ASYMMETRY
Karnivool
(Sony)
For an Australian band that started off playing Nirvana covers, Karnivool have progressed somewhat into more sonically ambitious territory on their third studio album and first in four years.
And if the opening track Aum is a quiet ambient interlude into the primal sound of the cosmos, what follows is certainly a more hardcore foray into the realms of ambient rock that a progressive one.
The three longest tracks Aeons, Sky Machine and Alpha Omega – all at seven minutes plus – represent the best developed ideas on Asymmetry, with see-sawing bursts of guitar, extended instrumental passages, lyrics that suggest more than they deliver and the kind of rhythmic thrust you’d expect from a space launch.
What is missing though is a sense of direction or purpose.
It’s as if Karnivool threw all of their best ideas into the mix and hoped they’d find something that made cohesive sense.
In this case some of parts are better
