Band: Karnivool
Release: Asymmetry (Album)
Release Date: Out now!
For a band at the forefront of their genre, Aussie progsters Karnivool have an extremely low musical output. Talking about their measly three albums in 15 years, founding member Drew Goddard said the band are “completely mystified by the song-writing process” and that they just don’t know what they’re doing.
Listening to this latest release though, you wouldn’t know it. Although far from an easy listen, this 72-minute opus is laden with ambient, muddy soundscapes that are frequently mesmerising and sometimes beautiful. It’s well worth taking the time to get to grips with ‘Asymmetry’.
After four years of silence, the first taste of what to expect from this album we were given was the thumping romp ‘The Refusal’. Noticeably heavier than anything from their previous release, making this track available first for free download was clearly intended to make a strong impact. Even on ‘Asymmetry’, this number stands out as being darker and edgier than any of their other material. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s not the kind of song that makes this band great.
Next came the video for ‘We Are’, a far superior song which embodies the hallmark sound that makes Karnivool stand out as a band – it’s ethereal, impactful, and just plain unusual.
Incidentally, much of this signature sound is down to Ian Kenny’s distinctive vocal tone, which is fantastic to listen to. He delivers his parts with an interesting blend of power and subtlety that’s hard not to appreciate.
Book-ended by haunting meditations ‘Aum’ and ‘Om’, this offering covers a pleasing variety of musical ground. Gritty industrial-influenced number ‘Nachash’ is thick with growling bass lines and Kenny’s all-encompassing vocals. ‘A.M. War’ is laden with discordant, uncompromising riffage throughout, and contrasts sharply with sprawling epic ‘Aeons’ – the first of three ethereal and uplifting 7-minute epics on this release.
Title-track ‘Asymmetry’ turns out to be basically an interlude piece. More than that, it’s barely even music – it’s an arrangement of layered, looped samples, designed to resemble music. It’s hardly surprising – this sort of unconventional musical experimentation is exactly what we’ve come to expect from this band.
The other two 7-minuters on ‘Asymmetry’ provide the highlights on the second half of this album. “Please try to understand, there is no great plan,” muses Kenny in one memorable melodic idea from ‘Sky Machine’, a track laden with floating eerie lyrics that are frequently beautiful. Final song on the record ‘Alpha Omega’ starts out melancholic and unsettling, before building and then erupting into a distorted guitar solo. Its sombre chant of “Break the mould, let’s shake the ground – wreak havoc” provides one of the most enthralling moments on the album (provided you play it really loud).
Although in places the murky, distorted instrumentation makes ‘Asymmetry’ a tough listen, it’s worth it. This collection of atmospheric soundscapes is extremely rewarding once you’ve made sense of it all.
8/10
Reviewer: Solomon Radley
