Track Listing
- Characteristicon
- Strength in My Weakness
- Thy Neighbour's Morality
- A Dream for a Moment
- Broken
- Envy and Its Manifesto
- The Way of Thinking Beyond Comprehension
- Romantika Destruksi (English: Romance of Destruction)
- Blessing in Disguise
- Empty Space

The “black metal” label embedded into Kekal is rather inappropriate. Black metal foundation cemented Kekal musical style: rhythm riffing, symphonic synth and voice screaming. But their lyrics and appearance are the opposite of black metal stereotype: blasphemy, satanic, epic, leather boots, spikes, black-white face makeup and other gimmicks. In fact, Kekal written philosophic theme of divinity, acknowledge spiritualism alongside other topics such as politics, human behaviors and psychology. What the hell, let’s dig further what “Acidity” has to offer.

Still with solid twosome Jeff and Azhar as the core, “Acidity” employs skillful musicians among others are two former guitarists Leo Setiawan and Didi Priyadi with guest guitarist Jason DeRon joined the legion trading lethal lick with their own individual style. Drums by L. Rion and Newin Atmarumeksa as additional vocals.

Crammed 10 tracks in 56”, “Acidity” produced, mixed, mastered, engineered by Jeff himself, the man who wrote most of the tracks, handling lead vocals, guitars, keys and sampler programming duties, design cover and artwork, maintain official website, e-newsletter, handling CD/cassette order and answer fan’s email individually!

The opening track, “Characteristicon”, employs ear-abrasive chords as commonly played by the mighty prog metal Opeth in the beginning and ending parts along with double-kickdrum at face-melting speed. The choruses really like symphonic doom. Utilizing three lead guitars, Characteristicon explores the fretboard mastery stuffed bunch of harmony melodies into killer solos and fills. Being the heaviest track, “Charasteristicon” pretty much describes what Kekal is from the metal side.

Followed with “Strength In My Weakness” Kekal continue trucking the heavy metal vibes at fast tremolo picking and double kick, but softer than “Characteristicon”, which is proper opening track.

 “Thy Neighbor’s Morality” beams the protest of superpower double-standard policy, which I believe, shots the U.S. foreign policy right to the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice-and-the-gang’s head! Listen to “..an ambivalent of goal, to make a better world or just spreading fear, creating instability within a supposedly peaceful neighborhood, claiming to be the keeper of the law, they search for victims...they are as guilty as the ones they judge”. Truth is painful. Dude, tell me the band who can write global political issue that’s so bold and as sharp as Swiss-army knife. Not even Rage Against The Machine!

First single “A Dream For A Moment” is the light track restrains two chords riff recycled over and over in the beginning. Started with stereo panning effect, the track goes denser in the middle forward. The breakdown prior to chorus is great. Azhar playing his bass as a lead melody in chorus and prior to launching guitar solo.

“Broken” reminiscent of Van Halen’s opening riff “Don’t Tell Me” boasts the heaviness of mammoth stepping fragile ground in slow motion. Carrying industrial techno-futuristic tunes of Massive Attack, the track became bigger than life by overlaying guitar distortion grande. Melancholic voices sung by Jeff are perfect match with the lyrics talking about loosing faith and yearning to get it back. Ah Geddy Lee’s singing in low register vocals!

“The Way of Thinking Beyond Comprehension” is one of superb in both songwriting and editing capabilities. The track comprises multi-pattern cross-genres parts ranging from jazz to heavy metal riffing. The track ended with (to me like) enchanting Tibetan monks in Himalayan monastery spelling mantra “jing hard an jing again” (actually “think hard and think again”, I’m joking Jeff!) buildup into chaotic crowd. Jeff overdubbed 22 layers of his voices to create megamondo haunting and mystical a-capella, engraved the frontman’s skill as recording engineer fiddling around digital editing stuff.

“Romantika Destruksi” is plain demonstration of Leo the shredder. There are clean guitar sounds with proper delay effect bursting Mediterranean passages and the swelling effect is cool, make the guitar chirping like a mourning seagull.

“Blessing in Disguise” is just about perfect in time of sorrows. Though Jeff wrote the song long before the tragedy, but the encore still remains radiating optimism, soothing people over the greatest disaster tsunami, “..from all His tragedies, come a blessing in disguise..”.  The album closed with “Empty Spaces”, a gloomy track longing for freedom.

Basslines played by Azhar are nothing more but remarkable, especially in “A Dream For A Moment”, and a bit in “Envy and its Manifesto”. Some parts in breakdown/fills bass brought ahead to play lead minor scale; remind me to Marillion, along with their ambient vibe influence and speech declamation resemblance. Drumming is great exploding beat variation and double-kick thunders. The drummer doesn’t let cymbals, splash, bells and toms to shut up just a few seconds. Neil Peart just got balls of steel?

Jeff’s voices diversity from soft melodious, melancholy to energetic irritating scream again made me think, this is Rush’s Geddy Lee goes psychotic insane. Not even close really, but Lee’s spirit remains intact there, and it’s good. Oh did I mention killer guitar solos? Dammit how many times I wrote the word “killer” here.

Contains simpler riffing easy to remember than their previous “1000 Thoughts of Violence”, “Acidity” broaden the cross-genre border of progressivism far beyond. Less samplers/MIDI/electronica stuff (now they set as an ambient background mostly to create spacious atmosphere), less headbanging grind blasts yet intimidating thanks to bizarre, haunting chords, twisting and soulful solos. More intelligent, touchy, deeper thoughts and mature at the same time.

BugJet received promo-kit with cassette version in it, so I couldn’t give recording quality score. Seems like bass sound goes better than “1000 Thoughts..”, especially in techno track like “Broken” and opening lines of “Thy Neighbor’s Morality”. Anyhow I should push “loudness” button on my Sony walkman just to hear the basslines louder. My personal taste wishes they could have kick ass bass record as heavy as Marillion’s “Afraid of Sunlight”.

Easy enough to listen yet challenging to feel and play, that’s what “Acidity” is all about. For those who like to see how the progressive band evolving out of the drift, then this album is the pinnacle documentary of their endless journey. After rolling the tape four-five times, I must admit I do like this album.

Score
Musicianship: 5/5
Songwriting: 5/5
Recording: N/A

Comments

thanx.. Written by Jeff on 2005-02-18 02:13:44 Hello.. Thanks 4 review..   Ada sedikit koreksi, Didi Priyadi itu bukan ex-member Kekal, tapi current live member (gitaris Kekal di setiap live gig)..

??? Written by azhar on 2005-02-18 12:09:50 i didn't play the bass line during the recording session, so the credit must go to jeff.

??? Written by joker on 2005-02-20 02:31:48 @ the comment above:  Azhar did play the bass, he probably didn't write the basslines, but I saw him play the bass.

congratua.. Written by aziz on 2005-02-20 05:58:39 congratulations for kekal new album.... great single: a dream for a moment, and broken i like that song!

Well Done Cook of variety Chemistry Written by Fans Somewhere Out there on 2005-02-21 12:00:53 Album ini punya rasa sedikit berbeda tapi tetap dengan ciri khas Kekalnya..cool songwriting! Gak nyesel beli album Kekal yg baru neh!

Didi Priyadi is current member Written by admin on 2005-02-22 07:48:16 thanks for correction Jeff.    according to Azhar, if he said he didn't play bass but somebody saw him play bass, then we can say :[B]Azhar rocks the house with those four-string mahogany cannonball[/B]     p.s. mahogany can be substitute with maple, rosewood, plywood or cardboard box

Hail Azhar Written by malique on 2005-03-04 09:43:41 c'mon azhar don't be shy   being bass player is great and you're great bass player

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