TRY as certain parties might, the history of Malaysian rock and metal music is impossible to suppress, and sometimes all it takes for the rich tapestry and fabric to be revealed is the passing of a prolific name in the two music scenes.
On March 6, Tarmizi Mokhtar passed beyond the veil of the living. More fondly known by the stage and nickname Miji, he was a founding member of the thrash metal band Cromok.
During the band’s 30th anniversary concert last October, Cromok revealed that Miji was stepping back from band duties due to health issues. His passing has led to the revelation that Miji was defiantly battling fourth stage liver cancer.
According to Cromok lead guitarist Khairul Anuar “Karl” Shariff, Miji kept his fight a secret.
“(Miji) did not inform me or the others in Cromok about the state of his health. I only found out he was sick when he was admitted into the hospital,” he told a Malay daily.
Miji was buried in Pasir Mas, Johor, and he leaves behind a wife and three children.
Early beginnings and missed opportunities
Towards the end of the 80s, Cromok was formed by the late Muhammad “Din” Khairuddin, Shamsuddin “Sam” Ali, Khairul Anuar “Karl” Shariff and Tarmizi in Australia, when the quartet were students at the University of Wollongong.
Quickly ascending the local Australian metal scene, Cromok released its debut album Image of Purity in 1990. The album leaned heavily into the thrash metal influences with bands such as Exodus and Testament colouring their musical template. Image of Purity is such an overtly thrash album that it is surprising how Cromok is sometimes misattributed as a rock band.
A year later, Cromok had done well enough that they secured a spot where they would be the opening band for the legendary Motorhead. Then, things became dicey with the band.
In 1991, Din abruptly left Cromok and Australia, and returned to Malaysia. One man down, Sam, Karl and Miji lost their shot at opening for Motorhead. Back in the country, Din went on to create a Cromok offshoot band called D’Cromok.
The trio returned to their homeland a year later. Perplexed by Din’s action, Cromok resorted to getting sessionist musicians to fill in for him.
Within four years, Cromok released two more studio albums under EMI Music Malaysia, with Forever In Time in 1993 and Yours Truly in 1996. Both albums had the band digging deeper into thrash metal, with Miji’s drumming in particular becoming much more furious.
At the same time, through D’Cromok, Din released VII Years VII Days Part 1 and Part 2 in 1995 and 1996, respectively.
The project saw him distancing himself away from the pure thrash songwriting seen on his work with Image of Purity and his former bands’ second to third albums. The musician instead experimented with thrash, doom and even a touch of death metal.
Tragedy struck a year later, as the metal scene lost Din to malaria in 1997.
Into uncertain waters
Four years after Din’s passing, Cromok released Mean, Meaner and Meanest and What’s Left. To the surprise of no one, the albums continued the band’s streak of relatively good thrash, but something was evidently missing. Be it experimentation or growth, Cromok seemed to be doing the thing metal bands tend to do: comfortably stay in the same box they have always been in.
Then, Karl left the band in 2001. At this point, only Sam and Miji remained steadily in the band, and thus, Cromok entered its era that saw a revolving door of members come and go.
After pumping out another three albums from 2002 to 2005, Sam announced that Cromok was going on a hiatus. With no timeline given, the hiatus became indefinite for more than five years, before the band then reunited with Karl for Cromok’s 25th anniversary concert.
Following the reunion, there was another unofficial hiatus that lasted from 2012 to 2018. In 2018, Cromok returned for another concert with fellow legendary band XPDC.
When they were slated to perform at Konsert Metal Legend 2 in September, there was an air of worry about the band lethargically retreading old ground and reliving fantasies from days long gone.
Instead, Cromok exceeded expectations, revealing they had pushed themselves further into incorporating traditional elements into their existing thrash songs. Karl dubbed it “Thrashditional”.
“Hopefully what we display at the show will bring more ‘colour’ to our music,” he was reported to be saying at that time.
As for now, the band’s future is uncertain as only Sam and Karl remain.
