Voice Of Baceprot have already taken Indonesian metal somewhere few bands from their homeland have reached.
When Voice Of Baceprot return for Good Things Festival this December, they’re determined not to arrive as the same band Australia saw two years ago.
There’s a peculiar contrast at the heart of Voice Of Baceprot. One minute, the Indonesian metal trio are talking about stepping onto enormous international festival stages, representing an entire heavy music community and trying to carve open a path for the bands behind them.
The next, they’re talking about growing chillies and tomatoes. For bassist Widi Rahmawati, those two worlds aren’t particularly disconnected.
Life away from touring is deliberately simple. Gardening, caring for animals and spending time together eventually bleed back into the music anyway.
“In a way, our everyday life is actually where we get a lot of our energy and inspiration for making music and writing lyrics, so even when we are not making music, we are still experiencing things that eventually find their way into our songs.”
That grounded existence sits beneath one of the more remarkable trajectories in modern Asian heavy music.
Voice Of Baceprot, completed by vocalist/guitarist Marsya and drummer Siti, emerged from Singajaya in West Java and have since played everywhere from Wacken Open Air to Glastonbury, becoming the first Indonesian band to perform at the latter.
This December, they’re coming back our way for Good Things Festival, and Australia apparently left a mark the first time.
VOB ‘Mighty Island’
‘Australia Has Had A Special Place In Our Hearts’
Voice Of Baceprot first properly toured Australia in 2024. For Widi, it ended before they were ready for it to.
“Australia has had a special place in our hearts ever since we first played there. We spent a few weeks touring the country in 2024, but yeah, honestly, it felt way too short because we had such an amazing time there.”
“The people, the atmosphere, and the audience really stay with us, and we have been wanting to come back ever since.”
The difference is that VOB circa 2026 have considerably more ammunition.
When the trio last toured Australia, they were only around a year into operating independently, their live set was consequently still dominated by material from debut album ‘RETAS’.
That isn’t the band returning this December.
“We were still quite early in our journey as an independent band, and we had only been independent for about a year, and most of the songs we perform were still from our first album because we had not had much new material out yet.”
“But now we are coming back with a much bigger collection of songs that feel closer to who we are Today, we have grown a lot since then, both musically and creatively.”
That new era includes the ‘TRANSISI’ EP and fresh material that VOB are preparing to bring onto Australian festival stages.
For anyone encountering them for the first time at Good Things, Widi doesn’t nominate one convenient gateway song, she points towards the entire EP.
“I will recommend everyone to listen to our new EP. It’s called Transisi, and we made that song since we are independent, and it’s like a real voice of Bacherot. You can you can hear all of our real our true self in in that EP.”
The name, properly spelled ‘TRANSISI’, feels appropriate. VOB aren’t abandoning where they came from. They’re documenting what happens when three musicians who started together as teenagers suddenly have years of international touring, independence and experience sitting behind every decision they make.
VOB ‘Garong’
Carrying Indonesian Heavy Music With Them
There’s another weight attached to Good Things, on a lineup containing Limp Bizkit, Spiritbox, P.O.D., The Devil Wears Prada, Polaris, Speed, Bad Religion and dozens more, Voice Of Baceprot will stand as one of Indonesia’s representatives on one of Australia’s biggest alternative festival stages.
Widi admits that idea still rattles the nerves.
“It’s actually something that make us nervous, but we are totally proud, super proud, and we hope that what we are doing now can help to open the way for other Indonesian artists as well.”
That last part matters.
Indonesia has no shortage of metal, hardcore and punk bands. What remains harder is converting the strength of those domestic scenes into genuine access to international touring circuits.
“There are so many incredible bands in Indonesia, especially in heavier genres like metal, hardcore, punk, and many other genres, and we think they deserve the opportunity to take their music future and reach the international scene.”
VOB know how strange their own path looks in that context.
They’ve toured Europe, they’ve played the United States and they’ve performed across Asia and Australia.
Yet one of their biggest remaining ambitions is considerably closer to home.
“Oh my God, we have so many dreams, but one of our biggest dreams right now is actually to tour Indonesia.”
“We have already toured Europe and performed in many countries like U.S. Australia, and in Asia, but we have never done a proper tour across our own country.”
It sounds backwards until Widi explains that touring Indonesia was actually there before the international aspirations.
“Honestly, that was our first dream before we ever dream about touring Europe or playing in other countries.”
For a band increasingly positioned as an international face of Indonesian heavy music, there’s something strangely fitting about the next frontier being home.
V.O.B. ‘Killing In The Name’ Rage Against the Machine cover
Rage Against The Machine, Friendship And Finding Their Own Noise
VOB have never been shy about their musical foundations either, their take on Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name’ (above) is more than an obvious metal cover. Tom Morello and company sit deep in the trio’s musical DNA.
“We love that song. That’s our one of our biggest influence, like Rage Against the Machine, especially.”
Widi specifically connects that influence to VOB’s own ‘Madness Of The Present Century’.
“It feels almost like killing in the name because it’s big influence to our to our songs, especially for that.”
But the thing holding VOB together after the festivals, tours and attention is considerably less complicated: they still actually like being around each other.
For Widi, being in a band with close friends means music doesn’t have to dominate every conversation.
“We have each other to talk about not only about music but also about life, about everything that happened to us in a day.”
They’ll talk about clothes for upcoming shows, new sounds, daily life or whatever else happens to occupy the room, that friendship might be one reason VOB have remained recognisable even as the scale around them has changed dramatically.
When asked to reduce the band to a handful of words, the answers ultimately landed around the same territory: noisy, brave, honest, bold and loud.
It’s difficult to find a cleaner description.
Voice Of Baceprot aren’t coming to Good Things to serve as a curiosity on an international festival poster, they’ve already moved well beyond that point. This December is about showing Australian audiences what happened next.
Good Things Festival 2026
Friday, December 4th – Melbourne, Flemington Racecourse
Saturday, December 5th – Sydney, Sydney Showground
Sunday, December 6th – Brisbane, Brisbane Showgrounds
Good Things Festival 2026 features Limp Bizkit, Simple Plan, Spiritbox, Polaris, The All-American Rejects, Bad Religion, Alexisonfire performing ‘Crisis’ in full, Grinspoon, Millencolin, Bilmuri, Ministry, Chad Gray, MxPx, Neck Deep, Speed, P.O.D., The Devil Wears Prada, Voice Of Baceprot and more.
Tickets are on sale now.
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