The Painful Experience is the third full-length studio album by Indonesian extreme metal band Kekal.

"[11] In 2010, Christian contemporary hard-music music magazine HM Magazine ranked it number 59 on their Top 100 Christian metal albums of all-time list with Lloyd Harp stating about the album: "This Indonesian band's early work was primitive black metal.

The Painful Experience took the harshness of black metal, but infused it with lots of melodies and some progressive sensibilities.

[13] For this release, the band expanded its lyrical approach to tackle the current socio-political scene in Indonesia.

[6] The opening track "The Monsters Within" is based on a true story of an impoverished man who is reduced to stealing but is caught and beaten by a mob.