Rebels, Dilemmas and Galloping Riffs: Two Rock Kapak Essentials

I realised that it has been more than a year since the last time I dedicated a Substack post to Rock Kapak — for the uninitiated to the term and the scene behind it, a recommended starting point can be found here — so I thought that maybe this is a good time to post my final (?) writing in the series.

Not one band or album this time, but two of the best albums of the Malaysian hair metal scene of the late 80s and early 90s.

Junction were formed in 1985 and Petualang — meaning “rebel” in the local language — was their third, and so far final, album, released in 1990 and featuring their new singer, Rashid. Already since their previous album, Junction had in their hands a powerful contract with PolyGram. As I have written in the past, Rock Kapak was a very promising commercial project, and the local branches of the major record companies were heavily investing in it. This allowed Junction to record an album with flawless production.

Unlike many of their contemporaries, Junction sounded heavy rather than simply hard rock, bringing to mind the US power metal bands of the 90s. Their sound was built around fast and galloping riffs, prominent group vocals, and, thankfully, power ballads were not appearing every other song on the album. All these make Petualang the perfect and most straightforward album to start exploring the Rock Kapak movement.

M.A.Y. were formed in Ipoh — possibly the epicentre of Rock Kapak — in 1987, taking their name from the initials of their founding members: Man on drums, Abu on guitar and Yus on bass. Dilema was their debut album and went on to achieve gold status, one more proof of the commercial strength that Rock Kapak had at that time.

Like Junction, M.A.Y. were on the heavier side of hard rock, with fast, riff-based songs like Trajidi — which brings Judas Priest to mind — or even tracks that cross over into speed metal territory, such as Haruskah. The downside is the rather mediocre production, at least by the standards of the period and the scene, and the mandatory but too many — four! — Scorpions-style ballads.