Kekal

Item: The Painful Experience
Author: D_Lister

The Painful Experience

(2002)

Reviewed by D_Lister

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Label Clenchedfist RecordsDead Zine2002

ambient black metal progressive metal thrash metal

Ding-Ding, Kekal round three has just begun. This time however it's an easy CD to get your hands on having been handled in by Clenchedfist Records (bravo CFR for grabbing this band we all know and love!) The new album is called The Painful Experience and listening to it is anything but that. Kekal is a band who knows their style, maintains it but yet manages to improve themselves with each new offering.

Ever the vocalist experimenters, the guys decided to throw in some high pitched scream/singing parts which would have been better left alone however this truly is about the only thing I have complaint with. The CD offers us what we have come to expect from Kekal without pulling too many punches, it's fast, extreme, heavy and demanding of your attention as you listen to it. Jeff is certainly becoming a first rate guitar player proving his skills in both the extreme and technical realms with his work here. We get incredible leads all through this CD that just make each song, and it's filled with huge riffs.

Production is also exactly what you've come to expect from Kekal. No better than their previous albums which I know for some made a big difference as to whether or not they would listen to their albums, but for those like me it was certainly well worth listening to. If you were able to enjoy their previous albums despite the lower production levels then this CD will be no different except that the music itself is better. The other aspect that plenty of people have bashed about Kekal's past release is the use of 'the black box' for drums. This time around Kekal still shows us a line up of 3 people, Jeff on guitars, Azhar on bass, and Leo on guitars. However in the additional section they credit drums as being 'Sang Hitam' which to me seems like a persons name. Indeed there are no parts on this album that have that impossible to play sound like in the past however the drums themselves sound electronic. Maybe they just name the black box and threw that in the credits I don't know. Overall I believe this to be a real drummer but at many times you hear the clicky sound of electronics on the drums. Again I know this bugs some people but with this album having the incredible brutality level it does I'm just fine with it.

Lyrically, we again get what is expected from Kekal, a Christian band not holding back in any fashion and at times showing that English is not their first language. It's not annoying but I found I chuckled a few times when I heard the line "what else I can say" when it would have been worded better as "what else can I say." Again this is a factor that makes no difference to me at all when listening to this amazingly brutal music but I feel it should be mentioned in the review.

Track 4 'Like There's No Other Way To Go' tends to get a bit experimental at times, actually sounding like they've listened to Believer's Dimensions just a few times too many. A great song with a handful of really weird musical pieces popping up here and there. With 77 tracks (11-76 being 5 second blank tracks) Kekal gives us a total of 11 songs that if you're into the extreme black metal sound or just like what you have heard of Kekal in the past you got to get your hands on. There is also this one riff that comes in right about 3:45 of track two that reminds me of the old Hawaii 5-0 theme music, hear it every time I listen to this song, and actually it's a nice piece within it. This is an easy CD to get, available all over mail order places, so be sure to treat yourself this Christmas season and get a copy of it.

9/10