When the members of all-female Indonesian metal trio Voice of Baceprot finished middle school in their teens, they were at a crossroads. Their parents wanted them to fall in line: the pressure was on to enter an arranged marriage and live traditional lives. “It was really hard to just say no to our parents when they told us to get married,” the band’s singer/guitarist Marsya (full name Firda Marsya Kurnia) remembers today. “But we are happy because of music. It lets us be the real versions of ourselves. Heavy metal gave us the courage to say: ‘No! I will play metal until I can’t any more!’”
Almost a decade later, that’s become the greatest decision of their lives: Voice of Baceprot (pronounced “bah-che-prot”) are one of metal’s biggest buzz bands. Although their debut album Retas doesn’t drop until July, they’ve already accrued viral fame, performances on national TV and slots at major metal festivals since forming as schoolgirls in 2014. Singles like God Allow Me (Please) to Play Music indulge 90s alt-metal nostalgia with their sturdy riffing and obviously Rage Against the Machine-inspired funk bass; Marsya’s lyrics about feminism, sexual assault and climate change give the songs an acute social conscience. Their success has won their parents over, and RATM guitarist Tom Morello is an outspoken fan, as he once told the band on a Zoom call. “He was great!” Marsya beams. “He was very, very humble and we talked like we were friends.”
