The Habit of Fire
Encyclopedia
The Habit of Fire is a 2007 album by the Canadian/Indonesia
n avant-garde metal band Kekal
. Released on May 15 in North America
, Japan
& Australia
and March 15 in Europe
& South America
, it is their 6th full-length album. The album was constructed during Jeff's move to Canada
, and was the last album recorded in his home studio in Indonesia
.
There is an official music video for the song "Isolated I".http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P8kK5Y1M_0
s and create MIDI information, and manipulate the sounds to create the 'skeleton'. Then riffs, MIDI instruments, synthesizer
s, and melodies would be added and the structure re-arranged. Once the song structure was set, the guitars would be re-recorded, then bass and drum tracks would be put on top, then vocals.
Overall, it took over 7 months to complete.
, and on November, 2007, the album was chosen as the CD of The Month by UK's music technology magazine Sound on Sound
.
On this release, the band reduced its black metal
sound to make room for atmospheric soundscape
s and industrial
textures. The music is varied, combining the band's metal
roots with styles such as progressive rock
, electronica
, psychedelic ambient, and jazz fusion
, giving the album a "breathless, almost ADD
" feel. The experimental aspects of the album were likened to Tool
, while the progressive elements were compared to Marillion
and the heavier passages to Mortal
.
Guest musicians:
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n avant-garde metal band Kekal
Kekal
Kekal is a heavy metal band formed in 1995 in Jakarta, Indonesia. According to Allmusic, Kekal was one of the first heavy metal bands from Indonesia to make international inroads, and according to Keith Kahn Harris was one of the few extreme metal bands from Southeast Asia to ever make more than a...
. Released on May 15 in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
& Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and March 15 in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
& South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, it is their 6th full-length album. The album was constructed during Jeff's move to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and was the last album recorded in his home studio in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
There is an official music video for the song "Isolated I".http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P8kK5Y1M_0
Concept
In an interview with Ultimate Metal.com, Jeff said that "The Habit of Fire is a concept album about the living energy in a human being that has become our archetype of survival... ...The fire itself represents an energy or spirit that can never be taken down by outside forces. The lyrical themes are based around a 12-million people metropolis within a post-dictatorship country, heading down into chaos due to the people's inability to adapt with the global winds of change."Recording
In the same interview, Jeff said that the recording process was only the second album that the band did not have a single problem in the recording process. About 75% of the music was written during pre-production. Jeff would collect sampleSampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
s and create MIDI information, and manipulate the sounds to create the 'skeleton'. Then riffs, MIDI instruments, synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, and melodies would be added and the structure re-arranged. Once the song structure was set, the guitars would be re-recorded, then bass and drum tracks would be put on top, then vocals.
Overall, it took over 7 months to complete.
Reception and style
The Habit of Fire met with a mixed reception by critics. It was praised for its diverse style and instrumentation as well as its quality musicianship, but was considered repetitive and over-indulgent at times, as well as somewhat inaccessible and difficult to digest. The album was nominated for The Best Avantgarde Metal Album award by the popular metal website Metal StormMetal Storm (webzine)
Metal Storm is a webzine specializing in various forms of heavy metal music. It is based in Tallinn, Estonia but caters to an international audience, symbolically recognized by the acquisition of an EU domain in 2008...
, and on November, 2007, the album was chosen as the CD of The Month by UK's music technology magazine Sound on Sound
Sound on Sound
Sound on Sound is an independently-owned monthly music technology magazine published by SOS Publications Group, based in Cambridge, UK. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, and interviews with industry professionals...
.
On this release, the band reduced its black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
sound to make room for atmospheric soundscape
Soundscape
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology...
s and industrial
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
textures. The music is varied, combining the band's metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
roots with styles such as progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
, electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
, psychedelic ambient, and jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
, giving the album a "breathless, almost ADD
ADHD predominantly inattentive
ADHD predominantly inattentive is one of the three subtypes of Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder . While ADHD-PI is sometimes still called "attention deficit disorder" by the general public, these older terms were formally changed in 1994 in the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of...
" feel. The experimental aspects of the album were likened to Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
, while the progressive elements were compared to Marillion
Marillion
Marillion are a British rock band, formed in Aylesbury, England in 1979. Their recorded studio output comprises sixteen albums generally regarded in two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original vocalist & frontman Fish in late 1988, and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve...
and the heavier passages to Mortal
Mortal (band)
Mortal was a Christian industrial/dance band fronted by Jerome Fontamillas and Jyro Xhan. Both members went on to found the alternative rock group Fold Zandura, and for a time were members of both bands simultaneously...
.
Track listing
- "Prelude: Worldhate Chronicle" - 0:21
- "The Gathering of Ants" - 5:50
- "Isolated I" - 5:49
- "Manipulator Generals (Part I of Dictatorship)" - 10:47
-
- I. Failure is The System
- II. The Precaution of Aftermath
- III. Decadence and Excess
- "Our Urban Industry Runs Monotonously" - 4:45
- "To Whom It May Concern" - 6:01
- "Free Association" - 4:48
- "Historicity and State of Mind (Part II of Dictatorship)" - 5:52
- I. Repeated Patterns
- II. Aftermath
- "Postlude: Saat Kemarau" - 3:55
- "A Real Life to Fear About" - 7:47
- "Escapism" - 14:39
- I. What on Earth Am I Here For?
- II. The Habit of Fire
- III. Subterranean Passageways
- IV. A Road Above, A Road Ahead
- V. Finding A Way to Stand Up Again
Line-up
- Jeff ArwadiJeff ArwadiJefray Arwadi is a musician, music producer, and graphic artist from Jakarta, Indonesia, who now resides in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is most notable as the former guitarist and front man for avant-garde/progressive metal band Kekal, and as the co-founder of experimental death metal project...
- Azhar Levi SianturiAzhar Levi SianturiAzhar Levi Sianturi is the former bassist for avant-garde/progressive metal band Kekal. He also has his own grindcore project called Mournphagy.-Kekal:...
- Leo SetiawanLeo SetiawanLeo Setiawan is a former guitarist for progressive metal band Kekal.-History:Leo joined Kekal on 1996, just after the band released their official demo, Contra Spiritualia Nequitiae...
Guest musicians:
- Jason DeRon of ParamaeciumParamaeciumParamaecium was an Australian death/doom metal band formed in 1991. There is use of instrumentation like flutes, cellos and violins on some albums. Paramaecium is one of the few doom metal bands that focus on Christian lyrical themes and Christian concepts...
, Altera EnigmaAltera EnigmaAltera Enigma is an experimental death metal supergroup formed by Jason De Ron, the former guitarist and front man of Paramaecium, and Jefray Arwadi, former guitarist, vocalist, and front man of Kekal. Both of these musicians have a career that has seen them record and release nearly 20 albums...
, and Soundscape - additional guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
on "Escapism" - Kenny Cheong of Altera EnigmaAltera EnigmaAltera Enigma is an experimental death metal supergroup formed by Jason De Ron, the former guitarist and front man of Paramaecium, and Jefray Arwadi, former guitarist, vocalist, and front man of Kekal. Both of these musicians have a career that has seen them record and release nearly 20 albums...
and Soundscape - fretless bass on "Escapism" - Safrina - vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
on "Saat Kemarau" - Didi PriyadiDidi PriyadiDidi Priyadi is a musician and songwriter from Jakarta, Indonesia who is most notable for his brief stint as a guest guitarist for avant-garde metal band Kekal, his pop punk band Happy Day, and for his role as front man for progressive goth metal band In Memoriam...
of In Memoriam - additional guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
solo on "Isolated I"