The Painful Experience is the third album from the Indonesian band Kekal. This black metal band was started in 1995 and with their previous releases they gathered a huge underground following. Though I had heard some of their music before, this album is the first full length to come across my path. On The Painful Experience the main part is black metal, with violent parts, combined with classic metal kind of riffs. The guitar playing is excellent with tight riffing and neatly played solos. Some solos sound hysterically, like the one just after the intro to After The Storm, but that also fits the aggression of the music. The vocals are raspy, croaky but there are clean vocals as well. Songs like Mean Attraction and Crave For Solid Ground are good examples of their abilities. The album is not always as extreme. Especially near the end of the CD the variety becomes wider. The titletrack has a lot of beautiful melodies and though you can hear black metal type of vocals, the song's mainly a progressive kind of metal track. The Painful Experience also contains a real ambient track in the vein of Enya but it's only instrumental and has a dark atmosphere. Song wise Kekal delivered an excellent album that will appeal to more than only black metal fans. Sound wise the quality is good, but not excellent.
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #93Reviewed by Matt Morrow"Oh Yeah!!" "What the Heck!?!" "Wow!" "Is this a joke!?" And such were many of the contradictory, stunned thoughts running through my head during the first listen to Kekal's new CD LP, The Painful Experience. The third album by this very talented Indonesian black metal band, it is likely to cause the greatest reaction from fans -- I can see Kekal gaining a lot of new listeners with this album,…Dead Zine 2002Reviewed by D_ListerDing-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…The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Ken MuellerNorth Carolina based metal label Clenched Fist Records has released the third album from Indonesia's Kekal, a hardcore trio who produce music from all over the metal spectrum. Elements of thrash, death, industrial, black, and even melodic metal are heard throughout. While comparisons will be made from bands as diverse as Judas Priest and Cradle of Filth, there is no one particular sound that hems…Similar sounding releases
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