BLEACH have been writing and playing together since 2020, coming out of the post-pandemic haze with a sound that leans into metallic hardcore and the pressure points of daily life in Bandung, Indonesia. Their new post-apocalyptic EP “Cursed Life Fades,” released on April 18, 2025, brings in six tracks that sit between hardcore, metal, and the blunt aggression associated with H8000, shaped by frustration, unrest, and resistance.
“Playing hardcore in Indonesia is mostly and deeply DIY.” Shows happen “in small, often temporary spaces, run by friends and the community,” with permits and outside pressure always hovering in the background. That reality hasn’t softened the scene. If anything, it has sharpened it.
Since around 2023–2024, hardcore bands in Indonesia have started pulling attention beyond the usual circles. “More music fans are paying attention, and even major events and festivals are now actively reaching out to hardcore bands.” The infrastructure stays DIY, but the reach keeps widening.
That tension—between limitation and momentum—runs through “Cursed Life Fades.” The EP is built on despair, vengeance, and decay, but it never feels abstract.
The band’s writing reacts to what surrounds them. “Locally, we’re reacting to what we see and live every day. Abuse of power, social pressure, inequality, and how people are constantly expected to stay quiet and ‘know their place’.” BLEACH frame the band as something born from that friction, from “the need to stand together, support each other, and create our own space when the system doesn’t give us one.”
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The current political and social climate only intensifies that drive. “A lot of people feel ignored or even discriminated against by the government.” That sense of being pushed aside doesn’t stay isolated; it pulls people together. “That pressure has pushed people closer together. It’s created a shared anger and awareness, and you can feel it in the hardcore scene here—people standing together, questioning authority, and pushing back against policies that don’t make sense.” Hardcore becomes a place to release frustration and turn it into something collective.
For BLEACH, hardcore isn’t a genre reference or a borrowed identity. “For us, hardcore is everything. It’s our safe place and the place to grow.” Through the scene, they found friendship, purpose, and belonging, and connections that stretched far beyond Indonesia. “Coming from what many people see as a ‘small’ country, hardcore connected us to friends all over the world.” That connection reframed how they understood effort and survival. “Without it, we probably wouldn’t understand what real friendship, hustle, and struggle truly mean.”
“Cursed Life Fades” carries that understanding in its sound. The EP is built on breakdowns that hit hard and riffs that grind forward, with lyrics soaked in bitterness and personal loss. Each track reflects a different angle of inner rage and resistance, a response to a world that feels like it’s collapsing under its own weight. The language is direct, sometimes bleak, sometimes confrontational, always grounded in lived experience.
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The band sees their local scene moving quickly. “We see the scene here as growing fast, especially after the COVID era.” There are more bands, more shows, and promoters willing to take risks by bringing overseas acts to Indonesia. At the same time, attention from outside is increasing. “Even international labels are starting to notice what’s happening here.” The change feels active rather than imposed, something the scene is shaping for itself.
What BLEACH want understood beyond Indonesia isn’t just the music. “We want people outside Indonesia to understand the pain and daily struggle we live with, especially dealing with a dirty government and broken administration.” That context shapes their anger, their sound, and how they exist as a band. Just as important is recognition of the scene itself. “The hardcore scene here is something to be taken seriously. There are a lot of bands with real potential, real conviction, and real stories.” In their words, “we’re not just reacting—we’re building something that deserves to be heard.”
The EP was recorded in Bandung at Downtown Studio, Homestrack, and Rebuilt40124, mixed and mastered by Ben Jones, with background vocals by FFFENNEK and cover art by Gilang Praver.
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It was released as a co-release between Holding On Records and Disaster Records.
Looking ahead, BLEACH speak with the same grounded tone they use to describe their present. They’re happy with how the local scene is growing and hope more bands appear, regardless of style, “as long as it’s honest.”
Beyond that, plans are already taking shape: a new split EP, a full-length LP, and more touring outside Indonesia, potentially beyond Southeast Asia. Europe and the USA are on their radar, not as symbols, but as extensions of the same network hardcore has already given them.
