Review Summary: Interesting album, if somewhat overwhelming
Acidity, Kekal’s fifth album, is an interesting album, to say the least. I admit I was not familiar with this Asian band until a month or so, because, let’s face it, Asian metal was never too popular. Even if I had read positive things about them, I was sort of reluctant before picking this up.
Now this is a very diverse LP. There is no doubt that it is extreme metal, and also that has multiple influences from different sub-genres, and so, it is hard to put it under a strict label.
Black Metal is probably what fits this album most, but it is certainly debatable and if you compare to old classics of that genre you will find notorius differences.
Acidity presents very good and clean production, melting their well-done instrumentation with a lot of experimentation, creating a branch of progressive metal. For the most part, the tones are high, the riffs fast paced and the vocals screamed, giving the album some epic aura which is highly enjoyable, as on the song
Strength In My Weakness, one of the easy standouts. The slower passages are well done too, although at some points they could seem overly long, or pretentious, not creating the haunting atmosphere some of the faster and more blackmetalish parts do. The clean vocals are fine too, and contrast nicely with the harsh screams.
On another note, it is clear that Kekal has very good ideas at the time of songwriting, melting influences not only from extreme metal acts, but also from progressive rock, notorious on the song
A Dream for a Moment, for instance. At times it can be a bit overwhelming, perhaps for the 55 minutes the album lasts, but it works well for the most part. Drumming is also a fairly interesting aspect of this album, while the bass could have a bit more of presence to achieve a thicker sound.
Undoubtedly, Kekal created quite a particular album with their 2005
Acidity. It is nothing groundbreaking, but a good result of mixing multiple influences from extreme metal and progressive music, as well as experimentation and good musicianship, with a nice sense of melody, that make for a highly enjoyable experience.
