Summon: How did the band get started?
Boon: The band started in late 2009 with Abu (Former rhythm guitarist) and Ashok (current lead guitar) who wanted to form a metal band inspired by all the legendary black and death metal bands. They approach me one day and asked if I would like to be their vocalist, and what with my interest in black and death metal, I agreed instantly. Soon, we are joined by Alias (current bassist) and Azmer (current drummer) and thus, the line up was complete by 2010.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Boon: At the moment, we are heavily influenced by thrash metal and death metal. While at the same time we are incorporating elements of our country’s traditional culture into the sound. Thus it can be called Nusantara Death Thrash. We will however keep evolving and experimenting, but we will always keep the death and thrash part.
Summon: How has the fan response been?
Boon: The response from our own country and neighbor country has been great. They seemed to enjoy the traditional sound incorporated with Death Thrash. It may not be huge, but It’s a good start considering we are still pretty new to the Death metal scene in our country.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Boon: There were a lot of suggestions going around when it came to the time to pick the name, but out of the blue, one night after jamming, Ashok suggested we call our band “Malapetaka” The word Mala-pe-ta-ka, literally means disaster. Its origin, from Sanskrit pronounced as mahā-pātaka, defines it as “the resultant actions of greatly sinful activities”. When we all heard Malapetaka, it sounds just about right. The world is a sick and ugly place and the only cure is destruction, a disaster brought upon themselves by their own sinful actions.
Summon: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Ashok: Lead guitarist
Alias: Bassist
Azmer: Drummer
Boon: Vocalist and lyricist.
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Boon: Ashok is the one who compose the music from scratch. And he will give us all the samples and we will played it out together and decide which goes where. And after all the drums and bass are in. I will put in the lyrics that I wrote.
Summon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Boon: The idea for lyrics came from the sinful action of humanity. From the depths of filth and horrendous acts by mankind, how we interpret life and death, the resultant of a certain action or inaction that may lead to death, war, chaos, and disaster.
Summon: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Boon: Satanism is always a very interesting subject for me. Be it on theistic, atheistic, or even metaphysical level. There are many black metal/blackened death metal bands out there that truly inspires me with their music and their idealism. There is certain uniqueness and aggression unlike any other that they offers. On the other hand, occultism isn’t that much of an fascination to me. I myself am an apatheist. So in a way, supernatural or occultism doesn’t really intrigue me. But no matter what, I respect people that do. As long as they are not doing something that may cause harm or have bad intention towards another living being.
Summon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Boon: Currently we are preparing our debut demo/promo. The artwork for the Cover has been done as well.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Boon: On the upcoming demo/EP. We have 3 songs finalized so far. Purity in Calamity, Malapetaka: it basically projects human’s action in life/politics/war that brings disaster upon themselves. The mindset of raging/fighting against an organization, the pure ignorance and way human are contributing to the corruption and destruction of the world by taking it to the extreme without finding out the truth. Man-made prophecy : This song is about the man of power, be it a leader of an organization, society, or even political. The way human praise or curse a certain figure of authority. Of the expectations they have upon this figure. And how this figure corrupt and abuse his/her power while the people are praising and in denial. Death Desensitized: This song is however different from the previous 2 songs. In terms of the contents and graphic descriptions. It tells of a sinner who is guilty of committing heinous crimes. and our existing punishment system is not enough to undo the damage he has caused on the innocence. The animalistic behavior, the horrific inhuman act will be faced with only one solution, Endless torture.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
Boon: Currently none of us are involved with any side projects, but it is considerable if the offer comes.
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Boon: Kreator, Cannibal Corpse, Vader, Napalm Death, Nile, Death, Exodus, Marduk, Deathspell Omega, Slayer, Terrorizer, Dark Funeral, Immolation, Krisiun, Impaled Nazarene, and the list goes on….
Summon: Which current bands?
Boon: Most of the bands that influence us are still playing and kicking it hard.
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Boon: When playing live, we try to get the crowds into our songs, we will head-bang together with the crowds, and just have fun, while keeping the aggression and intensity of our music alive.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Boon: So far, we haven’t had the offer to play in other countries. But if we do get the offer, we’ll gladly take it.
Summon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Boon: We are still a pretty new band, so we’ve only played one show so far. And it’s this kind of huge show that presents over 10 different bands. The number of crowd was pretty good. Even though the place was small, they managed to squeeze in and have a blast!
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Boon: On our debut gig show, it was incredible. The crowd seems to love our music, as soon as we started playing, they went all crazy and headbanging. The experience was totally amazing. The crowd has been very supportive and we really appreciate it and enjoyed playing for them.
Summon: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Boon: One band sums it all up. Death. The legendary forefather of death metal. The uniqueness and the aggression, the idealism and the brutality. Even after Death’s untimely demise, the US Death metal scene never ceased to amaze us. Immolation, Nile, Suffocation, Malevolent Creation, Possessed. Those bands are but few of the living proofs of the mightiness and aggression that US death metal carries.
Summon: What do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Boon: We are very inspired by all the black and death metal bands from all across the globe. It is continuously growing and we are very blessed that we have easy access to more bands nowadays through the internet, where as in the early 90’s, the exposure is very limited.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Boon: To name a few of the great uprising bands, Negator (German) Spawn Of Possession (Sweden) Ancient Ascendant (UK) Hour Of Penance (Italy) Byfrost (Norway) Akral Necrosis (Romania) Averse Sefira (US) Goatwhore (US)
Summon: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Boon: We are composing and writing as we speak.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band??
Boon: We are definitely practicing hard, and promoting our band and looking to play all over our country and even overseas, if given the chance. As long as we are breathing, we will continue to evolve, learn, tour, produce songs, for It is our passion, our lifestyle. Nusantara Death Thrash. Having said that, we are hoping to complete our demo/promo by end of April for local & oversea distribution. So, do follow our progress via our official FB page www.facebook.com/malapetaka.kl or email us at malapetaka.kl@gmail.com for any further info.
Contact them at:
http://www.facebook.com/malapetaka.kl
http://www.reverbnation.com/malapetakaofficial
