Review Summary: Change (Part 3)
Sometimes albums come along that drastically alter your perception of what music is. Karnivool has always been a band that can invoke this in their listeners. Since the beginning, the band has always seemed to be searching for something, making stops along the way to write down and capture exactly where they're at. With
Sound Awake, they completely shed their nu-metal/hard rock roots and explored the vast far-reaching expanses of progressive rock. And to the astonishment of its listeners, the band impressively knocked it out of the ballpark, delivering one of the key modern releases to come out of the genre. Four years later, listeners were greeted once again with a progressive rock offering, but this time things were different.
Asymmetry is far from your standard affair. Much like its predecessor, the album constantly covers new ground in the ongoing discovery of their sound. This time however, instead of expanding their sound by song length as well as genre, Karnivool chose to explore the dynamics of their sound. I always found this album title to be one of the more fitting titles I've come across. One of the more well-known teachings of art is that people and society respond well to things that are symmetric. As an example, many celebrities that we find to be universally attractive in terms of looks are perceived as such partially because their facial features are closer to symmetrical than the average person. By that logic, the term
asymmetry would be more synonymous with something that is "unattractive" or "uncomfortable". Lead guitarist Drew Goddard had stated the band's intent with this album was to veer away from the current musical trends he had observed over the past couple years. Now that may seem counter-intuitive to most. Why would the band deliberately choose to make a sound people would find unappealing? Furthermore, it might also seem like the band is offering up a convenient excuse in the event that the album was not received well ("We were trying to write weird music!"). Everything about the album's concept from the get-go seems engineered so that the album fails.
And yet,
Asymmetry succeeds. So much so, that it not only effectively reestablishes the relevance of Karnivool in the modern music scene, but it also matches its predecessor in just how crucial a step it is in the band's development. Some of my most cherished musical discoveries were albums I was not comfortable with at first, and I'm sure most could think of a similar experience with music in their life. There is an odd sense of beauty in discovering that something ugly on the surface is in fact beautiful underneath, and
Asymmetry is that kind of album. The first few listens to this will never go as planned for both newcomers as well as long-time fans. The overpowering snare drum on tracks like "Nachash" and "We Are" or the abrasive opening riff of "A.M. War" litter the album's first half with sounds that are nothing but uncomfortable at first. Even the album's most accessible track "Eidolon" could be perceived as too far of a step into pop territory for the band. But anyone who expects this band to stay true to their core sound is missing the entire point of what the band is trying to do here: explore.
The rest of the album explores this newfound sound with an impressive sense of comprehensiveness. By the end of this satisfying hour of music, it will feel like the band has uncovered every nook and cranny of what they were trying to discover. For every stripped down and lighter track like "Float" there are heavier offerings like "The Last Few" that race out of the gates with aggressive textures. The middle of the album is perhaps the most exciting, when the band starts applying what they've done to their trademark longer tracks, and "Aeons" as well as "Sky Machine" present some of the band's most thrilling work yet, with Ian Kenny's vocals standing out on both as highlights.
This is exciting music. I have a lot of favourite bands I have followed for years that continuously offer excellent music. However, the vast majority of those bands get stuck in old ideas and rarely branch out into new territory anymore. Karnivool is one of a select few bands I can point to these days that is refusing to produce the same thing twice. Their music is not only high-quality, but feels fresh and unique, and it's even more exciting that these new ideas end up fully realized and successful. Any band can try something new, but few can effectively merge it into their sound in a way that feels natural. It is fun to be challenged every so often by a band and learn new things about your music tastes.
Asymmetry is the next step in the evolution of Karnivool and hopefully not the last.
