A teenage girl shouts into a microphone in a shaky YouTube video viewed over 160,000 times. She’s backed by two other girls, all three dressed in skinny jeans, sneakers, white tops, and white hijabs. This is Voice of Baceprot , an all-girl metal band formed in the Indonesian town of Garut in 2014, with Firdda Kurnia on vocals and guitar, Euis Siti Aisyah on drums, and Widi Rahmawati on bass. (Baceprot means “noisy” in Sudanese.)
Along with original songs, the girls’ repertoire includes Metallica, Muse, and Slipknot covers. “Metal music has the truth to break a bad system,” the band tells BUST. VoB has performed across Indonesia, shattering stereotypes about what Muslim girls can, and should, do. Their answer to those who are surprised? “Everybody has a freedom, and we have a freedom to choose our own way.”
By Erika W. Smith
Photo by Ruli Lesmana
This article originally appeared in the December/January 2017 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!
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