This week, Indonesia goes to the polls to elect a new president. A country with the world’s largest Muslim population and one that has tendency towards cultural conservatism, it is probably not the kind of place one might expect to find a politician with a reputation for head-banging and throwing the Devil’s horns. And in truth, Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo – one of the two principal candidates for the presidency ­ probably partakes in neither of these things nowadays, but much to the delight of the steadily expanding Indonesian metal scene, he does seem perfectly happy to proclaim his love of Megadeth, Metallica and even Napalm Death.

Regularly seen at big rock concerts, which can hardly do his stance as a down-to-earth guy with a healthy disrespect for the status quo any harm, Jokowi may have resisted the urge to deliver speeches wearing a Morbid Angel T-shirt, but as he told Indonesian metal website Metal Rebel recently, he has been listening to heavy music “since junior high school, around the age of 14”.



Perhaps the best thing about Jokowi’s metal credentials is that they make him seem like a normal human being … or at least a normal, metal­-loving human being. Whether he is likely to win the election or not is a matter for the Indonesian people, of course, but having spent a great deal of time immersed in that nation’s dense and diverse metal scene over the last few years, I can at least confirm that there will be a huge number of metalheads who will feel duty bound to place their tick in Jokowi’s box.

He has recently stated that he believes the Indonesian government should be more supportive of popular culture and heavy music in particular, and given how native bands like Burgerkill, Godless Symptoms and Jasad have been attracting attention overseas in recent times – particularly in the UK – it seems highly probable that a vote for Jokowi will be regarded as a vote for massive riffs and guttural bellowing.

And if he doesn’t win … well, at least there’s a politician out there who actually knows the words to Megadeth’s Symphony of Destruction. It’s hard to imagine any UK politicians tearing themselves away from the obligatory Arctic Monkeys albums to bother with such nefarious practices, isn’t it?