You know, I usually don't really care for compilation albums that much. Most of them don't have the best songs on them and it just seems really pointless. As the case with this Kekal compilation, I probably wouldn't have chosen a different track listing, but to tell the truth, the band did an excellent job of choosing songs. Kekal has only recently made serious headway into the secular marketplace, so a compilation album is not really a bad idea. Many of their new fans know nothing of them before The Painful Experience. So, this would be a really good pickup for those fans and also for hardcore fans that desire to have every album the band has released. To give long time fans an incentive to buy the disc, the band has included a re-recorded version of "Source of Existence" which was a bonus track on Embrace the Dead on both of the THT versions. I only have the Fleshwalker version, so this is my first exposure to this cool track! Another surprise is a re-mixed version of "Introduce Me to Immortality" off of their "Contra Spiritualia Nequitiae" demo from 1996. And....to top it off, all of the songs that appear on this compilation that came from their first two full length albums were digitally remastered for a much better sound.
All that being said, I think this is one of the more-called-for compilations in recent years. The track listing for this disc are as follows:
1. Source of Existence
2. The Only Sound of Rain
3. Mean Attraction
4. Embrace the Dead
5. Default
6. A Day the Hatred Dies
7. Crave for Solid Ground
8. Healing
9. Behind Those Images
10. Millennium
11. Rotting Youth
12. The Painful Experience
13. Introduce Me to Immortality
Sixty-seven minutes of extreme metal from a very talented band. They also include a really cool history write-up on every album and the details of the recording of each release. This album will not be available from distributors until late 2003, so if you want it now you have to pre-order it directly from THT Productions or from the band themselves (check out links to these two in the music links section). Definitely a must get for all Kekal fans! (Review by Matt)
