the set of United States’ D.R.I., whose music is influenced by punk rock as well as thrash metal, resulted in a frenzy of human roundabouts and slam-dancing, creating the iconic “circle pit” in front of the stage. 

The clouds of dust rising from the festival grounds due to the stamping feet to some extent did discourage some from joining the party, but even more, at times with bandanas wrapped around their faces, decided to brave the challenge. 

There were very few breaks exceeding approximately ten minutes in between performances, with one being before the set of local band Seringai, which also received plenty of zeal from the crowd. 

The final performers that night were US bands Nile and Suffocation, which were scheduled at 11 p.m. and midnight, respectively. Despite the long day, the crowd still had plenty of energy to enjoy the two. 

According to George Kollias from Nile, they at first were not going to play one particular song due to wanting to respect local culture, but ended up playing it anyway due to fan demand. “The fans always break the rules” he said, smiling. 

Heri, one of the audience members, said he came with seven of his friends from Pontianak, West Kalimantan, to see the bands, especially Suffocation. Arriving in Jakarta two days before the festival, he said he bought the tickets at pre-sale prices from a friend in Yogyakarta. 

Another eventgoer said he and around 100 others rented a bus from Kediri, East Java, to come to the festival. His group comprised those from the Kediri Kingdom Death Metal community and the Kediri Metal Association. 

“The first buyer for Hammersonic tickets was someone from Makassar, Sulawesi. We didn’t anticipate that it would be this big,” the organizing committee said during the press conference. 

Pre-sale tickets for Hammersonic were sold at Rp 100,000 (US$10.80) and Rp 150,000, while on-the-spot tickets were sold at Rp 200,000. According to Ravel, approximately 25,000 came to the event, which he hopes will become an annual one. 

— Photos by JP/Dina Indrasafitri

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