My favorite God Bless songs

 

God Bless is a legendary Indonesian rock band. Their style was changing throughout these years. They started out as a progressive rock band. Their first album (1975) was the first God Bless album I've listened to. I listened to this album back in 2015. I hadn't got much into their music at my first listen. Their first album was composed of progressive rock songs. I heard a major Genesis influence on their Huma di Atas Bukit (the guitar solo was heavily similar to Genesis' Firth of Fifth) and Gentle Giant influence on their Setan Tertawa (the intro was similar to Gentle Giant's Valedictory). After some years, 2020, I try to listen to their other album. Listening to Semut Hitam marked my first rediscovery of them. I wasn't hooked by this album though. After listening to Raksasa, I was really astonished because I love it at my first listen. Then I started to discover their exceptional Cermin and Apa Kabar? album. In this post, I would like to review my personal favorite songs by them. 

1. Maret 1989 (Raksasa, 1989)
A good way to open their album. Fast-paced hard rock song wrapped out with Deep Purple's Gypsy's Kiss-influenced keyboard solo. This album was Eet Sjahranie's first contribution to God Bless. Marked by vivid pinching riffs. This song was inspired by Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.
2. Menjilat Matahari (Raksasa, 1989)
Another anthemic song by God Bless. A perfect combination of Yockie's vigorous keyboard playing and Eet's sturdy guitar riffs. You can sing this song stand tall. This song is the second track on Raksasa, a good way to continue Maret 1989 song since they are both anthemic and energetic. 
3. Anak Adam (Cermin, 1980)
The BEST God Bless song. A 12-minute length exceptional composition. Perfect progressive rock song wrapped with lavish keyboard riffs and Balinese gamelan. The joining of Abadi Soesman in this album gave a major impact on the music of God Bless. Abadi Soesman was previously known as the keyboardist in Guruh Gipsy (a project of fusing progressive rock music with Indonesian gamelan music).
4. Cermin (Cermin, 1980)
I guess this song was heavily influenced by Genesis' The Musical Box.
5. Balada Si Toha (Apa Kabar?, 1997)
A song by Yockie Suryoprayogo about a dreamer who wandered to Jakarta and wanted to be a billionaire, but in the end he became suffered from mental illness and became homeless.
6. Roda Kehidupan (Apa Kabar?, 1997)
In this song, God Bless also incorporated some gamelan music elements as they did on Cermin. However, this is a pop rock song rather than a lengthy progressive rock song. This is such an underrated song from their underrated album. Nonetheless, this song has solid proper dynamics.
7. Ogut Suping (Semut Hitam, 1988)
A standard hard rock song with heavy riffs and a catchy melody. Semut Hitam marked God Bless' transition from progressive rock to hard rock. This song is about someone's abhorrence to the heavy use of Indonesia's slang language at that time (bahasa prokem). However, that slang language is rarely to be used nowadays.