The Painful Experience
Encyclopedia
The Painful Experience is the 3rd full-length studio album by the Indonesia
n progressive
black metal
band Kekal
. The title refers to the recording sessions for Embrace the Dead
. Shortly after the release of the album, Leo
left the band when he moved to Australia
.
screaming on some of the songs, which drew comparisons to King Diamond
. In 2010, HM Magazine ranked it #59 on their Top 100 Christian metal albums of all time list with Lloyd Harp stating about the album: "This Indonesian band's early work was primitive black metal. The Painful Experience took the harshness of black metal, but infused it with lots of melodies and some progressive sensibilities. It hinted at the ground their later works would traverse, but The Painful Experience is perhaps the most successful of their fusion of progressive metal and extreme black metal."
, thrash
, power
, and classic metal
. In a recent interview with the band's Facebook
staff, Jeff stated that he had forgotten how much energy and intensity he and the other band members put into recording the album. He also admitted that album contains a fair amount of Iron Maiden
influence, and that he had been listening to a lot of Iron Maiden material at the time of recording.
s have to take up their cross.
Additional personnel:
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 progressive
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
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....
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...
. The title refers to the recording sessions for Embrace the Dead
Embrace the Dead
Embrace the Dead is the 2nd album by the Indonesian extreme metal band Kekal. It reached sold-out status in 2004. On August 15, 2010, a new, remastered limited edition entitled Embrace the Dead 1999 was released as a free download, for up to a 1000 downloads.-Recording:Embrace the Dead was,...
. Shortly after the release of the album, Leo
Leo Setiawan
Leo 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...
left the band when he moved to 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...
.
Reception
Kekal experimented greatly on The Painful Experience, and garnered mixed reviews. The album was praised by critics for its numerous experiments and emotional quality, but was criticized for Jeff's falsettoFalsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
screaming on some of the songs, which drew comparisons to King Diamond
King Diamond
Kim Bendix Petersen , better known by his stage name King Diamond, is a Grammy Award nominated Danish heavy metal musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his extensive vocal range, in particular his usage of falsetto. He is the lead vocalist for both Mercyful Fate and the eponymous King Diamond...
. In 2010, HM Magazine ranked it #59 on their Top 100 Christian metal albums of all time list with Lloyd Harp stating about the album: "This Indonesian band's early work was primitive black metal. The Painful Experience took the harshness of black metal, but infused it with lots of melodies and some progressive sensibilities. It hinted at the ground their later works would traverse, but The Painful Experience is perhaps the most successful of their fusion of progressive metal and extreme black metal."
Style
The diverse style of the album includes elements of blackBlack 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....
, thrash
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
, power
Power metal
Power metal is a style of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. The term refers to two different but related styles: the first pioneered and largely practiced in North America with a harder sound similar to speed metal, and a...
, and classic metal
Classic metal
Traditional heavy metal, also known as classic metal or simply heavy metal, is the seminal genre of heavy metal music before the genre "evolved and splintered into many different styles and subgenres."- Terminology:...
. In a recent interview with the band's Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
staff, Jeff stated that he had forgotten how much energy and intensity he and the other band members put into recording the album. He also admitted that album contains a fair amount of Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
influence, and that he had been listening to a lot of Iron Maiden material at the time of recording.
Lyrical themes
For this release, the band expanded its lyrical approach to tackle the current socio-political scene in Indonesia. The opening track "The Monsters Within" is based on a true story of an impoverished man who is reduced to stealing but is caught and beaten by a mob. The song "Mean Attraction" is about terrorism and is based on the Indonesian Christmas Eve church bombings of 2000. The title track is about the painfulness of life and how ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s have to take up their cross.
Track listing
- The Monsters Within
- Crave for Solid Ground
- Mean Attraction
- Like There's No Other Way to Go
- Behind Closed Doors
- After The Storm
- Given Words
- Militia Christi
- The Painful Experience
- Via Dolorosa
bonus tracks
- Voice From Heaven (appears on Clenchedfist Records version)
- Like There's No Other Way to Remix (appears on Fear Dark version)
- Militia Christi (remix, appears on THT Productions version)
Personnel
Line-up:- Jeff - guitarsElectric 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...
, 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...
, synth orchestrationsSynthesizerA 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...
, noises and samplesSamplingSampling may refer to:*Sampling , converting a continuous signal into a discrete signal*Sampling , converting continuous colors into discrete color components*Sampling , re-using portions of sound recordings in a piece...
, additional bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Azhar - bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, 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...
, 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... - Leo - guitarsElectric 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...
- FXAJ - additional guitarsElectric 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...
, noises and samplesSamplingSampling may refer to:*Sampling , converting a continuous signal into a discrete signal*Sampling , converting continuous colors into discrete color components*Sampling , re-using portions of sound recordings in a piece...
, additional arrangements - Doctor D - additional 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...
, noises and samplesSamplingSampling may refer to:*Sampling , converting a continuous signal into a discrete signal*Sampling , converting continuous colors into discrete color components*Sampling , re-using portions of sound recordings in a piece...
, additional arrangements - Sang Hitam - Drum machineDrum machineA drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
Additional personnel:
- Aris Darisman - severed face sculptureSculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
- Jeff - engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
and mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may... - Jeff/Soundmind Graphics - cover layout design