ZiFactor is Indonesian metal with crushing heavy grooves and tribalistic beats, exotic mosh worthy riffs and incredible twin full shred guitars. With influences from old school to modern metal fused with Indonesian exotic scales & grooves!
It began way back in the 90's in Hawaii. The brothers Ezra & Eddy both guitarist looking for their own style explored the sound of Indonesian traditional tribal music in metal. But after a long twisting road it was in the smoldering tropical couldron that is Indonesia that they got together to form Zi Factor. It was 2002, the country was still suffering from economic ruin & politically unstable. The idea was a crushing & brain melting metal band with the sound of Indonesia that talks honestly of bitterness, hope & life here. And a genre that was to be called Tribal Core was born.
Like Iron Man meets the Dark Night in a thunderstorm this side of the Bermuda Triangle, ZiFactor is Indonesian metal with crushing heavy grooves and tribalistic beats, exotic mosh worthy riffs and incredible twin full shred guitars. Gathering influences from the pantheon of metal like Sepultura, Megadeth, Pantera, Machine Head to A7X, As I Lay Dying and old school legends like Led Zep to Iron Maiden the band spits it back out with a twist of their own!
After a coupla years playing without permanent members, at the end of 2005 helped out by Tyo the shouter & an assortment of sessionists, the brothers joined up with Bopaq a growler & Iwan a vocalist with 3 previous albums (with Wahh) & Bopaq's brother Uya a bassist to form the early line-up. They started recording the debut mini album 'Kill paradigm' with 7 songs + 1 bonus guitar shred in early 2006 in Eddy's bedroom. The preproduction demo received lots of airplay & hit top 10 charts on various radios nationwide without any promotion nor touring support. It stayed for 6 months with continuous airplay on Oz radio, number 1 for 6 weeks on Star FM with another song on the top 5, 14 weeks on the top 5 of Speedytrek.com chart amongst major label pop acts!
The album though an early not quit there yet experiment was an intricate blend of east meets west, head bang inducing cacophony of sound, heartfelt ravings of the soul with mind bending over the top twin guitar attack (Lyrics are mostly in English, album available in i-tunes & cdbaby.com.). The production quality surpassed everyone's expectation. Zi Factor exploded on the scene when the epic mini EP was released in 2008. The band quickly gathered a solid buzz & street rep playing in many shows including major concerts & headlining shows.
Problems surfaced just as things began to look up. Later that same year Uya was fired from the band. Nada the drummer who had sessioned throughout 2008 had to return to his own band & Iwan left in mid 2009 to live near Toronto with his Canadian wife. Zi Factor suffered a major set back.
After a prolonged wait, more sessionists & much uncertainty Zi Factor is back with a vengeance! Joining the band since 2010 are 2 new member on bass, Oleg who was the band's road manager & an old friend on drums, Nada.
After much song writing & live performances the band went back to the studio & began a long process of recording 13 new tracks in 2011. Again delays stalled the production until the band stopped all live performance to focus on just finishing the new album. Finally in July 2012 supported by Komar's Studio 243 in Bintaro West java, everything was done. The d.i.y production is now in the finishing stages of mixing. The long awaited 2nd album is due for release in October 2012!!
"Zi Factor menyebut musiknya Tribal Core, yaitu perpaduan old school & nu school metal diramu dengan nuansa tradisional musik Indonesia seperti sunda, jawa, melayu, sumatra, batak, bali, kalimantan secara modern. Memainkan riff-riff dan groove-groove tribal modern dengan not-not etnis Indonesia super cepat dan twisted melalui gitar Ezra dan Eddy Simanjuntak. Unik, berciri dengan 2 vokalist, dari lantunan powerful tenggorokkan growling Bopaq dan shouter Tyo didukung dentuman & permainan bass Oleg yg penuh skill dan hentakkan tribal drums Nada."
[Kill Paradigm, the band's mini album is still available at CDBaby.com for only US $12.95]
