Screaming black metal vocal glory in the speedy guitar riff and fast double kick drum layered with chaotic synth orchestra, then suddenly changes drum loop program, then mellow voice (reminiscent of Geddy Lee from Rush) followed by melodic spacious guitar solo and hip-hop sampler sometimes blended with jazzy keyboard fills in, you can expect how unique and progressive Kekal sound has established.

Read Kekal Band Profile and Interview by BugJet Editor

Band: Kekal

Origin: Jakarta

Album: "1000 Thoughts of Violence"

Release: 2003

Label: THT Productions Fear Dark Records

Songwriting

The opening number, "Subsession-Once Again It Failed" strikes to the point of Kekal root character. Started with industrial sound sample, remind us of Sepultura Arise opening, the band torn the eardrum with machine-gun double-kick drumworks and heavy speed metal guitar riff along with shouting black metal voice. Most of song pattern layered between heavy-mellow-heavy style and synth orchestra and high reverberant guitar solo added in between. Hip-hop style often included in song like "Violent Society" which sounds weird at first, but that's made our impression upon this album lasts longer. The classic metal offered in "Artifacts of Modern Insanity" and instrumental number, "Subsession II" is delicious as well as black metal classic number, "Vox Diaboli", which has killer haunted solo. The razorblade sharp guitar harmony a la Iced Earth put these numbers in our favorite list. On each song, more than four song patterns with different tempo always employed making the whole composition became complex and progressive. One more proof of progressivism, "Beyond Numerical Reason" is spanning over 12 minutes long without causes audience bored to hear. The song was composed so creamy and rules emotion from one direction to another with the lyric theme pictured modern daily life far away from satanic worshipping rhyme, fantasy fictions, demonic trolls, mystic ancient ritual or divine blasphemy as the common black metal theme. Truly Kekal has surpassed average skill of songwriting capability.

Musicianship

Most notable musicianship wise is Jeff style of voices. They're combination between rage furies of black metal scream, melodic harmony and clean organic Rush-esque character to melancholic. Guitar riff is textured brilliantly playing in fast speed mode without lost control in conjunction with orchestrated keyboards as well as the great solos and effect-laden fills. All of voice-synth-guitar-sampler arrangement were composed and performed by Jeff, the genuine talented frontman. The guest drummer, Sang Hitam, is a machine-gun revolver to keep rhythm on track.

Recording Quality

To us, this is the best quality indie-label production we have known so far. The guitar sound of choice (especially rhythm and distortion solo lead section) is neat, crispy, crunchy, not excessive, razor-blade sharp melody sit well in its place, though it will be nicer if harmony lead (2 guitars performing solo in note harmony) panned independently to hard left and right to provide wider stereo impression.

The noise is virtually absent, similar with other professional major label production. We must admit that kick-drum sound is well done. The thunderous low and percussive high frequency of kick-drum heard clearly far away from cardboard-box toys type. Overall mix tonality, it’s a bit harsh in the high frequency and thin low frequency. We’re bit hard to allocate and recognize the bass guitar parts (unable to identify bass guitar parts from the low E guitar string sound) in the crowd of synth-guitar-drum layers except when bass is played alone during a bass solo part. The percussive parts (cymbals) could be crispier and smoother, snare and tom should bring more in the front and keep them tight.

That’s might just (fucked up) Editor personal taste or (impaired hearing beyond repair) observatory matters, but Kekal have chosen their own sound signature as Jeff has said in interview. Whatever it is, overall "1000 Thoughts of Violence" performance leads us to one conclusion: impressive!

Score

Musicianship: ***** (5 of 5)

Songwriting: ***** (5 of 5)

Recording: *** (3 of 5)

Comments

prog???? PELER... Written by Guest on 2004-11-15 01:45:38 apaan tuh progressive kentut... nyesel gua beli kasetnya... promo di Covernya terlalu berlebihan.. SOLONya aja suka OUT TEmpo.. udah gitu DElay nya Tebel BGT biar nutupin Kalo Solo nya banyak yg NYELIP... terus Sok ngejazz lagi... itu Sich Bukan Polyrhytm atau Matrix Modulation, cuma ga tau ngitung Tempo ajahh jadi kedengerannya Gantung...

Finally..!!! Written by admin on 2004-11-18 06:42:03 Finally we got Mr. Guest with his/her dissenting opinion! kita seneng banget denger pendapat yang berbeda, jadi pembaca bisa mendapat informasi dari perspektif lain.  terimakasih banyak atas pendapatnya!  buat yg lain..jangan takut beda pendapat!!!    regards, admin.

PELER? Written by Hellraiser on 2004-12-01 07:40:34 lho..boss emang gak didownload dulu MP3-nya buat sneak preview, kok sampek nyesel beli kasetnya. DELAY? maksudnya REVERB? laen lho.

Gak Nyesel Koq Written by FroG on 2004-12-08 06:44:27 Gw sih kagak nyesel tuh gw punya semua Album Kekal dan 1000 Thought of Violence salah satu yg paling gw suka, emang kalo mau harapin Black Metal kyk Cradle of Filth or Septic Flesh bakal kecewa. Gw dah gak sabar nih nunggu album barunya Januari 2005 "Acidity".

Mmmm.... \m/ Written by Guestability Instable on 2005-02-05 09:59:33 Bass nya KEKAL itu pakai distorsi (MOTORHEAD/VENOM rules!!!) jadi gak begitu kedengaran pickingnya.

Guestability Written by malique on 2005-02-07 02:28:07 mungkin pake distorsi, soalnya susah teridentifikasi. yg jelas, waktu bass solo, kita bisa denger setting bass-nya emang bright.   album terakhir Acidity, kayaknya lebih kedengeran low end-nya.

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