By AFP
BANGKOK: Hundreds of headbanging metalheads rock out to the roaring guitars and thundering drums of Thai band Defying Decay, chanting alongside to their newest politically charged tune.
The group’s single “The Law 112: Secrecy and Renegades” is a raucous, defiant anthem with a taboo-defying message — difficult Thailand’s draconian lese majeste legal guidelines.
Criticising the royal household is punishable by as much as 15 years in jail, however requires royal reform — as soon as fully off-limits — spilled into the open throughout a collection of main youth-led avenue protests towards the junta in 2020.
Saturday night time’s energetic Bangkok crowd was the primary in Thailand to see a dwell efficiency of the music, which had already discovered an viewers on US rock stations in November.
The 112 of the title refers back to the lese majeste part of Thailand’s prison code, however the music’s lyrics keep away from criticising any particular person or establishment by identify.
“I like to have the lyrics open for interpretation and for everyone to have their own meaning… when I write my songs,” vocalist and lyricist Poom Euarchukiati instructed AFP.
A line within the music about corruption might additionally discover assist from royalists or the police, not simply anti-government protesters, mentioned the 25-year-old frontman.
Despite the music’s contentious title, the principle supply of inspiration comes from the plot of the fantasy online game “Dark Souls”, during which corruption is a significant theme, Poom mentioned.
Political music
The protests calling for political reform that rocked Bangkok in 2020 uncovered a generational cut up in Thailand between children craving for change and a extra conservative older technology.
Poom mentioned his mom was not blissful when information of the music’s contentious title emerged.
“My mother originally said ‘you can’t do this’. But then I showed her the lyrics and she was fine with it,” he mentioned.
Defying Decay are the newest Thai band to make use of their music to problem the institution.
Released greater than three years in the past, Rap Against Dictatorship’s “Prathet Ku Mee (My Country Has)” made headlines at house and overseas with its politically pushed lyrics and aggressive rhymes, narrating a slew of corruption instances.
The hip-hop collective’s in-your-face music video, which features a re-enactment of a infamous 1976 scholar bloodbath, additionally despatched a robust message to the worldwide viewers in regards to the nation’s darkish previous.
With a restricted marketplace for their model of other steel in Thailand, the seven-member band primarily focuses on touring abroad.
Calls for reform
At its peak within the second half of 2020, the protests demanding royal reform and the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha — who took energy in a 2014 coup — drew tens of hundreds to the streets of Bangkok.
But the motion petered out as coronavirus restrictions hampered rallies and demonstrators had been hit with lese majeste prices.
There have been 170 people charged underneath the royal insult regulation since November 2020, based on the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights organisation.
Political activist Parit Chiwarak, identified by his nickname “Penguin”, faces probably the most prices with 23. He has been held in pre-trial detention since August.
At a UN rights assembly final 12 months, the Thai authorities’s consultant defended the lese majeste laws, saying it “reflects the culture and history of Thailand, where the monarchy is one of the main pillars of the nation”.
But from a musician’s perspective, the regulation must be “updated” to be appropriate with the fashionable world and forestall “misuse,” Poom mentioned.
A “clear standard” of wrongdoings dedicated underneath lese majeste laws also needs to be established to make sure truthful trials, Defying Decay lead guitarist Chitipat Wanyasurakul, 26, instructed AFP.
But imminent change could possibly be far-off.
“People who listen to (rebellious) music are mostly teenagers and young workers — society isn’t comprised of this group of people alone,” 29-year-old concertgoer Chawanut Rattanaphun instructed AFP.