Kekal

The Painful Experience (Clenched Fist)
by Scott Hefflon

Damn, sure didn’t see this one coming… The band’s from Indonesia and combine black, thrash, and melodic death metal with traditional galloping heavy metal in a way that, uh, ya just can’t summarize. Part Emperor, part Cradle of Filth, part In Flames, plus this weird and rather unnerving thing I can only describe as an Indonesian teen howling/lamenting like King Diamond. There are blastbeats, Hypocrisy-style distorted vocals, Judas Priest riffs, and some clean, kinda Gothy vocals too. And a drum machine.

Some of the stuff is thrown at you as fast as humanly possible, while other moments crawl with dread, like waiting for the Novocaine to kick in. The bonus track, #77, is a haunting industrial dance track with a nice “snarling ravenous demon” lurking beneath the Enigma chants, bombastic beats, and sonic deluge. Notice the record’s not called The Pleasant Experience… Check out the label’s site, www.clenchedfistrecords.com (which oddly seems to hang off www.jesusfreak.com, though they don’t seem “like that” in the slightest) or the mp3 CD in the centerspread of this issue.
(www.kekal.cjb.net)