Karnivool - Asymmetry

Karnivool Asymmetry cover
Karnivool
Asymmetry
Cymatic/Sony Music
2013
8
Australian atmospheric rock band Karnivool started out in 1997 as a high school band that used to play Nirvana and Carcass covers at parties. After that they began to experiment with nu-metal in their debut album, “Persona” (2001). However, it was their second release “Themata” (2005) and it’s Tool-like sound that got people to start noticing them. After four years of touring around the world, they came back with “Sound Awake” (2009), their third and most known album to date, which debuted at number two in the ARIA album charts and was a top seller in the Australian independent chart.
 
It seems that Karnivool have decided that they will release a new album every four years, and since it’s been four years since “Sound Awake” hit the stores, it was time for their fourth album to come out. The name of the album is “Asymmetry” and it features their distinct fusion of alternative and progressive rock with some metal finishing touches. If I had to describe the album in a few words, I would have to say that it’s perfectly falls right between a Tool and a Porcupine Tree album.
 
Let me be honest for a little while, the first time I pressed play and “Aum”, the weird intro track, begun I thought to myself this was going to be one of those pretentious arty-farty records in which the band thinks themselves too talented to be bound by conventional song formats. That is a common mistake that progressive or art rock bands make. I think that one should always take the listener into consideration and write music that anyone can enjoy without having to go through 10 years of music school. Karnivool have managed to do that in “Asymmetry” almost perfectly. However experimental or unconventional the sound, no matter the contra-tempo drum rhythms and the odd-sounding unusual combination of dropped-B and standard E tuning, in each and every of these songs, there is always the main theme, the bridges, the solos and the chorus, and they all flow as smoothly as silk. It is clear from the first time you hear any of the 14 tracks that the band has slaved over them for quite some time in order to get them just right.
 
I think that it would be pointless to try to list the songs that stand out from “Asymmetry”, because every one of them seems like an unforced extension of the previous one. Therefore, I think that “Asymmetry” should be listened to as a whole, and this is the way that I’ll judge it. There are of course some parts that might be a little weaker than others, but I can’t say that I was ever bored whilst listening to the record.
 
In other words, “Asymmetry” is the kind of record that you stick in your CD player and you let it play throughout without skipping any tracks (and you may press play once again when it’s over).