MATRIARCH IN METAL

The Testament of Cewek Metal

By Jason Hutagalung

I thought Matriarch in Metal was going to be a compilation.

Now I’m beginning to realise it may become something much bigger.

Look at the response to the call. Look at the women and the bands beginning to emerge around this project. What started as an idea to bring female musicians together under one compilation is revealing something else: the enormous scale of women’s presence in metal — in Indonesia and increasingly beyond it.

And at the centre of it is Eva Elroy Situmorang — Cewek Metal.

Eva did not arrive yesterday.

She has been around this scene for years. She lived through the changes, watched generations of bands come and go, and watched the metal world move from physical networks, magazines, tapes, CDs and personal connections into the digital age.

Yet she remained.

That matters.

Because Matriarch in Metal is becoming more than a collection of songs. It is becoming a testament to endurance and perseverance.

Eva spent years building the reputation of Cewek Metal, and now that reputation is answering her back.

When she called, people responded.

And from what I have seen so far, the scale of that response could make this project massive.

Indonesia already possesses one of the great untold stories of underground metal: its sheer size, its geographical spread and the extraordinary number of musicians who have built their own scenes far away from the international spotlight.

Now Matriarch in Metal is opening another door.

Women who were once scattered across different bands, cities, generations and countries can suddenly be seen as part of something larger.

Not a novelty.

Not a token female presence inside somebody else’s scene.

A movement with its own history, musicians, voices and identity.

And it is beginning to reach beyond Indonesia.

That is why I no longer see Matriarch in Metal simply as Eva making another compilation.

I see a woman who stayed standing long enough for everything she spent years building to come back around her.

The compilation is the document.

The musicians are the evidence.

And the response to her call is the testament.

MATRIARCH IN METAL