ACIDITY

Indonesian avantgarde metal band KEKAL is back with another album called "Acidity". With almost eleven months spent in the making, "Acidity" without a doubt takes the longest production time in KEKAL's recording history, so far.

To celebrate KEKAL's 10th anniversary in 2005, "Acidity", as officially said by the band, is designed to be a special reunion album with all their former members (plus their additional/live guitarist) contributed in the recording process, making KEKAL as a 5- piece band with 3 guitarists. Yes, they have 3 lead guitarists that all play solos, harmonies, and melody-rhythm interactions. Guitar takes the most dominant role here. "Acidity" is a guitar-based metal album. Gone are the machine-based drums, processed sounds and lots of synthesizers, samples, and effects as we hear in their previous album.

Musically, I can see the significant RUSH influence in "Acidity". They do not sound like a RUSH clone band and they never tried to sound like RUSH either, but they hold the same spirit as RUSH once had during their golden era. Like those Canadian grandfathers of prog-rock, KEKAL always make a big step forward in every album and they never look back. They never afraid to take a risk. They always have something new to offer, something beyond our expectations. That is the true progressive spirit!

Compared with their previous album "1000 Thoughts of Violence" (2003), the music of "Acidity" is not miles away from that one as there are still influences from jazz, electronica, and 80's new-wave, BUT...... this one has a different approach to the songwriting and production. Almost a completely different approach. The recording is far more organic and live-oriented. It is different than the clinical/processed sound of "1000 Thoughts..." as this time the production has the power and energy of a live performance. Musically speaking, "Acidity" has more elements combined in the music, they have more metal in one side, but yet more jazz and rock elements in the other sides as well, and all those elements are mixed together into the songs that generally are not as complex as the previous album. So how could this be possible?

The answer is in the feel of the songs. "1000 Thoughts..." has a lot of violent, dark and brutal feel. If you have all the brutal and violent songs, the room for other emotions are closed because the only thing left for is anger and pain. "Acidity" is not as brutal and violent as "1000 Thoughts...", and it is not near as dark too, so the room for other emotions are still open wide. Now you get songs that are easier and pleasant to listen, but still it's hard to study and to play them (once again, it's like RUSH formula, easy to listen, hard to play). That makes "Acidity" to be richer than "1000 Thoughts of Violence" even without the plenty of synthesizers, electronic beats and effects, and if you think "the richer the better", then "Acidity" is the best you can get.

Every song has its own uniqueness, and I rather not to mention which ones are the highlights because there are all killer, no filler. But If I should mention the songs that have some special place in my mind, I come up with 4 songs: "Characteristicon", "Strength in My Weakness", "Thy Neighbor's Morality", and "The Way of Thinking Beyond Comprehension".

Now I go into the song by song:

1. Characteristicon This song opens by the short ambient guitar feedback drone for a few seconds before the music blasts. The chords are beyond weird, they use complex and unusual jazz chords in this psychotic song. When the vocals start to scream "yeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!" you will know that this is KEKAL! Here, the 3 guitars are totally intense and amazing. You hear 3-guitar harmonies, amazing polyrhythmic interactions, and the blistering solos of all 3 guitarists are served very well. What an awesome heavy and intense opener! They left you with your jaw open wide and you will start to drool.

2. Strength in my Weakness After torturing me by the crushing progressive metal on the first track, these guys are now taking care of my wounded soul and say "you have to lose your mind!". Yes, in contrast with the technical insanity of "Characteristicon", this song has a kind of strange "happy melancholia" feel. When you hear this song, you will feel both sad and happy at the same time. It is manic and depressive at the same time. It is schizophrenic. Your emotion will be altered. So be forwarned! As always, there are intriguing guitars and unusual chords here and there, and a few odd twists in the time- signatures as well, but they don't focus on those aspects! A great song with a strong emotional content.

3. Thy Neighbor's Morality This song lasts for over 7 minutes, but you never feel that long, it feels like it's only 4 minutes because it is really really adventurous. You have everything from electronic beats, modern (almost nu-metal) riffs, fast blasting symphonic orchestral metal, industrial beats, death metal riff, jazz interludes, well, you name all of them!!!! Another great song indeed!

4. A Dream for A Moment Their first choice for a single. This song is rather mellow and leaning on the emotion. It is very catchy and easy-listening. I dig the cool basslines during the chorus. I think this song is the lightest and catchiest song in the entire album. Rock is the keyword. Download the mp3: http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp? band_id=1513#mp3

5. Broken Actually, this isn't a brand-new song. "Broken" is an older song originally from Jeff's solo project EXCISION, but this re-arranged & re-recorded KEKAL version is far better than the EXCISION version. I didn't like the EXCISION version, but I do like this one! The sound is superior, Jeff voice is more emotional, passionate and strong, and the guitar solos totally smokes!!!!

6. Envy and Its Manifesto Only one word to describe it: Weird! They incorporate some trance chanting like those on the voodoo rituals (perhaps) and a semi rap-styled talking into a minimalistic downbeat trip-hop music a-la MASSIVE ATTACK with a metal distortion guitar. But that doesn't stop there! Halfway through the song there are some modern-rock clean vocals come out in harmony, and then going straight to a mid-tempo prog-metal section, then a strange blastbeats part with RUSH kind of riff, then a classic-metal riff to backup the strange-sounded solo guitar. It's a weird, very avantgarde song, but it works well. You should listen it with an open mind. This song is only for the true KEKAL fans like myself. Sorry for the close-minded!

7. The Way of Thinking Beyond Comprehension Another experimental song. This song is probably the most freaked-out, schizophrenic, insane, progressive, technical, avantgarde (or whatever you might want to call it) in the entire "Acidity". This almost 9-minute song is comprised by 3 'parts'. It's like the trilogy, but not really a trilogy. First part is a brutal chaotic extreme jazz-fusion metal. On this part you can hear anything from black metal riffs, screaming vocals, clean vocals, odd-time signature math-metal, hardcore jazz riffs (what???), and all those weird chords and beats. Oh, and also the interaction between free-jazz guitar solos and a keyboard solo you will only hear on a jazz-fusion band. And then comes the second part, a nice acapella choir of 10 to 15 people (but actually only Jeff vocals get multilayered/overdubbed into 15 times something!), performing some kind of scary ritual chanting and say "think hard and think again" over and over in about 2 minutes and closed by uncontrolled screams and howls, sounds like 15 Jeffs got possessed by different evil spirits! HA!! That one is more scary than even the real satanic rituals! The last part, is another 2 minutes of intense guitar solos doing in a straight metal way. That's right, 2 minutes of blistering guitar trading solos performed by 3 guitarists (Jeff, Leo, and Didy) in a JUDAS PRIEST way. Extremely intense and insane! I've never heard any metal band doing a song as crazy as KEKAL guys here. I think "Acidity" is worth buying because of this song alone!

8. Romantika Destruksi A nice ambient instrumental guitar backed up by scary synth and ethnic percussion.

9. Blessing in Disguise Another catchy, melodic, and emotionally-driven tune. A great epic symphonic- progressive metal song indeed. Once again, the guitar solos are extraordinary.

10. Empty Space They close the album with this depressive and dark tune. The music is quite simple and in-your-face, but it touches your emotions at a point that it could make you cry. Very very emotional song. I can compare this one with the song "The Painful Experience" from their 2001 album.

Overall, "Acidity" is a very good album. Some will say this one is far better than "1000 Thoughts of Violence". A combination of advanced musicianship and the emotional content of the songs is the strong point of "Acidity". However, there is something missing for me, I miss all the strange effects, computer beats and analogue synthesizers, as they are not using those as much here as in "1000 Thoughts of Violence". But I do like the return of the screaming guitar solos, and even to the MAX!

Despite of the easy-listening tendency in most of the songs, "Acidity" doesn't always mean to entertain us in the first place. They have some songs that make us to think rather than to dance or to bang our head. If you look for only an entertainment, then go for something else. KEKAL creates ART with their music. So you have to see their music as a piece of art to appreciate it, not something that can entertain you in the first place.

First of all, I was wondering why this band was featured in this site as I understand that the band's music has its roots on metal music. But when I received the sample tape from the band, I could see some flavors of prog in their music even though it's not that much. I had to adjust my ears significantly when I first listened to their music since it's very loud and noisy with lots of heavy guitar riffs and screaming voice. My prog mate told me that he could not bear listening to the music as it's so loud. That's probably the characteristics of any metal album, the louder you can make the better. Probably. If you do not favor metal, don't ever purchase this album!

As Kekal is Indonesian band, I'm facing a critical challenge in reviewing this album: removing all bias-ness because I'm an Indonesian by nationality. What is nationality anyway? Especially in this borderless world where all of us are actually citizens of planet Earth. For sure, I'm a citizen of the world's progressive rock community! Luckily, I know nothing about the band and has neither personal relationship with any band members nor financial interest with them. In fact, this is my first album that I know from the band. Say, if I'm bias with my review, at the end of the day all of you would be the final judge about the musical quality of this album. So if I'm bias, and I could not give you a picture of how the music of the band sounds like, it will erode my reputation then.

Yet, I still have another challenge to face with. By experience I have been listening more on symphonic prog / neo prog music such as Genesis, Yes, Gentle Giant, Kansas, ELP, King Crimson, Marillion, IQ, Arena, etc. My exploration to metal started sometime in 90s when I first listened to Dream Theater "Awake" and later I liked power metal bands such as Helloween, Blind Guardian, Kamelot, Stratovarious, Angra, etc. So, my view would be different with those of you who have grown with metal.

With all those caveats, this is my view about Acidity which will be officially released two days from now: March 13th 2005 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The album was also released internationally.

Characteristicon blasts off with heavy riffs produced from guitar and bass in relatively fast tempo. The riffs continue to serve as main rhythm section to let the screaming vocal (non lyrical) enters the music. Guitar solo is performed before the lyrical voice line starts to roll. Guitar solos performed nicely between verses of lyrical part. Musically, I can sense the influence of Black Sabbath; even some part of voice line sounds like Ozzy's singing style especially in Sabotage album. Drumming is probably the lacking part of this track, or probably was mixed thinly during recording sessions. It's not only in this track, almost all tracks have similar issue for drum mixing.

Strength in My Weakness is slower in tempo than opening track, featuring relatively long guitar solo at the opening part. The tempo turns faster when vocal starts to scream characterized by the double pedal bass drum sound in the vein of Helloween or Gamma Ray driving section. I personally like guitar riffs produced in this track. When guitar solo takes part using two soloist, it reminds me clearly to Helloween rhythm section.

Thy Neighbor's Morality starts mellow with a sampling loop and powerful narration followed suddenly with a heavy guitar riffs that accompany voice line in a hip hop style (oh . No ..please). Fortunately, the hip hop style happens only temporarily as it's continued with a typical screaming vocal. (Well, if you like Opeth "Black Water Park" it's probably like that kind of singing style). I like the guitar solo at the ending part of this track just before it turns to quieter passage with sampling loop. Structure-wise, this track can be considered as a prog because it has a variety of changes in style and tempo.

A Dream for A Moment is a straightforward metal with some influence of Iomi's sound on guitar work. The music flows in relatively flat structure with practically no choruses. Vocal style during non-screaming part reminds me to Radiohead's singer. The tempo turns faster with screaming voice line and returns back to original tempo with some guitar solo.

Broken opens with an ambient music using sampling augmented with guitar work followed with a vocal line that enters the music in medium tempo style. This track has a different nuance as compared with other tracks as it has relatively soft riffs and some guitar fills. Guitar solo is performed stunningly during interlude part with (seems like) two guitarists. The tempo turns faster during interlude until it ends up.

Envy and Its Manifesto starts off with a repetitive guitar sound followed with a vocal. The double pedal bass drum (seems like programmed) enters and produces industrial nuance. Interesting to note here that the vocal style seems like performing in a narration style with a rhythm section resulted from repetitive guitar chords that sometime change at the end of singing part. In the middle of the track, the music then change to another form in a faster tempo with stunning guitar solo and programmed (?) drum sound.

The Way of Thinking Beyond Comprehension is a fast speed metal music with a screaming vocal in loud and noisy mood. There are some repetitive drumming sound in a fast speed that sounds like a slipped CD spinning due to some scratches. If you like metal, this part is for you - it has heavy riffs and some melodic guitar solo. At the end of the track, there is a bit of exploration of jazz/fusion music. It suddenly change the mood to an ambient music and choirs which end up with a narration in quieter passage. AT the end of narration, the music turns louder with a faster tempo until it ends. Structurally, it's a progressive tune.

Romanitika Destruksi is an ambient music with some percussives and guitar fills (no riffs this time). This short instrumental piece is completely different with other tracks as it also has some exploration of guitar sounds in the vein of King Crimson's Fripp / Belew works.

Blessing in Disguise is a melodic fast tempo metal music with excellent guitar solo with some growling vocal in high notes. The inclusion of non- distorted guitar solo in the middle of the track has made this track projects another nuance. It's followed with a guitar solo (shortly) in the vein of Iron Maiden before the vocal returns back to music. After the second verse lyrical part, there are another stunning double guitar solos. Excellent. Even though it's a simple structure track, the guitar solos (distorted or non distorted) are stunning.

Empty Space concludes the album with a medium tempo metal music with some heavy riffs during transition pieces or end of bars. The music turns faster in the middle of the track until it ends.

As I mentioned before, if you do not favor metal, don't ever think to purchase this album. Unless, you wanna have some change in your musical taste. If you have been insofar listening to Marillion, Arena, or IQ and never listened to Opeth, Symphony X, Evergrey, In Flames, Helloween, and the like, this is not for you. But, if metal music is already in your blood, you will enjoy this album. You can see obviously how the boys in the band approach the music composition of this album. You will agree with me that some tracks have been structurally composed with variety of styles that indicate the prog nature of the final product. Have you ever heard bands like Into Eternity or Freedom Call? Kekal is probably like those bands. Overall, this album has a tight composition that comprises strong songwriting and arrangements that produce nice harmony. Overall, I would give 3 ¾ stars rating out of 5: an excellent addition to any metal collection. Keep on proGGin'. !!!

Yours progressively,

GW - Indonesia