Kekal

Early years (formation to 2002) The early history of Kekal started out in 1990, when 16-year-old musician Jeff Arwadi formed a self-styled "punkish thrash metal" band called Obliteration with some of his high school friends, but Jeff quit this group in 1991 to better learn guitar. To create reverb during vocal takes, a bucket was placed over the microphone head. The following year the band contributed to a Living Sacrifice tribute album with a cover of that band's song "Mind Distant". In October 2001, the band's third album, The Painful Experience, was released. Leo Setiawan left the band before the recording sessions and moved to Melbourne, Australia, but he was still listed on the album credits as a guitarist due to his contribution on the album's songwriting and general concept. In 2002, the band was reduced to a duo. It collaborated with the Dutch band Slechtvalk to record a split album, Chaos & Warfare, and also recorded a cover of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" for the compilation album Brutal Christmas: The Season in Chaos. International scene (2003–2006) , Sweden, on 5 March 2004. In 2003, with the absence of Leo as a guitarist, the remaining members Jeff and Azhar Levi recorded a cover song "Dance Macabre" for a well-received Cradle of Filth tribute album entitled Covered in Filth, and shortly after they released the highly progressive and experimental 1000 Thoughts of Violence which was also well received, being rated eight out of ten by Rock Hard and was regarded as a highlight of the year 2003 by Powermetal.de. The success of 1000 Thoughts of Violence was followed up by a two-week European mini-tour, arranged and promoted by the band's record label in Europe at the time, Fear Dark. In March 2004, the band, consisting of Jeff, Azhar, and Jeff's wife Safrina on programming, played a string of shows in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. That year also saw the release of Spirits of the Ancient Days, a collection of early Kekal demo songs. Didi Priyadi joined as a session guitarist and played in some local shows as an additional live guitarist. Accidity was well received, and Kekal was again noted by "Psych Folk" Radio. In 2006, the band started recording their sixth album, The Habit of Fire. In 2006, Jeff leaked two cover songs, "The Prow", originally by Voivod, and "Juices Like Wine", originally by Celtic Frost, both of which were recorded in 2005. as well as being nominated as The Best Avantgarde Metal Album in 2007 by Metal Storm. In 2007, Jeff leaked another cover tune, "Redemption", that originally was planned as part of a Johnny Cash tribute album by Open Grave Records, a project that was ultimately shelved. album session - 2008 It was revealed later on that the new album was entitled Audible Minority'', and it was meant to be released officially on 25 December 2008 as two versions: a free download and a limited edition Digipak with total 11 songs including a cover of the A-ha song "Locust". The Digipak version was never released, and the album ended up being offered only as a free download instead. Departure of band members (2009) In March 2009, Azhar Levi decided to step down from Kekal. Jeff Arwadi said that although this closed a door, Kekal would continue as a musical unit in a "new era" of the band's history. On 12 August 2009, Jeff announced that he and Leo had left Kekal, and that the name would continue but without active members. He said that, as well as unspecified personal reasons, he decided to leave the band because, after being closer to nature and in a less densely populated city in Canada, he was unable to continue to make dark and angry metal music which he did in the past with Kekal. Shortly after, Kekal put up an offer of three albums for free download on its website, including its best-selling album to date, 1000 Thoughts of Violence. To address confusion among the fans, the band issued a statement on its official Facebook page: "KEKAL IS NOT DEAD!!!! When Jeff left Kekal it doesn't mean the band is dead!" The band remains active without any official members, its pages being maintained by a volunteer collective and all music contributed by former members of the band, and then, after 2012, anonymously. Current activity (2010–present) {{Listen On 15 August 2010, a remastered, limited-edition version of the band's second album, Embrace the Dead, was released as a free-download for up 1000 downloads in celebration of the band's 15-year anniversary. Kekal's newest album, 8, was made available for pre-order on 22 December 2010 by Whirlwind Records, and was released on 23 January 2011. On 2 March 2011, Jeff Arwadi announced on the Kekal Facebook page that he and Leo were recording new music and said that another album would probably be released sometime in 2012. On 26 April, Jeff uploaded a music video for the song "Futuride" from the upcoming EP, which was promised to be released in July. The EP, Futuride, was released in July 2011. In addition to two stand-alone songs, the EP contained three trackings from "Tabula Rasa" made available for public use under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. On 24 February 2012, Kekal announced the title of its ninth studio album, Autonomy, and the album was released on 19 December 2012, first as a limited, hand-numbered deluxe-edition double-CD with the 2008 album Audible Minority (which was previously never released on CD) added as a bonus disc. On 29 June 2013, Autonomy was released by Indonesian netlabel Yes No Wave Music as a free digital download but restricted to Indonesian market only. On March 19, 2013, Kekal released the EP Unsung Division. The band's tenth studio album, Multilateral, was released in 2015. In December 2016, the band announced a new album for 2018, entitled Deeper Underground, and a single, "Root of All Evil", set for release in 2017. Kekal's eleventh studio album, Quantum Resolution, was released in 2020, and a twelfth studio album, Envisaged, was released in 2022. ==Music==

Style {{Listen Although mainly known as a progressive metal and avant-garde or experimental metal band, Kekal has stylistic origins in extreme metal, particularly black metal, but even with its debut album the band demonstrated a unique style. On Embrace the Dead, Kekal used a combination of black metal with death, classic, and doom metal elements and included hints of Gothic and dark wave. Mark Allan Powell described that most of the band's songs were midtempo to fast with a heavy, guitar-driven style, though the band incorporated "certain elements of variety into the sound." On its fourth, highly technical album, 1000 Thoughts of Violence, the band plunged into ultra-progressive experiments, Powermetal.de noted that the band had become more progressive and lost some of its toughness and aggression. Jeff Arwadi responded to the "avant-garde" label in an interview with Ultimate Metal.com: "For us, avant-garde is not a classification of music. It is a state of being, a state of becoming... ...once your music can be classified easily, I don't think the word progressive or avant-garde fits. So that's why we mention in our bio that 'avant-garde' is an ideal state for us, and not a classification." On the next album, The Habit of Fire, the band maintained its use of various music styles such as electronica, ambient, and jazz fusion, but began to shed its black metal roots and introduced atmospheric soundscapes and an industrial vibe. PopMatters described the album as mixing black metal, noise rock, progressive rock, and jazz fusion. With the 2010 album 8, the first album by the band without any active members, Metal Hammer Germany noted that the band was now far away from its early black metal days. Powermetal.de described the band as avant-garde tinged post-rock, with the album being predominantly electronic, but stated that "experimental" was the simplest description of the album. The reviewer, Björn Backes, made comparisons to The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers and noted the use of "weird" arrangements, post-rock mood swings and alternative guitar sound. Sonic Seducer called the album simply avant-garde and described the band as loving triplets, polyrhythms, and complex beats. Influences Kekal has identified itself with the punk rock and early 1980s metal scenes, and considers itself a "street-progressive" band that is aesthetically more akin to Sonic Youth or The Mars Volta than to technically oriented bands like Dream Theater. The band claims roots in 1980s forms of heavy metal as pioneered by bands like Iron Maiden, Bathory, Trouble, Helloween, Celtic Frost, Sodom, Death, and Massacre. Dimebag Darrell and Quorthon have also been cited as influences. The band is also influenced by a diverse array of other music genre, including progressive rock and metal, post-rock, indie rock, hip hop, jazz, R&B, ambient, and electronica, and cites numerous other musicians from within and without heavy metal as influences, including King Crimson, Camel, Rush, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Gary Moore, Eddie Van Halen, Deep Forest, Kitarō, Black Sabbath, Enya, Maire Brennan, Sarah McLachlan, Cocteau Twins, Savatage, Kreator, Paradise Lost, Duran Duran, U2, and Marillion. Songwriting and recording techniques Jeff has stated that starting from the album The Painful Experience they incorporated their own approach to record drum tracks in the studio which they call "hybrid drums", a mix of real-time performance and software-based matrix programming. He also mentioned the efficiency of using the hybrid drumming compared with getting a drummer: "About the drummer, it is still very hard to find a right drummer because Kekal music is ranging from very extreme-metal with blast beats and fast double-kicks, to powerful rock beats that demand steady tempo, and to some polyrhythmic playing and time-signature shifts in the characteristics of jazz and prog drumming. We would need 2 or 3 kinds of drummer for Kekal. That's why the best thing for the recording is to make the hybrid drumming." Jeff also mentioned during the interview about the 2011 Futuride EP, that he has experimented with additive synthesis on the recent songs he has recorded and uses guitars to counterbalance the sounds generated by the additive synthesis. ==Ethics and ideological stance==

Kekal and anarchism Kekal claims to have practiced anarchism since the beginning of its career, which in their own words "translates to non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian approach to self-governing/self-managing", including voluntary contribution, free association and a strong DIY ethic. Kekal never grants copyrights of the band's recording masters to any record labels (since 2010 all the music has been published through Creative Commons license) Kekal and Christianity Kekal has been described by AllMusic as one of the first black metal bands to profess Christian beliefs. Jeff Arwadi, in particular, has expressed his belief in Christianity that is not a religion. During the 2017 interview, he considered himself as a Christian Anarchist and mentioned that he personally opposes the concept of religion, its dogma and hierarchical structure of authority within the church organization. The lyrics on the song called "Rotten in The House" reflect his opposition, which he describes in a 2018 interview: "Oftentimes, people choose to involve deeply into religion not because they want spiritual growth, but just to get away from the life of misery that they experience everyday, an escapism, so that they can 'reverse' their experience to become somewhat 'positive' for them and even 'empower' them. It's almost the same as the use of drugs in order to make you relax, to 'help' you get a good sleep, get high and forget all the problems for a moment. But the danger is also present, like in drugs, religion could become an addictive agent. Its application could gradually damage human sanity, common-sense and conscience." In one interview, Jeff clarified that for him personally, faith is something that drives the human life, and, just like diet and exercise, does not have to be associated with religion whatsoever. In a 2020 interview, he stated that in 2015 and 2016, he underwent what he believes to be a spiritual awakening. He described the revelations he received in these experiences as "Gnosis". ==Members==

Former members • Jeff Arwadi (Altera Enigma, Doctor D,) – guitar, vocals, programming, drum machine, samples & loops (1995–2009) • Azhar Levi Sianturi (Mournphagy – session and live guitar, live vocals • Kenny Cheong (Altera Enigma, Soundscape – vocals, noises and samples, programming • Safrina Christina (Excision) – vocals, keyboards, programming • Hans Kurniawan (Inner Warfare) – keyboard • Habil Kurnia – keyboards, engineering, mixing • Julie – female vocals • Hana – female vocals • Vera – female vocals Timeline • Note: As of 8 August 2009, Kekal has no active members, but former members and anonymous contributors continue to record and contribute content for the band. Therefore, this timeline of the band lineup ceases for any releases after 2012. ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:110 bottom:80 top:0 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/2012 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:dd/mm/yyyy Colors = id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:Guitars value:green legend:Guitars id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass id:Electronics value:purple legend:Electronics,_programming,_samples id:album value:black legend:Album id:other value:gray(0.5) legend:Other_release id:bars value:gray(0.95) Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3 BackgroundColors=bars:bars ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1995 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1995 BarData = bar:Harry text:"Harry" bar:Yeris text:"Yeris" bar:Jeff text:"Jeff Arwadi" bar:Leo text:"Leo Setiawan" bar:Newbabe text:" Newin Atmarumeksa" bar:Azhar text:"Azhar Levi Sianturi" PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:center anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Jeff from:01/07/1995 till:12/08/2009 color:Guitars bar:Jeff from:01/07/1995 till:12/08/2009 color:Vocals width:3 bar:Jeff from:01/01/1997 till:12/08/2009 color:Purple width:7 bar:Azhar from:01/08/1996 till:01/03/2009 color:Bass bar:Azhar from:01/08/1996 till:01/03/2009 color:Vocals width:3 bar:Azhar from:01/06/1996 till:01/08/1996 color:Vocals bar:Leo from:01/08/1996 till:01/01/2001 color:Guitars bar:Leo from:01/01/2005 till:12/08/2009 color:Guitars bar:Harry from:01/11/1995 till:31/12/1998 color:Vocals bar:Newbabe from:01/01/1995 till:01/08/1996 color:Bass bar:Newbabe from:01/01/2004 till:13/03/2005 color:Vocals bar:Yeris from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/1996 color:Guitars bar:Yeris from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/1996 color:Vocals width:3 LineData = layer:back color:album at:01/01/1998 at:01/08/1999 at:01/10/2001 at:01/02/2003 at:01/02/2005 at:15/03/2007 at:15/03/2007 at:25/12/2008 at:15/12/2010 color:other at:10/07/2011 at:01/06/2005 at:01/02/2004 at:01/06/2004 at:01/06/2003 at:01/07/1996 at:01/06/1995 ==Discography==

• Beyond the Glimpse of Dreams – 1998 • Embrace the Dead – 1999 • The Painful Experience – 2001 • 1000 Thoughts of Violence – 2003 • Acidity – 2005 • The Habit of Fire – 2007 • Audible Minority – 2008 • 8 – 2010 • Autonomy – 2012 • Multilateral - 2015 • Deeper Underground - 2018 • Quantum Resolution - 2020 • Envisaged - 2022 ==See also==