M O N T E C R I S T O, formed in early 2007, is a rock band based in Jakarta, Indonesia. The band consists of Eric Martoyo (lead vocal), Rustam Effendy (guitars), Fadhil Indra (piano, keyboards), Haposan Pangaribuan (bass guitars), Alvin Anggakusuma (guitars) and Keda Panjaitan (drums).

The story began in January 2006, when Rustam met Eric at a Dream Theater concert in Singapore. Since then, they have been friends and shared the same interests in music. They often met just to hang out at music community events and discussed many things related to music not only as a product of art but also the concept and perspective behind the words and notes produced in a particular song.

Around March 2007, Rustam asked Eric about forming a band and Eric agreed with the idea. Rustam then asked Fadhil and Posan, his long time friends from the community to join the band. With no further ado, they agreed to join. At the time, they needed a drummer and a second guitar player. Rustam remembered his friend, also from the community - Arie Indrakusuma, and asked him to join the group. Arie agreed and took his younger brother Angga to fill in the vacant position of the second guitar part. Since then, they started rehearsing and playing cover songs from Journey, Whitesnake and Queen to be performed at a radio gig.

After the show, Angga who was still in college in another town, returned his focus on his past due thesis. While Arie, due to the different in perspective with the other members, was replaced by Keda Panjaitan.

The band started to enter the studio in early 2008 to jam together. “About Us” was the first song they wrote in the studio from a jam session, while the rest were either written individually or collectively by the band members.

“Celebration of Birth” is the band’s long overdue first studio album which was recorded around July 2008 – July 2009. The music is a mixed of symphonic, vintage rock and heavy metal. Their music talks about many aspects such as political, economic situation, love and divinity. Most of the words in the songs are based on true stories; either from personal experience of the members or from a real situation that occurred around the globe.

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