I'm a fan of Power Metal, in most forms, and I can honestly say that when I think of this genre, Indonesia is not a country that immediately comes to mind (that's probably the first time I've ever used the words "Indonesia" and "Power Metal" in the same sentence). It would rank somewhere near the bottom of my list of countries to research while looking for power metal bands, somewhere between Haiti and China. (Nothing against Haiti and China, but come on, how many Power Metal bands can you name from these countries?) I've been to Indonesia many times and know my way around pretty well, but have never seen anything that would indicate that this great country had a huge presence of power metal. So when I received the two-disc compilation album, "Indonesian Power Metal" to review, needless to say, I was very interested to see what this country had to offer. After a full listen, I found it to be, not great, but surprisingly, pretty good.

I'm sure there are some die-hard fans of Power Metal that will absolutely love this record, but for me, it was just middle of the road. Don't get me wrong; there are some really good tracks and some extremely talented bands on this extensive collection, but there were also some that didn't really do it for me. There were just not enough good ones, to outweigh the bad ones, for me to play the entire compilation repeatedly (I have since purchased some of the band's music individually and really enjoy it). But if you prefer to have a full working knowledge of the Power Metal genre, I would highly recommend you take "Indonesian Power Metal" for a test drive. There are the usual ingredients that are present in most Power Metal bands; fast fingered guitars, extremely high-octave vocals, and loads of symphonic overtones. A few of the notable bands are the female fronted AMYTESIA ("Message of Eternity"), UMBRA MORTIS ("7^th Dimension of Upheaval"), LORD SYMPHONY ("Devil's Emotion"), and my favorite of them all, DEVAROCK ("Sacred Journey"). Most of the tracks are raw and the production is not that great, almost to the point that you need to change your EQ settings for each song. But that's probably just a lack of resources, and not a lack of talent. If an Indonesian Power Metal "Super-Group" were ever formed, they would probably become a worldwide household name, within this genre.

With 19 tracks from Indonesian's finest, the die-hard Power Metal fanatic will probably find "Indonesian Power Metal" a great find and would gladly add it to their collection. Check it out.
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