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View all search resultsAK//47 Awakening Social Consciousness
Thrashing: Semarang rock band AK//47 plays blistering heavy metal with socially conscious lyrics
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Thrashing: Semarang rock band AK//47 plays blistering heavy metal with socially conscious lyrics.(Courtesy of AK/47/Hanafi Arozaq)
Semarang-based rock band AK//47 has released its second album, Verba Volant, Scripta Manen, a 13-track odyssey of thrashing guitar riffs, animalistic growls and barbarous rhythms.
Rock band AK//47's new record does not exactly break new ground, but relies on punchy, 1990s-grindcore-esque songwriting.
It is the band's first release after a seven-year hiatus, and its second full-length album overall. The record was preceded with a promotional campaign of video and audio teasers distributed online.
As if to prove how strong the record is, it is released as collaboration between two local heavy metal record labels, Vitus Records and Resting Hell Records.
The title is Latin, translating roughly as, 'What is merely said will disappear; what is written remains immortal.'
The album's first single is the resounding social-conscious track 'Ignorant Middle Class', which makes its target of distrust explicit.
Originally formed in 1999, AK//47 is the brainchild of Semarang underground musician Garna Raditya, who also released a record under his own name. On its return, the band now consists of Garna on guitar and vocals, Novelino Adam on bass and vocals and drummer Yogi Ario.
For the band members, the first single represents the album's attempt to awaken some sort of social consciousness among the younger generation, especially those who are fans of rock music.
Through lyrics that speak of social injustice and reference a host of political-minded literature, AK//47 hopes to encourage knowledge seeking.
'Maybe this is an archaic topic, and we aren't exactly literary experts. But a movement of literary awareness can awake huge energy to fight against ignorance,' says Garna before adding, 'For us, the barricades are made of knowledge, so that you won't continue to be fooled.'
This theme of literary consciousness, says Garna, also entails trying to keep a record of one's social surroundings.
'Something that can be done through the medium of photography, text, fine arts or any other discipline allows things to remain alive and unforgotten,' explains Yogi.
'Those archives are significant, especially for our friends from the generation that comes after ours. One day, we will be able to map the eras and think of the future.'
Verba Volant, Scripta Manen also offers guest spots to fellow rock musicians, including Rudy Murdock from Radical Corps, Debronzes from Syndrome and Rudi Harjianto, otherwise known as Giant, from SiksaKubur.
'When we offered Giant the opportunity to lend his vocals to our track 'Punguti Aksara' [Pick Up the Script], it was an immediate match. He only took an hour to record his parts,' recalls Novelino, adding jokingly that Giant was paid in grilled pork.
The song itself is no joke, however. 'Punguti Aksara' furthers the theme of retaining tradition and history through literature. In it, Garna sings: 'Write a greeting/Keep ahold of it/Pick up the script/Turn it into history'.
Elsewhere, on 'Merawat Ingatan' (Tending to Memories), Garna pays tribute to human rights activists who lost their lives fighting for a cause.
'Makan Semen' (Eating Cement) meanwhile, speaks of the people who live around the Kendeng Utara mountain region, whose lives were turned upside down when corporations began forcefully evicting them to make space for commercial projects there.
AK//47's return was spearheaded by a friend who was organizing a heavy metal-centric show and cajoled the band into returning to the stage.
'Before we made our return, we rehearsed plenty and learned how to sustain our stamina on stage,' Garna says. 'We don't have any expectations of our return other than to have fun and explode with energy up there.'
