In less than one week, Indonesia will be rocked by three Thrash Metal legends, two bands from the United States and one from Brazil. They are Testament, Sepultura and Overkill. Rajawali Indonesia will present Overkill and Sepultura on 30 September in Yogyakarta, while Testament will be presented by Ravel Entertainment the next day on 1 October in Jakarta.
After bringing Dream Theater twice to Indonesia in just nine months and Deep Purple earlier, Rajawali Indonesia, led by Anas Alimi, will hold the Jogjarockarta festival once again in the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on 30 September 2023 at Kridosono Stadium.
Jogjarockarta, on 30 September, will feature six Metal bands. Joining Overkill and Sepultura are four other bands from Indonesia, including Slank, Indonesia’s biggest rock band, which will turn 40 this December. The Slank lineup features two former Slank personnel from the classic Formation 13 era. Then there is the big Indonesian rock band BIP, which is a splinter of three Slank personnel, Bonky, Indra and Pay.
Delusive Purity is led by Sofyan Hadi, the host from the city of Yogyakarta, who will pay tribute to Rotor, the legendary Indonesian Metal band. Lastly is Iron Voltage, a cool young band from the city of Bandung that supports old-school Thrash Metal and released their debut album, Devastation, in 2022.
For Sepultura, this is their third visit to Indonesia and their first since 2012. They first visited 31 years ago in 1992 with a classic formation when the Cavalera brothers were still in the band. Meanwhile, Overkill join for their first visit to Indonesia after failing to appear at the Hammersonic Festival Jakarta in 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak cancellation.
Overkill is a long wait for Indonesian Metalheads, one of the classic American Thrash Metal bands that many Indonesian fans idolize and are eagerly awaiting. This is the sixth Jogjarockarta since 2017.
Meanwhile, Testament will play Indonesia for the second time. Their first visit was in 2014 in Kutai Kartanegara in Kalimantan at the Kukar Rockin’ Fest event. Testament plays on the continuation of the Hammersonic Festival, and a Hammersonic After Party will be presented by Ravel Entertainment, which will be held at the Beach City Function Hall Ancol, Jakarta, on 1 October 2023.
Like Overkill, Testament should have been another one of the headliners of the 2020 Hammersonic Festival, which was cancelled due to Covid-19.
Metal is popular in Indonesia. To have an idea of the lengths fans will go to attend concerts, MetalTalk spoke with two Dream Theater fans who attended the concert hosted by Rajawali Indonesia on 12 May 2023. The two fans are Benny Nugroho, a technocrat and Sapto, a ship rental entrepreneur. These two Dream Theater fans, who don’t know each other, travelled thousands of kilometres to see their favourite band. 
Benny started a land journey by car from the city of Sangatta to Samarinda, a distance of 160 km. Then, he continued his journey by plane to Jakarta, a distance of 1,307 km. Meanwhile, Sapto flew from the city of Kendari to Surabaya, a distance of 1,141 km. From Surabaya, Sapto continued his journey by train to Jakarta, a distance of 759 km. However, the long and tiring journey paid off handsomely when they watched Dream Theater, and both of them were able to meet the band.
So, by the end of the month, three Thrash Metal legends will rock two cities on the island of Java, Indonesia, which are around 500 km away from each other in two days, 20 hours apart. Due to the distance between the cities, many Metalheads choose to attend only one event, but many eager Metalheads attend both events.
