After 10 years of existence as a band, KEKAL decided to move forward and to come deep into musical territories yet unexplored by the band. Throughout the year 2006, KEKAL was busy recording and shaping their 6th album entitled “The Habit of Fire”, an ambitious project which marks a new statement for the band. “The Habit of Fire” is an experimental (but yet accessible) 70-minute epic concept album of ‘urban avantgarde metal’, with a liberal use of electronic elements and mix of countless musical sub-genres to accompany their trademark guitar-driven soundscapes. March 15th is set for the release date of “The Habit of Fire” on Whirlwind Records (Germany) for Europe and some South America, with a May 15th release date set for the USA, Canada, Australia & Japan on Open Grave Records (USA).
KEKAL started out in 1995 as a more straightforward extreme metal band. Throughout the first 5 years, they developed their own style by incorporating many diverse elements from outside metal, but not until they released “The Painful Experience” (2001), their 3rd album which marked as a starting point for the band to step more and more into the progressive territory and started to make further experiments with their music.
In 2003, they released “1000 Thoughts of Violence”, an album that has gained a lot of attention even beyond the Asian region due to the uniqueness of their music, combining elements of jazz-fusion, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, trip-hop, experimental electronic and ambient music, and blend them together into their own distinct style. Critics then started to cite Kekal among the finest independent avant-garde metal bands, and they toured Europe for the first time in 2004. In 2005 they released their 5th album “Acidity”
Links
Myspace: myspace.com/kekal
Official Website: www.kekalonline.com
Official Forum:
www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/mb/opengraverecords?forum=77477
Short Q&A with Kekal by Eric W
- Who is Kekal?
Kekal is now officially myself (Jeff), Azhar Levi, and Leo. - What’s the Concept of “The Habit of Fire”, and why?
“The Habit of Fire” is about a courage to deal with life, and finding solutions to the problems.. It’s a 70-minute concept-album based around real-life events, mostly within the urban life setting, particulary in Indonesia.. The word “fire” itself also means a courage or spirit.. The album has depressive moments most of the time, sometimes it goes to the borderline of disillusion and insanity, but on the last song, the 15-minute epic, it has a positive message about getting out of the problems and finding a way out.. - Why do Kekal so rarely played live in Indonesia?
We’re not into playing live as a band.. We do play live occasionally, and we enjoy that, but our main focus has always been to create new music, more than re-doing it onstage.. and also we have our own jobs and activities outside the band that take most of our time.. - What’s your music recomendation?
KEKAL!! Well, alongside Kekal, I would recommend to check out our influences: Amebix, Arab Strap, Bjork, Black Sabbath, Camel, Celtic Frost, Cocteau Twins, Cream, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Depeche Mode, Discharge, Duran Duran, Godflesh, Iron Maiden, Joy Division, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Mars Volta, Massive Attack, Curtis Mayfield, Merzbow, Napalm Death, Pat Metheny, Wes Montgomery, Gary Moore, N.E.R.D., Outkast, Parliament, Pink Floyd, The Police, Portishead, Radiohead, Return to Forever, Rush, Soft Machine, Sonic Youth, Talk Talk, Tangerine Dream, Trouble, U2, Voivod, Zeni Geva,… etc.. - Anything more you wanna say?
Thanx! Please visit our website www.kekalonline.com and our Myspace No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post)
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