Kekal - The Habit of Fire

circus_brimstone

Forest: Sold Out
Jul 5, 2003
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Indiana
Kekal – The Habit of Fire
Open Grave Records/Whirlwind Records - May 15, 2007
By Jason Jordan

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Though I could try, it’d be pointless to hide my dismay at the thought of a black metal-free Kekal, but when they announced that The Habit of Fire would be in a different vein than all previous outings, I simply crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. While the Indonesians’ sixth full-length is heavily steeped in electronica – as their music’s been for some time – it’s more rock than metal on the whole. Nevertheless, it proves a solid listen despite the lessening of aggression and near absence of BM, but is admittedly not up to par with 2005’s Acidity, which could quite be their magnum opus up to this point.

Still, ‘The Gathering of Ants’ is a curveball insomuch that no significant changes seem to have occurred in the overall Kekal sound. It is a reasonably heavy tune laced with synth effects and clean vocals – the latter simply competent. ‘Isolated I’ is similar, though I can’t shake the feeling that Rush influenced these guys since I hear faint likenesses during certain sections. The 11-minute ‘Manipulator Generals (Part I of Dictatorship),’ which has three parts itself, is perhaps more in tune with industrial than electronica and also includes a fair amount of noise. Not to be missed either is the 15-minute, five-part ‘Escapism.’ THoF, like many of its individual compositions, samples an array of human emotions and generally has a passage to coincide with each of them, making it a melting pot both style and mood-wise.

Lamenting or decrying stylistic changes does no good, and bands that remain unchanged over the years sometimes come dangerously close to stagnation, providing they manage to avoid it in the first place. Like I said earlier, I miss the black metal that often emanated from their earlier works – especially the growls, which are few and far between here – but The Habit of Fire is an interesting release that’ll keep listeners busy at over 70 minutes in length. While Kekal continue to evolve, I must again state that my loyalties do indeed lie with Acidity.

Official Kekal Website
Official Open Grave Records Website
Official Whirlwind Records Website
 
I wonder how many spins you took to listen "The Habit of Fire". KEKAL isn't a band that hooks you up at the first listen, it needs even 4 or 5 spins to let it grows on you.

I found "The Habit of Fire" to be a much better album than "Acidity", almost in the same vein with their 2003 album "1000 Thoughts of Violence", only this time they have left the black/death metal's physical aggression behind (and replaced it with emotional and psychological aggressions of avant-rock/noise/electronic/whatever!) "Acidity", while they have great songstructures (as always), it seems to me that the band tried to 'compromise' themselves too much to the extreme metal scene by putting too many standard metal riffs and chord progressions, and almost fell into mediocrity speaking about originality and avant-garde aesthetic. So why I disagree with you on this one. For the fans of "1000 Thoughts of Violence" (like myself) I think they will regard this album even better than "Acidity"....
 
KEKAL: Entire New Album Available For Streaming

Open Grave Records is currently streaming the entire new CD from Indonesian metal band KEKAL at this location (the stream will be available through August 21). The group's sixth album, "The Habit of Fire" is being described as "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." The CD will be released in North America, Australia and Japan on May 15.

:kickass:
 
Kekal has been around for a long time, over 10 years in fact. And they like to experiment and incorporate fresh new elements into their music. So when I first listened to “Habit of Fire”, their debut release with Open Grave Records, I was not surprised to discover that they did not disappoint. The album incorporates many genres of music such as progressive metal, psychedelic rock, and even trip-hop. Starting out as more of a straightforward extreme metal band, they have taken something that might have grown stagnant and implemented a fresh new twist. Synthesizers and electronics are included liberally throughout the mix, but they don’t overwhelm the songs, and the guitar sounds range from buzz-saw timbres to clean tones. The vocals are mainly clean, with just enough black metal style screaming to remind you that Kekal is a heavy band. And while being extremely experimental, the album stays accessible, with highlights like “Isolated I” and “The Gathering of Ants” being catchy enough for a wide range of audiences, but avant-garde enough to stop the most jaded of metal lovers in their tracks. In conclusion, Kekal is a band that is destined to stay fresh for a long time to come, if “Habit of Fire” is any example of the direction they are heading in.
 
Not only this album is no longer "black" metal, it is not even metal. A weird blend of uncommon progressive rock with extreme electro (despite the use of occasional blast beats & lots of rapid double kick), but excellent. Original & high quality music for the openminded. The vocals are somewhere between Geddy Lee (Rush) & Snake (Voivod). Everything they have is unusual & fresh.

They have a video of the song "Isolated I" on their myspace www.myspace.com/kekal which is as unusual as the album.

Pretty nice CD booklet artwork too. Only the front cover is kinda cheezy.
 
IMO there are 2 main things that make "The Habit of Fire" interesting:
- 70 minutes of flowing emotional journey (keeps changing in tempos & keys many times even in one song while maintaining the cohesiveness and crescendo's).
- The unpredictable placements of electronic samples and distorted noise throughout the music. You'll get many surprising moments.

Vocal parts might be slightly more predictable and less experimental than their previous albums though, as mostly sung clean, few ran through vocoder and distortion effecx.