format: LP
year: 1989
country: Malaysia
label: Solid Gold Studio
#: SGA 1006
info: 2 sleeve versions exist - this and a typical Malaysian promo version, with cassette cover glued to a stock record label sleeve.
style: Heavy Metal
Side A:
Side B:
Queue the Viking Metal jokes.
...and may you choke on them one minute into the opening theme song/title track! This is truly one of the most spinechilling, moodfilled and original Epic Metal tunes I've heard from Asia. The regal rhythm and the chanting of the oarsmen that runs like a theme through the song brings up images of dragonships charging through the waves, on their way to conquer new shores in far away lands and carrying a solemn vibe that occationally reminds of contemporaries like Primordial or Atlantean Codex.
This superb opener is also in a way the album's major weakness. "Dalam Pelayaran" belongs to that cathegory of records where the greatness of the first song somewhat overshadows the remaining material and it takes a few play-throughs before one starts to notice its other secrets.
...Except for "Teruskan Perjuangan", which will immediately blow your mind for the second time in 10 minutes simply by being what I can only assume the one and only 100% genuine traditional Doom Metal track of the Malaysian 80's(!) and my comparison-meter flickers between Mercy, Saint Vitus and Candlemass.
These 2 musical oddities alone should be enough to put it on the want list of any collector who enjoys unique, exotic albums, but really there's more, as "Pasti Kebebasan" which closes side A is yet another magick piece of atmospheric Heavy Metal with some mesmerizing guitar- and vocal harmonies.
There is unfortunately a slight dip in quality once we reach the B-side (they don't call them "B"-sides for nothing..) and we have to endure 2 typical Malay-fillers in a row before we once again reach the Metal proper in the chugging Accept-like "Jeritan Irama". Last but not quite least comes "Misteri Dunia" and I'm happy to say it's a more than worthy ending and quite the saving grace to what could otherwise have been a bit of a hit'n'miss type album - a laid back, 70's-colored Hardrocker with a really catchy NWOBHM-like chorus, a genuinely bittersweet farwell.
As far as Malaysian Metal albums go, this one
is an unusually obscure piece that I've never heard anyone as much as mention in passing before, which begs the question: What else is out there??