Time For Refresh!
Latest Kekal updates, June 2025
Greetings again!
This is Jeff. Thank you for subscribing to Kekal Updates + Messages here on Substack! We have over 2,900 subscribers now, which is great because Kekal is currently under shadow-ban on social media, especially Instagram recently. Our most recent posts and stories there simply did not appear on many of our followers’ feeds, and multiple times we’ve experienced the number of followers drop at one time and then it stalls. Very typical pattern used on any shadow-banned account. The main reason is because Kekal has always used the available platforms that our listeners use, to share important messages and awareness regarding the state of the world (and the reality we live in), and also to expose the hidden agendas of the ruling authority. On Substack, I have posted multiple messages that are deemed “too controversial” to be shared on social media. If you’re interested in reading them, please feel free to browse the archives (posts from 2024 until early 2025).
The most recent shadow-ban on Instagram may have something to do with this post, because it happened right after we shared this. 👇
Like what I have posted in past Substack articles here, they do not like the public to have expanded awareness, especially because our thoughts create reality both individually as well as collectively. The more aware we are of whatever hidden agenda the ruling authority of the world tries to impose in order to dominate us, the more likely we are to make up our mind (instead of following their narrative blindly). If a large number of people disagree and do not want to conform to such an agenda, then the energy signature would manifest into the physical reality that will eventually collapse them. Thoughts create reality, and our emotions enhance it. Below is the November 2024 article where I wrote about that. Feel free to read it if you haven’t yet.
Reality Co-Creation
Every moment we actually create our own reality, whether or not we are aware of it (or want to admit it). Our thoughts and emotions carry certain energetic signatures which help us, both individually as well as collectively, to create the kind of reality based on what we focus upon.
I took a 2-month break from posting anything on Substack, and decided to use my spare time updating some older Kekal albums as well as consolidating the management for the band’s official merchandise. This year Kekal turns 30 as a band, and the best thing for me to do this year is to step back and hold off from working any new music, and instead to contemplate by doing some deep introspection by actively listening to Kekal’s music across the entire discography and reading its lyrics.
From reviewing the older Kekal material, I found out that some albums are worthy to have some kind of refresh. Most of the updates are focusing on the album artwork. Kekal is a pure DIY (do-it-yourself) independent band and we always do the cover artwork ourselves. It turns out that there are at least 3 albums that needed some fresh updates to the artwork, to make the album more interesting. Cover artwork should act as an introductory representative to the entire album. If they don’t quite represent the music, then we will feel something is missing. That’s what I felt when looking at the covers of some of Kekal’s older albums. In this article, I’ll outline the updates (why they’re getting refreshed, etc.).
#1. Refreshing The Painful Experience
The Painful Experience is Kekal’s 3rd album, originally released in 2001 in physical formats (CD and Cassette Tape) by 4 record labels. When it was released back in the day, the cover artwork stood out because it was very different from typical extreme metal artwork published at that time. It caught attention right at first glance, and might have helped with magazines and fanzines picking the promos up for reviews out of curiosity alone. It shows an image of a clay mask with a severed face/head at the center, created by a local artist Aris Darisman. It does look “classic” in a weird & strange way. But what once bugged me was that this original cover of The Painful Experience was too low-resolution to meet the current standards. I took a photo of the clay mask using an early pocket digital camera with 2 megapixels. It was back in the year 2000 when 480p DVD resolution was still considered as a norm.
When the album was remastered back in 2023, the cover got updated/refreshed as well, using a different mask photographed at a mask and puppets museum in Bali which I visited back in 2015; a high-resolution and cleaner one. Then it got photoshopped with adding more elements to conceptually mimic the original cover. Everything was remade from scratch while keeping the same “vibe” as the original. But there was a problem: some pointed out that it looks silly, amateurish and even psychotic! One guy openly said he hates it with passion. I kinda agree, it does look silly upon further examination.
So, after some reconsideration, in 2025 the cover went into some digital makeover once again, using a portrait as a base instead of a mask, while keeping the same color palette and the original concept of “broken clay”. The first iteration of the updated/refreshed cover looks less offensive. It ended up looking more “gothic-ky” and no longer weird. It has lost its uniqueness to it, although it no longer looks silly. I took some weeks to (re)contemplate this cover, basically staring at it while listening to the album. I then decided to discard this draft, because it does not fit the atmosphere of the album at all. It looks off, and for many reasons it just doesn’t feel right to me. Maybe it’s good for a Sinead O’ Connor album, but not for Kekal.
As stated above, after giving it some time to consider whether or not the artwork above can be officially published as the 2025 Updated Edition, I finally made the decision to discard it completely because it doesn’t maintain the uniqueness and “vibe” of the original cover. So I went back to the 2023 version BUT without using the mask as the center of the image, and instead a digital composite taken from real humans (a combination of 3 different images). Basically, it is to improve from the “silly-looking” 2023 version without changing the unique character and “vibe” of the original cover that clearly stands out.
The album’s 2025 Updated Edition is now officially published on Bandcamp. Audio has been updated in 2025 with 48 kHz sampling rate, a slight improvement to the 2023 remastered version. It was remastered using the most up-to-date digital mastering software with the focus on M/S (mid/side) treatments. This also fixes some panning issues on the original audio. Download includes a thoroughly updated 8-page digital booklet PDF and 2 hidden bonus tracks from Chaos & Warfare split CD.
Get 50% discount until August 31, 2025 by applying this code: painful2025
#2. Refreshing Acidity
I have to admit, the original album cover of Acidity, the 5th Kekal full-length originally released in 2005, was actually one of the weakest artwork of Kekal. Levi had not yet to supply any illustration work for Kekal, and I was probably in a state of confusion, maintaining the strict do-it-yourself attitude of Kekal but without paying more attention to the artistic and visual concept of the album. The need was to provide an eye-catching album cover for the Indonesian market because the album was distributed at the mainstream retail record stores for 1 year period. Something that can be used in both CD and cassette tape formats without actually altering the cover (just cropped the artwork for the tape). The original idea was either using the flat-color skeleton hand symbol (that was later used for the 2015 remastered version), or the “faux sticker” with song titles. The latter was picked instead.
Then in 2015, when the album was first remastered for digital platforms inclusion, the cover was getting the update too, with a very simple monochromatic flat-color skeleton hand symbol over a flat grey background. See below for both versions.
The album received another remastering treatment in 2021 to improve the overall sound and to lessen the loudness and compression of both the original version and the 2015 remastered versions, but it was not published officially as the Updated Edition because it did not have the new update to the artwork. Now, in 2025 when I finally had a chance to review the album by carefully listening to the songs, it was clear that the cover did not quite go with the music. It needed a major improvement for its 20th anniversary. So, the new visual concept was created: Any old programs that no longer benefit humanity’s ascension shall be dissolved. By using the existing skeleton-hand symbol as the base idea, the new cover depicts a severed hand (the one that participates in the work for the crumbling old system) getting dissolved into the liquid acid.
The 2025 Updated Edition is now officially published on Bandcamp. You can get it for free (name-your-price scheme) or by donating as low as $1 USD.
You can also support the band by buying the merchandise. Choose between the 2 options of T-shirt design available for Acidity: the new artwork and the old artwork with simple design. Visit www.kekal.org/merchandise
#3. Refreshing 8
Last thing, I also need to mention that even the least-loved/most-hated Kekal album, 8, also received the refreshed album cover this year! Kekal’s 8th full-length album, released in 2010, was among the most disturbingly controversial albums at the time of release. For this update, I replaced the original front cover artwork with Levi’s illustration (supplied for that album, originally used in the inlay CD booklet) in order to represent the album more correctly. I now see it as “the mad album” recorded during the phase during the time I was so close to experiencing a mental breakdown. This album was probably the creative safety-net to keep my sanity intact. It is available digitally on Bandcamp with the refreshed album cover. Enjoy (the madness)!
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New Merchandise Available at www.kekal.org/merchandise