Burgerkill in America
For the legendary Indonesian band, their first US tour represents both a new horizon and a return to their underground roots

Concert review and interview: Indonesian Invasion Tour with Burgerkill and Suaka. October 26, 2019 at the Old Miami in Detroit, MI, with Let it Rot, Plague Years, Gator Pit, and Aperture.
Last week, I travelled from Toronto to Detroit to see Burgerkill — who, in my opinion, are one of the foremost heavy bands in the world. In their home country of Indonesia, they regularly perform for crowds numbering in the tens of thousands and it’s not uncommon to see fans with Burgerkill tattoos; in 2014 they headlined Bandung Berisik in their hometown for an audience of 50 000. Globally, they’ve performed at major festivals like Bloodstock, Big Day Out, Soundwave, and Wacken Open Air.
In Detroit, they played at a midtown dive bar.
“Whatever-core”: Notes from the Indonesian Underground
The Indonesian extreme music scene — including death metal, grindcore, hardcore, black metal, and any other sub- and sub-subgenres you can think of — is easily one of the biggest in the world, with celebrated groups like DeadSqaud, Jasad, Siksakubur, Asphyxiate, Noxa, Beside, Killharmonic, Forgotten, and Bleeding Corpse, along with hundreds of younger bands across the archipelago. Still, even with ever-increasing globalization, the scene — and its most popular band, Burgerkill — remain almost entirely unknown in North America (glowing reviews from Metal Hammer notwithstanding).
Burgerkill started in the mid 1990s as a hardcore band in Ujung Berung, an area of Bandung that at the time was becoming a death metal enclave and continues to be to this day. As the only band of their kind on the scene, they often went to Jakarta to play with hardcore bands like Straight Answer and Antiseptic. Over time, Burgerkill incorporated more extreme metal influences, developing a style that set them apart from any particular subgenre. Even though they’re usually associated with metal, Ebenz says, “We’re still a hardcore band. We’ve just added a bunch of metal elements.” Bassist Ramdan pipes in, “You can call us ‘whatever-core.’” Over the past two and half decades, the band has reached major celebrity status in Indonesia, playing alongside Indonesian pop stars like Endah n’ Rhesa, Kotak, and Naif, all while staying connected with the underground brutal bands of Ujung Berung.
Indonesian Invasion
A handful of Indonesian metal bands have toured Europe — Jasad, Deadsquad, and Viscral—but Burgerkill is the first extreme Indonesian band to travel to America. For Indonesian citizens, even getting tourist visas to the US is no simple task. (I thought about the absurdity of this as I zipped across the border in a matter of minutes with my Canadian passport, lamenting the fact that we live in a world where country of birth plays such a huge part in our mobility, but let’s save the politics for another time.) Burgerkill’s trip to America was made possible in large part by their tour mates Suaka, a NYC-based thrash trio that includes two members who themselves are originally from Indonesia. Suaka’s first contact with Burgerkill dates back to early 2000s when Suaka guitarist Rully “Roots” Rochmat, who had moved from Bandung to New York, reached out to the band via MySpace. Suaka toured to Indonesia in 2018 and have been trying to bring Burgerkill over since then. It took a full year of dealing with paperwork and red tape to get it sorted out, but, with the help of Rully and his wife, visas and work permits were finally approved. Suaka drummer John Meredith booked the dates and the “Indonesian Invasion Tour” was good to go.
While it’s great for an “unknown” artist like Burgerkill to have locals to tour with, Suaka are themselves an independent, underground band. John’s recent viral video where he set Greta Thunberg’s incendiary UN speech to death metal racked up several million views and led to an interview with Rolling Stone, but this hasn’t translated to much increased notoriety for the band. “There’s a big difference between the internet and IRL,” he tells me with a laugh. All this to say John and Suaka had the contacts to set up the dates, but, as with most DIY tours in North America, each city was different in terms of venue size, expected audience, local bands to play with, and a host of other variables. On tours like these, there are nights you know will be great, nights you know will be slow, and nights where you just cross your fingers and see.
Detroit was a last-minute addition after a show in Columbus was cancelled while the bands were already on the road. Luckily, a promoter was able to accommodate both bands on a local bill that was already booked. (Also, lucky for me, it made for a show close enough that I could take a bus over from Toronto.) Everything came together that night to make for what both bands described as one of the best shows of the tour.
Motor City Metal

When I got into Detroit early Saturday afternoon, it was cold and pissing rain. I wandered around John K. King Books and Third Man Records, passed some time in a coffee shop, and got to the venue soaking wet as the bands loaded in through the front door. The Old Miami, a small, welcoming bar with old posters and kitsch all over the walls, was already becoming overfull with fans, musicians, gear. It was now a six-band bill (For Your Health had to cancel). Merch was spread out on tables by the doorway; around the corner by the pinball machines and old couches, Burgerkill and Suaka were setting up their instruments amidst the bustle.
Before the touring bands got onstage, Detroit showed us out-of-towners that A) they have some killer heavy bands and B) they know how to party. Local acts ripped it up as fans in Halloween costumes headbanged and smashed pumpkins carved with Tr*mp’s face. The vibe was relaxed as the bar continued to fill up. Fans kept drinking as band members all helped each other move their gear on and off the stage and through the crowded room.

After Plague Years delivered a pummeling set of old school death metal, Suaka came on to lighten the mood (in a good way) with some party-friendly thrash. It’s impossible to watch this band without getting a smile on your face. Guitarist-vocalist Rully leads the charge, shredding virtuosic, melodic solos at the edge of the stage, grinning and laughing all the while. Bassist Patrick “QQ” Salomo whips his hair around as John pounds the drums at the back, with hints of his own punk background lending some crossover vibes. They definitely won over new fans that night.
Even in the midst of all these killer bands, Burgerkill were able to almost immediately assert themselves as a next-level act. They set up quietly on the dark stage, and as the lights and their intro soundscape came up, they stood with their backs to the audience, building drama as only seasoned acts can. They started into “Darah Hitam Kebencian,” from their 2006 album Beyond Coma and Despair, with a dramatic opening riff leading into a viscous blasting section during which vocalist Vicky leaned into the audience and screamed, “Come on motherfuckers!” People moved up right away. You could sense the vibe in the room starting to shift; people’s eyes widened with surprise as they realized they were experiencing something special. It’s not every night that you get to watch a world-class band destroy a tiny club.
Vicky paced and leaped back and forth across the front of the stage, while guitarists Ebenz and Agung and bassist Ramdan headbanged almost violently. In the back, drummer Putra shifted between heavy grooves, double time punk beats, and aggressive blasts. The band’s music is at once immediately powerful and totally unique. What hits me first are the melodic death metal elements (plenty of At the Gates), but then there’s Pantera-style thrash grooves, punchy blasting reminiscent of their brutal death brethren in Ujung Berung, proggy fusion-inspired guitar leads that would put John Petrucci to shame, all seamlessly co-existing within a framework of angular, tightly-channelled Converge-style hardcore aggression. Singing songs in both Indonesian and English from their past three albums, they owned the room, playing with the same energy and swagger they have in front of dedicated fans in Indonesia, with an added edge of having something to prove.

Bands Across America
After the show, the five members of Burgerkill, plus two crew members taking care of photography and merch, and the three members of Suaka, pack themselves and all their gear — with shared drums and amplifiers — into two vans. They (very generously) let me join them for another day, crashing on the floor of their hotel room and hitching a ride to Pittsburgh — or rather, Turtle Creek, a suburb just outside the city — for the next show. (But that’s another story for another day.)
The chemistry between all ten people on thetour is clear, and regardless of audience size they bring a travelling party wherever they go. They’re all having a great time between shows, just visiting different cities and meeting new people every day. “New family, new experiences… new food,” Vicky says with a grin. These are things that are always exciting for young musicians, but long-running bands sometimes take for granted.
Standing in an empty parking lot before the show in Turtle Creek, I ask them what it’s like playing for smaller venues than they’re used to. They say that it’s hard for them to play club shows in Indonesia now, and it’s something they miss. As for the smaller crowds, they’re unphased. “We don’t care if we’re playing for ten people or ten thousand people,” Agung says, “as long as they get to hear our music.” Coming from Indonesia to America, they moved from some of the biggest stages in the world to some of the smallest, even playing in the basement halls without no stage at all. And they did it without missing a beat.
With sixteen shows in sixteen days, this is actually Burgerkill’s longest tour (I can hear some touring musicians groaning with envy, as sixteen days is more like the minimum tour length around the U.S. or Canada), and like any true DIY tour, they share driving, eat in the van, and sleep in motels and on friend’s floors. “This is a return to our roots, where we started,” Ebenz says. Just as they still feel like hardcore band even as their music evolves, they still feel like an underground band as their audiences grow. “We’re still doing the same things, just in different places.” To that, Vicky adds, “We still have the same spirit.”

Burgerkill’s latest album, Adamantine, is available for download from Bandcamp or CD Baby. It’s also available on CD and vinyl if you’re willing to hunt on Discogs or in Indonesian record stores.
See more pictures from the author on instagram.
See good pictures from the band photographers on Burgerkill’s official instagram account.

