NEW BLEEDING CORPSE INTERVIEW: Our interview with Uus and Gina (Bandung Death Metal), 13/5/2018.

Our fifth interview with Bleeding Corpse (Uus and Gina) (Bandung Death Metal)

Date: 13 May 2018.

At: Butche’s house in Cicaheum

Translation by: Popo Puji (vocalist, Demons Damn)

BLEEDING CORPSE is: Andri Gila - vocals

Uus Death - guitar

Adrian Luk Luk - bass

Gielang - drums

Kieran James: What happened? Why did drummer Ari Bejo leave the band?

Uus (guitarist): We felt that it was the right time to change the drummer. Uus and Luk Luk [bassist] wanted to change. Ari’s skill had dropped because we did not play often. We decided to change drummer to a new, young guy.

KJ: Tell us about the new drummer…

Uus: His name is Gielang; from Hypochondriac (Cimahi band).

KJ: How many shows did Bleeding Corpse play recently?

Uus: One show; the first show with the new drummer was the Turbidity Tenth Anniversary show.

Daniel Turbidity: 16^th February 2018.

KJ: Butche says that Death Metal is dying now in Bandung; what do you think?

Uus [laughs]: Death Metal must be reborn.

KJ: There has been no death fest for six years.

Uus: The important thing is that we should make a new death fest concept.

Popo Demons Damn: The last time was Bandung Death Fest 2012.

Daniel, Behom, Ari, Luk Luk, Uus 2013

KJ: Have you got any plan for a new album?

Uus: We plan for an EP soon. We still are working on the EP; we don’t know when we will release it.

KJ: Are there any songs ready?

Uus: Yes, but not ready to launch.

KJ: Any song titles?

Uus: Not yet,

KJ: Why did Behom [vocalist] leave the band?

Uus: He is busy.

KJ: More information…

Uus: That is all. The same comment applies to Ari as he must concentrate on his family.

KJ: Did Ari stay with Injected Sufferage?

Uus: I don’t know about that.

KJ: Do you plan to reissue the first or second album?

Uus: Someone contacted Groupies record label about reissuing the second album. He contacted Atik. I don’t know what happened because the record label would take care of that. So I assume it did not happen.

KJ: I remember that Corey Athos liked the band.

KJ: Do you think the young metalheads in Bandung know about Bleeding Corpse?

Uus: They still know.

KJ: Have you got any plan for tour?

Uus: For now we focus on making new material for the EP. After we finish we can tour. We will need to promote the EP through touring.

KJ: How many tracks do you plan for the EP?

Uus: Six.

KJ: Are they all new songs or do you plan to re-record any old songs?

Uus: Five new songs plus one old song. The song will be from the first album: “Simpuh Tubuh Terbunuh”.

KJ: Tell us about the new vocalist.

Uus: The new vocalist is Andri Gila from Turbidity; he is crazy.

KJ: Why do you choose that song to re-record?

Uus: It’s a good song.

KJ: Do you want to do it differently or improve it?

Uus: It will be different from on the first album. If you want to know how the song is different just wait for the EP.

KJ: Is it with Groupies Merch or other label?

Uus: For now we have still not chosen the record label.

KJ: Will it be definitely released this year 2018?

Gina (Uus’s wife): If God wills.

Uus: As soon as possible.

K

Uus and Glenn

J: How do you know your wife Gina, because last time we met in July 2016 you were looking for girlfriend?

Gina: We know each other from social media. We contract through Facebook and make a serious relationship via Facebook. Facebook makes everyone closer!

KJ: Is Uus happy with his married life now?

Uus: Yes.

KJ: Does his wife give him freedom?

Gina: All the time he goes out. I can’t go anywhere alone; I am from Medan, I don’t know much about the streets in Bandung.

KJ: Is Gina a fan of Bleeding Corpse?

Popo: Did she know about Bleeding Corpse?

Gina: Yes, I know; I know that they are a big Brutal Death Metal band from Bandung and great band and legendary band like Jasad.

Uus: Gina is from the punk community in Medan. Originally Gina just liked Bleeding Corpse but she did not know so much about Bleeding Corpse.

Gina: I did not like Uus just because he is from Bleeding Corpse; it is just destiny and fate to meet by Facebook.

KJ: Uus is a very funny and humble guy; do you agree?

Gina: Ya, I agree, and cute…cute grin; easy to smile!

KJ: He does not have the Rock Star Syndrome!

KJ: What are your favourite young brutal bands from Bandung?

Uus: Interfectorment and Fedora. I don’t know much about the new bands; I only know those two bands because the members are close to me.

Popo: I think the new bands must learn how to promote the bands. They need to know how to make people know about their band. Even me I don’t know much about the new young bands.  They may be good but they don’t have good promotion. People don’t know which the killer bands like the older ones are. They may use social media only for chatting and making friends and relationships. They don’t use social media very often for promoting their bands; they don’t ask the older people for advice; they don’t get involved in discussion; they just want to play gigs; they don’t think about how to promote their bands; they don’t know people’s level of knowledge about their bands.

KJ: Any message for the fans of Bleeding Corpse?

Uus (he asks his wife before answering): Stay grind.

Gina: Stay clean.

****THE END****

NEWS: Selamat / Happy Wedding Uus Death (Bleeding Corpse) and Gina, Bandung, 21/1/2018.

NEWS: Congratulation / Happy Wedding Uus Death (Bleeding Corpse / Death Womb Existence guitarist) and Gina, Bandung, 21 January 2018. 

Sakinah, Mawaddah, Warahmah.

Left to right: Kieran James, with Uus Death, Teguh Prasetyo, Ari Bejo, and Yadi Behom @ SERAK store, Jalan Cihampelas, Bandung, July 2016.

BLEEDING CORPSE Resurrection of Murder line-up. Left to right: Adrian Luk Luk (bass), Ari Bejo (drums), Uus Death (guitar), and Bob Rockiller (vocals) @ Cibinong, 8 October 2011.

Left to right: Glennder Bloodgusher, Uus Death, and Kieran James @ East Bandung, 9 October 2011.

METAL HISTORY: BLEEDING CORPSE (Bandung DM) live @ Cibinong, West Java, 8 October 2011

BLEEDING CORPSE Resurrection of Murder line-up. Left to Right: Adrian Luk Luk (bass), Ari Bejo (drums), Uus Death (guitar), and Bob Rockiller (vocals) @ Cibinong, 8 October 2011.

BLEEDING CORPSE concert review – Live in Cibinong, 8 October 2011

By Kieran James, 13 March 2012

With it now dark outside and the time past 7.00pm we headed back to the BLEEDING CORPSE tour bus in order to return from the Event Organizer’s house to the concert venue. As expected the bus driver now seemed to realize the impossible task that now confronted him and darkness made it far worse. He realized he could not reverse uphill all the way up the narrow road (around 100 metres to the main road) so he painstakingly reversed out from under the tree and then headed along the road in forward direction, away from the way we had come in. However, eventually he would have to turn around to come back unless the roads ahead were linked up somehow with those behind. There are no street lights on minor roads such as this one and so the driver was going to be confronted with a difficult task. He decided to reverse within a small T-junction which had buildings close in around it on all sides as well as trees and passers-by. It took an eternity to turn the bus around, and small movements in each direction were all halted abruptly by people inside and outside the bus shouting “hoy!” At one point I had given up hope that we would ever get out but, in Indonesia, generally things work out fine in the end especially when a major metal band is due to headline a nearby show!

The tour bus leaves Bandung 5am

The main street was much more crowded than it had been earlier in the day and much of the traffic heading in our direction was clearly made up of metalheads on motorcycles heading for the show. We made slow progress in the traffic but we eventually reached the venue. At the interview members of BLEEDING CORPSE had said that they wanted me to see how crazy their fans were. I would soon find out. We parked at the back of the compound which was then full of expectant metalheads and hundreds of parked motorcycles. The band went upstairs and walked through the crowd to the backstage area. I was invited to go with them but I decided it was time for the band to be preparing alone.

Popo (vocalist of DEMONS DAMN) and I stood at the back of the crowd next to someone connected to the organization of the show or who was high up in the metal hierarchy in Cibinong. We watched the last three of the support acts. All bands on the bill were death-metal and only BLEEDING CORPSE were from outside the city. There was a blackened thrash band and a band with female vocals. The aggression, speed, and enthusiasm of the music were exactly what the crowd wanted. Popo later estimated the crowd at around 500 inside the building and another 500 outside. Given that this was a death-metal only event in a provincial city, the size of the crowd will give a clear indication of the rising popularity of the death-metal sub-genre in Indonesia. As expected from a death-metal show, as opposed to just a metal show or just a rock show, the entire crowd wore the black death-metal tee-shirts. The vast majority of the crowd were teenagers. Some looked very young, from the westerner’s perspective, but were probably of junior high-school age. As some of the Bandung metalheads pointed out in interviews, death-metal is a trend, in certain circles and up to a certain point, in Bandung to the extent that many high-schoolers are in bands while primary-school children know what death-metal is (see my interview with Glenn of BLOODGUSH, Bandung, 10 October 2011). Glenn of BLOODGUSH says:

“Bandung death-metal is the biggest death-metal scene in Indonesia ... and in the world [laughs]. Now in Bandung the kids in junior high play death-metal and in primary school the kids will know about death-metal. It is most people [who] like death-metal here in Bandung; it’s bigger than in the other cities. Bandung has a slogan ‘Flower City’; we can change it to ‘Bandung Death Metal City’”.

This night in Cibinong girls made up around 5% or 10% of the crowd which is more than might be expected at a western death-metal show. Some of them clearly attended in small groups of girls rather than following a boyfriend as is the standard practice in the west. The girls seem to go because they enjoy the moshpit slamming and dancing. At the BLEEDING CORPSE show I managed to edge my way to close to the stage and took pictures whilst around one point five to two metres from the stage. The moshpit area at front and centre of stage stops and breaks up at the end of songs, allowing people to retreat away to the cooler areas near the open windows and other people to go forward to take their place. As such it is possible to edge closer and closer to the stage. The moshpit is made up of a circle pit and people frantically headbanging at the edges of the pit. All of these, apart from me of course, were very young fans. A practice which the Yogyakarta metalheads say is unique to Bandung is groups of young people standing in a semi-circle and raising their bodies up and down in unison; at the top of the cycle they raise their arms and wiggle the fingers like a primary-school child doing the stereotypical impression of a ghost or like someone manipulating hand puppets.

The announcer verbally baited and cajoled the crowd. He was speaking in either Indonesian or Sundanese but I did hear the frequent mention of the band name “BLEEDING CORPSE” so clearly he was aiming to excite the crowd further before BLEEDING CORPSE started playing. The room was around 80-90% at capacity so that in the front half people were quite close together while, in the back half, there was room to stand feet apart with arms folded and even to sit down between bands. With such a large number of people outside I was hoping the organizers were monitoring how many people were inside the hall at any one time as we did not want a repeat of the BESIDE show in Bandung where seven people were crushed to death. The people at the front were clearly the fanatical BLEEDING CORPSE contingent.

BLEEDING CORPSE @ Cibinong, Bobby (v), Luk (b), Uus (g), Ari (d).

For those who do not know Bobby Rock personally, he is a tall, gentle, charming, and peaceable Javanese man (considered an ethnic minority in Bandung) who has recently married the local Sundanese beauty and metal queen Popo. Bobby is gentle off-stage but a ball of aggression and energy on-stage. The BLEEDING CORPSE guitarists attract little attention and Bobby dominates people’s focus with his long hair, bare chest, and forearm spikes. BLEEDING CORPSE plays brutal and fast death-metal of the traditional type which is guaranteed to please a death-metal crowd. However, in all honesty, the songs all begin to sound the same with minimal variation in the vocals. I personally prefer the two faster songs at the end of BLEEDING CORPSE’s debut album Resurrection of Murder where Amenk of DISINFECTED and Man of JASAD do guest vocals on one song each. Popo later told me that the set included a mix of songs from the debut album and from the as yet unreleased second album. The headbanging was frantic and Bobby did a carefully managed stage dive. There is clearly personal rapport and mutual appreciation between Bobby and his fans which clearly extends geographically to Cibinong, three hours out of Bandung. The BLEEDING CORPSE show was a relentless wave of fury and energy, finished with an encore where the band began by standing with their backs to the audience. Bobby’s height is important for BLEEDING CORPSE’s visual image and it allows him to project his energy and will over a greater distance. It appeared to be an easy show for the band to the extent that the fans upfront were all clearly BLEEDING CORPSE devotees and Bobby did not have to win them over to his side during the course of the set as, for example, DEATH VOMIT had to do during that band’s Australian shows. Bobby is a classic front man who reminds me of the best front men from traditional 1980s metal where the front man’s personality, charisma, and showmanship were vital to the band’s whole sound and stage-show. Obvious examples are Udo Dirkschneider from ACCEPT; the late Ronnie James Dio from BLACK SABBATH, DIO, and RAINBOW; Bruce Dickinson from IRON MAIDEN; Rob Halford from JUDAS PRIEST; Biff Byford from SAXON; Klaus Mein from SCORPIONS; and the incomparable and brilliant Dee Snider from TWISTED SISTER. In more recent years I think of Justin Fleming from the Melbourne, Australia power-metal band PEGAZUS. It is impossible to imagine BLEEDING CORPSE without Bobby Rock.

One interesting point to note is that both shows I witnessed this weekend had security teams of ten or twelve people who stood on the stage looking out towards the crowd. They unobtrusively policed the crowds and stopped the crowds from moving on to the stage. They looked serious all the time and did not headbang or join in at all with the music. This alone demonstrates to attendees their official status. However, they wore black metal tee-shirts (plain shirts, not band shirts) rather than security guard uniforms and this was obviously a factor which made them less offensive and irritating to the two crowds. They appeared as “one of us” or as self-policers of the metal scene from within it rather than as outside labourers hired by a faceless corporation.

At the end of the set, I rejoined Popo who had remained standing with friends in the middle section of the crowd. We headed down the stairs and out to a quieter area to the right of the stairs and away from the front gates of the compound. Soon after Bobby joined us and his transformation from Superman back to mild-mannered Clarke Kent was as complete as it was astonishing. He was now the same gentle, soft-spoken, and charming man as before he had gone on to the stage. Daniel of TURBIDITY was with us none of the young concertgoers even recognized who Bobby and Daniel were or even looked in our direction. We waited a long time until Bobby had completely calmed down from the adrenaline high of being onstage. As we waited, much of the crowd dispersed into the night, tee-shirted slim youngsters on motorcycles heading, satisfied and happy, back to the roads, homes, and cafes out of which they had come a few hours before. This night BLEEDING CORPSE ruled in Cibinong!

[This review is published in my book called Struggle Anger Hate in the Indonesian Underground by Jack Frost which you can buy from Sofyan Hadi in Jogjakarta.]

BLEEDING CORPSE tour bus leaves Bandung for Cibinong 5am              

Roadside stop on the way leaving Bandung as the sun rises, 6.30am

Roadside stop on the way leaving Bandung as the sun rises, 6.30am. (That is Daniel Turbidity on the right side.)

BLEEDING CORPSE vokalis Bob Rockiller stops for food @ 8am

Soundcheck @ Cibinong, 11am - 12 noon

At Event Organiser's house before going to the venue, 6pm

BLEEDING CORPSE tour bus stops for KFC on the way back to Bandung after the show, 3am.

CD REVIEW: BLEEDING CORPSE (Bandung) - "Condemned to Suffer" CD (2014), by Andrew Sick

BLEEDING CORPSE 2016 Condemned to Suffer line-up: Left to Right: Adrian Luk Luk (bass), Ari Bejo (drums), Yadi Behom (vox), and Uus Death (guitar).

Bleeding Corpse (Bandung) - Condemned to Suffer CD (Groupies Merch)

The human slaughterhouse named Bleeding Corpse is f***ing back to spread their butchery with their highly anticipated second shitty act of dismemberment entitled "Condemned to Suffer" after six years without perpetrating any global f***ing massacre! It was really f***ing hard to imagine a more destructive killing as the 2008 debut album, but these insane killers have managed to create a complete f***ing crazy danse macabre with this f***ing puddle of bloody f***ing puke surpassing their first presence in the gore shitty brutality! The workers at this gory slaughterhouse are Yadi Behom on Vocals, Uus Death on Guitars, Adrian on Bass, Ari Bejo on Drums and the butchers are performing a f***ing Sick Brutal Death F***ing Metal totally genius, f***ing raw, dirty and f***ing true to the genre! All murderers of this f***ing shit are perfect, Behom has a f***ing awesome and enjoyable guttural, Uus is only doing great and catchy f***ing riffs in each f***ing songs, big f***ing job of Adrian on Bass with many great shitty parts and finally Ari on drums who is totally f***ing brutal and f***ing sick as f*** with a flawless drumming! The production of "Condemned to Suffer" is brutally f***ing outstanding, damn successful mixing, and sound of a surprising quality, f***ing heavy, disgusting, f***ing nasty and generally good making this f***ing shit sounds like some sickos chopping meat from some sluts while beating their bloody shitty ass with their own f***ing guts! 29 f***ing minutes of non-stop brutality, eight perfect shitty tracks that contain all the elements necessary to create a brutal f***ing disk with only good f***ing songs and making their blasterpiece a f***ing addictive shit! Bleeding Corpse are offering a release which is completely f***ing successful with no boring times, only true shitty brutality in its purest f***ing form and just be prepared for one of the best brutal pieces of extreme metal! "Condemned to Suffer" is a f***ing must for every Brutal Death Metaller in the soul and you're better to kill yourself than to not buy this f***ing shit! F***ing Cult Shitty Brutal Gory Blasterpiece! 10/10. [This review was first published by Andrew Sick of Sick Reviews and is used here with his kind permission.]

BLEEDING CORPSE 2014-16 Condemned to Suffer line-up: Left to Right: Behom (vox), Uus (g), Luk (b), Ari Bejo (d).

BLEEDING CORPSE Resurrection of Murder line-up: Bob Rockiller (v), Uus (g), Luk (b), Ari Bejo (d) @ Chinook's Bar, January 2014.

BLEEDING CORPSE Resurrection of Murder line-up: Bob Rockiller (v), Ari Bejo (d), Uus (g) @ Chinook's Bar, Bandung, January 2014.

BLEEDING CORPSE Resurrection of Murder line-up @ Cibinong, 8 October 2011: Luk (b), Ari Bejo (d), Uus (g), Bob Rockiller (v).