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Peace Or Annihilation - Fear Control

Indonesian punk and hardcore tends to get quite a hard time online - people are dismissive because it is generally considered much is derivative, carbon copies of what has come from somewhere more west. I have seen blogs that say 'please, no Indonesian band submissions', like it is a crime to be from that particular part of the world.

Well, in all honesty, Peace or Annihilation live up to a great majority of those stereotypes held. The vinyl looks like an Against All Authority album cover doodle that was abandoned for not being high enough resolution, and the title (and name of the band for that that matter) says much about the political slant/cliche. What they do have in their favour, is that while the accompanying 12" vinyl may be about as original as a picture post on your Tumblr dashboard, there is a lot of heart.

OK, attaching a lyric sheet was a bad move - it's more a Rammstein-ian concoction of random words than meaningful social comment, but tracks like The Rise Of Confrontation have a kind of energy that you find when you dust off your copy of Rancid's black album - all shouted double vocals and blast beats under a reassuringly simply guitar line.

What little I found about the band online (don't even think you can find a .rar file) merely describes Peace or Annihilation as a 'Discharge/Disclose worship band from Jakarta'. Whilst I was unaware this constituted a genre, it is a damn good description. And of the precious few photos I found, one was two of the band modelling Discharge jackets. Say no more.

So, yes Indonesian takes on old favourites. Why not.