January 2022 Feature Release – The Gateway Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Gateway has been nominated by Saxy. It's the 2005 debut album from Aussie alternative metal outfit Karnivool entitled "Themata". I'm a big fan of Karnivool's 2013 third album "Asymmetry" which saw me seeing them play on the supporting Australian tour so it'll be interesting to see if their first up effort draws a similar response.

https://metal.academy/releases/2089

I did my review, here's its summary:

Karnivool is now currently known as an Australian avant-prog rock band, but two decades before this review, they were known as an alt/nu metal outfit that released a couple EPs and received numerous awards nationwide. Wanting to take on the rest of the world, they recorded an album with the sound as the EPs but in a more progressive turn. Themata was released in 2005 in their homeland before releasing it in the US and UK two years later. Get ready for some noisy greatness from down under, with prog-ish songs of multilayered majesty and even a bit of a Linkin Park-like nu metal approach in some places. I'm glad to have finally given this album a listen, and I have a feeling that each subsequent listen will be better than the last. With an amazing sound like that, no wonder they picked up so many awards in Australia and had many prominent live sets before they even thought of making a full album. Themata has a huge rock/metal combo of guitars and melodies in multiple layers. Get this album from a more magical land than Oz!

5/5

Yeah, I really enjoyed this release too. I knew pretty well what to expect going in as Karnivool are very popular over here (in fact, "Themata" reached number 41 on the pop charts & stayed in the top 20 of the independent charts for 165 straight weeks in Australia). It's very easy to see why critics label them as a poor man's Tool though as there's absolutely no doubt as to where they've borrowed most of their sound from. It's just lucky that they do a great job of it with the vocal hooks being plentiful enough & the execution & sophistication of the instrumentation being impressive enough to pull it off pretty comfortably. There's not a dud amongst the twelve tracks other than the pointless twenty seconds of silence that makes up "Omitted for Clarity". "Shutterspeed" & album highlight "Synops" are both perfect examples of the alternative metal sound & are genuine Aussie metal classics while "C.O.T.E." & "Mauseum" aren't too far behind either. There's a bit of a drop in quality through the middle of the tracklisting when Karnivool decide to expand their horizons a touch by creating a couple of much jumpier tracks that sound a lot like Korn & Rage Against The Machine but this is more of a taste thing for me rather than a creative failure. I do prefer Karnivool's 2013 third album "Asymmetry" over his one as they'd defined their own sound a little better by that stage but I doubt too many members of The Gateway will struggle to find enjoyment in a record like "Themata".

4/5

I chose this album for the month after hearing that Karnivool were releasing a new album early in 2022, and felt I needed a refresher beforehand. It's been a while since I gave this album a spin and I'm glad I came back to it. I think the first thing to notice it that it is a product of its time. While it does have influence from a band like TOOL such as "L1FEL1KE" and "Roquefort", and songs like "Scarabs" are heavily indebted to nu metal such as Slipknot, I think it does just enough to make its mark as a cut above those bands. The title track, "Fear of the Sky" "Sewn and Silent" are littered with influence, but also contain many progressive tropes, such as uncommon time signatures and simple, repetitive musical motifs that lead you into a trance. I think "Mauseum" has a Chevelle influence and you may even pick up on some System of a Down on "Synops". A lot of times (most notably with Linkin Park's The Hunting Party) it felt like a mish mash of ideas stuck together for nostalgia purposes. With this, Karnivool use those bands as blueprints and then create their own sound beyond it. It's quite impressive all things considered.

But, this album is hilariously front loaded. After the big opener "C.O.T.E." and the title track, it feels like this is gonna be a solid run, but you can almost feel the band not caring as much beyond "Scarabs" as the songs become more texture than melody. And I like "Sewn and Silent" and "Mauseum", but I would never recommend them first. They poorly represent the bands identity and maybe I'd let it slide since they are deep cuts. But then you have "Synops" with its out of nowhere distorted, blown out guitar that becomes more horrendous with each repeat of the main theme. The album ends with atmospheric texture on "Change (Part 1)" that does not resolve to a completion, but rather makes you wonder where is track 13? 

The album gets credit for engineering and feels very spacious. The bass lines are prominent and efficient (as expected from TOOL imitators), the vocals are unique and melodic, while the guitar work is not overbearing (minus "Synops") and never comes across as sounding like a constant wall of noise. In the end, the progressive elements on display do make it a worthy addition in alternative metal, and this record helped lay down the foundation that fellow countrymen Caligula's Horse would develop further through the 2010s. 

7/10