The Tool Effect

It has been over a decade since the last official Karnivool album. A lot has changed in the world since Asymmetry. And even in the world of Karnivool, the release of In Verses is a long time coming, seeing as "All It Takes" was released as a promotional single in 2021. Now as someone who likes Themata and Sound Awake I had heightened expectations of what to expect out of In Verses. That may have been the wrong approach.

Having such a long window of time between releases, regardless of the reason, creates greater hype among the audience about what to expect. For bands that have progressive elements like Tool and Karnivool, I can only imagine that those expectations are heightened further. So when In Verses comes out sounding like a "vibes" album, I do not know if the fans of this band will be as forgiving.

I know that as an onlooker I will give Karnivool the benefit of the doubt over Fear Inoculum. But something still doesn't sit right with me. Karnivool have always been pretty strong songwriters and that is on display here. The first three tracks, "Ghost", "Drone" and "Aozora" all sound great with good choruses, nice thematic development and upbeat grooves. Even "Animation" has a decent flow to it, despite being one of the albums lesser tracks. But then comes the one-two-punch of "Conversations" and "Reanimation". I think that "Reanimation" has a strong build that carries throughout the runtime, while "Conversations" is musical pleasing. But both tracks have immense downtime. It reminds me of Tool where the band will just sit on a simple ostinato for a while without growing or making it more than just its foundation. And as I sat back on this album more, I felt the same way about songs like "Ghost" and "Salva" and even "Opal". 

Where I can give Karnivool credit is in their lyricism. Now a lot of In Verses thematic content revolves around disillusionment and escapism, which is commonplace in this kind of music and doesn't really stand out as a whole. But for individual tracks, the way in which Karnivool are able to manipulate lyrics from the beginning to the finish of each track is commendable. It helps tremendously with that growth that each song should have that is sometimes lacking in its instrumentals.

It was a long turnover for the band and I am glad that the ride is finally over. Now we all get to sit back and enjoy some Karnivool music. And it's honestly pretty good, if you can overlook some painful artistic directions. I would like to say that Karnivool are better equipped for "vibes metal" than a band like Tool are, but even with my guard lowered, I can't help but feel like Karnivool missed an opportunity here.

Best Songs: Drone, Aozora, Reanimation, Remote Self Control, Salva

Kylesa have possibly spent the longest duration on my “to do” list in since its very inception. With the years that I spent meaning to check out more of what constitutes The Fallen clan but never quite getting around to the task, the Georgia natives sat out numerous long years waiting to get anywhere near the front of a queue that simply was not moving. As I approach my fiftieth year on the planet, I am just getting around to a record that came out when I was thirty-four years old and Kylesa were already four records to the good in what was fast coming up for a decade of existence for them. Following the much-praised Static Tensions album from the previous year, Spiral Shadow had much to live up to for the fans of its predecessor. I have the luxury of their 2010 release being my gateway album, having heard nothing from Kylesa prior to this. As such, I get to review it based on its merits as a standalone record.

I was surprised at the inclusion of two drummers in the band, in fact, I would never have even thought this could possibly work in any band, regardless of style, pacing or tempos. This was the first instrument that stood out to me on Spiral Shadow, not because the dual percussion offers such an overwhelming experience though. It was more how clever the interplay between them both was, managing to create innovation, complementary exchanges and adding weight to the sound without creating a wall of bashing noise. The tight drumming of ‘Drop Out’ with that military style salvo is a joy to behold, especially when the rest of the instrumentation rejoins proceedings and keeps time with it. Also on Spiral Shadow, the male and female vocals combination provide distance on some occasions but also a unified strength in others. The male vocal style reminds me of Kowloon Walled City a lot, which can only be a good thing in my book.

My quandary with this record is mainly down to perhaps the best-known track on here, ‘Don’t Look Back’. Each time I approach it in the track listing, I get the urge to skip it. Then it starts and I think it is not so bad and allow it to play. I am not sure quite where my issue with it comes from in all honesty. I certainly pick up on the similar sounding structure on other tracks on the record though which makes me wonder if it is some fluke regurgitation of an idea that ended up paying maximum dividends. It is not a bad track, far from it in fact. However, I can’t shake the sense of laziness that seems to fit its build and structure, even if performance wise I cannot fault it. That having been said, there is still plenty else to enjoy on Spiral Shadow and so I cannot let this one track pull down the overall rating of the record.

Fun, unhinged and very, very satanic death metal. I like it, and it's clearly ahead of it's time, as this a very early example of the kind of fast-as-hell tremolo based death metal that would be done ad nauseum in the next years. Lyrics wise it is surprisingly creative for a record that is basically about the same thing all the time (it's all Satan! and I'm not complaining!) and the delivery is awesome, both in terms of rhythm and timbre. Drumming is also great, and the drum mix is fine. Talking about the mix, this is what kind of ruins it for me, the production here is pretty ass, specially the strings. Essentially no bass and the guitars are very thin and small for the level of brutality they were going for. Had this a production like Death's Leprosy or even Morbid Angel's Altars (which is not a favorite production wise), this would be pretty much perfect.

Listening through Death's discography, I finally come to an album that is very much regarded as one of the band's best but that I never gave too much attention. After many, many spins this has come to be my favorite Death album. The perfect point in the progression of their sound, the very transition between the brutality of Leprosy and the progressiveness of Sound, here everything is in perfect balance. Coupled with stunning musicianship, amazing compositions and a very solid production, Human takes Death far ahead of the competition with a record that shows how much art can really be in death metal. I feel like this is a specially somber album in the band's discography, with some of their most aggressive (Suicide Machine comes to mind) and sinister (Lack of Comprehension) songs, and also the first to go deep into philosophical and existential lyrical topics, something that would become a staple in Chuck's later work. Honestly, there is an argument to be made for every song here as a standout, because every single track has something interesting and new to offer. Every instrument is also played flawlessly. Here the band starts to use very creative and distinct drumming, with quick metallic cymbal grooves that would also become a trademark of the later Death sound, and also veers toward a more technical and out there string instrumentation, specially in bass fills and dare I say "jazzy" solos (like the second one on Flattening of Emotions).

Well, to summarize, this pretty much scores perfectly in every way and the only reason I don't give it all stars is that I reserve this rating for albums that really touch me in a different way. It can't get much better than Human.

Disarmonia Mundi are members of the quarter-century-club and at this point, it's safe to say that they will never learn how to produce an album properly. 

This was a struggle to listen to. Not because The Dormant Stranger is a poorly written album, but because the production is complete ass. The loudness war has taken full effect here and has been a staple of Disarmonia Mundi's music for a while now. So tracks that may have had potential like "Outcast" and "8th Circle" lose all of their grandeur by having brick wall soundscape. Nothing is allowed to breathe as the guitars just power away the entire time. The vocals are compressed to hell and only really ascend above the instrumental when the harmonies and vocal layering takes over. This would all be an issue on any record released in 2025, but could be forgiven if the mood was right, say for example this was a hardcore punk or metalcore record. The Dormant Stranger is not only neither of those things, but this record goes on for almost an hour! By the time I hit "8th Circle" at nearly seven minutes long, I was nearing the end of my rope. This band needs to streamline their albums OR write shorter songs more consistently. As it stands, it's an album that starts off underwhelming only becomes progressively worse the longer it goes on.

Best Songs: Illusion of Control, Crossroads to Eternity, The Dormant Stranger