Kekal

Started out in 1995 as a straightforward extreme metal band from Jakarta - Indonesia, Kekal entered the local scene with fresh ideas. Throughout the first 5 years, they developed their own music style by incorporating many diverse elements from outside metal, but not until they released &The Painful Experience& (2001), their 3rd album which marked as a starting point for the band to move deeper into the progressive territory and started to make further explorations with their music.
 
In 2003, they released their 4th album, &1000 Thoughts of Violence&, an album that has gained a lot of attention beyond the Asian region due to the uniqueness of its music: combining stylistic elements of jazz-fusion, progressive rock, psychedelic, trip-hop, experimental electronic and ambient music, and blend them together into their own distinct style known as 'Kekal style'. Praised by critics and ethusiasts alike, they started to cite Kekal among the world's most important 'avant-garde metal' bands, and they toured Europe for the first time in 2004 (as the first Indonesian band to tour Europe). In 2005 they released their equally impressive 5th album &Acidity& and has since strengthen and validate their position within the international underground metal scene.
 
Kekal decided to move forward and to come deep into musical territories yet unexplored by the band. Throughout the year 2006, Kekal was busy recording and shaping their yet another groundbraking, 6th album entitled &The Habit of Fire&, an ambitious 70-minute epic concept album which marked a new statement for the band to push the envelope even harder. &The Habit of Fire& was released in 2007 by 2 record labels in North America and Europe and gained wider distribution and promotional coverage, making it to become another successful album alongside &1000 Thoughts of Violence&.
 
Never poised to follow the success of &The Habit of Fire&, Kekal released their dark, low-key, 7th album &Audible Minority& in December 2008, as a free-download digital only album, dedicated only to the truest of their enthusiast listeners.
 
In August 12, 2009, Kekal shed itself from all the human members, and has since released its 8th album in December 2010 entitled &8&, without the presence of official band members. All three former key-members have left the band, but they decided to continue giving their contribution in music, artwork and audio production for Kekal's future albums.
 
Kekal has achieved something that will be renowned for its own way of displaying human expressions without setting the limits.