ASYMMETRY

Karnivool have changed their sound significantly from their previous effort, 2009's stunning 'Sound Awake', and that hasn't gone down well with a lot of fans. Where Sound Awake was fairly centred heavy prog/alt metal that broke into some strange tangents, but largely remained quite riff & melody-driven, Asymmetry is centred around Steve Judd's amazing, complex drum beats and the guitarists' beautiful atmospheres, rather than walls of guitars (mostly). I think the complaints by many that the album is too complex, or is complex for complexity's sake, are going over the top a little- while it's certainly rather less rhythmically predictable or stable than it's predecessor, it's mostly nothing that several listenings can't help you to get a grip on. The first couple of tracks is where this is most evident. The atmospheres created are a major feature to the sound of this album- particularly in the second half, as the music begins to calm down, but also on the single, We Are, which is quite beautiful.

The flaws in the album are certainly there, however- having mostly heavy, uptempo songs in the first half and mostly calm, more straightforward/atmospheric ones in the second half may fit into whatever concept singer Ian Kenny had in mind, but it does leave it feeling unbalanced. There is also a lack of truly great songwriting- great sections, great ideas, but nothing that comes together as well as Deadman, or Change, from Sound Awake. Not the songs are at all bad- We Are, Aeons, and others are excellent tracks.

Still, my favourite album of 2013, not as good as Sound Awake for the previously mentioned reasons, but the atmospheres and sound do make think otherwise sometimes. 4 stars.