http://www.myspace.com/karnivool

I found out about Karnivool in early 2008, totally out of left field and they blew me away, and made me discover the exploding Aussie modern rock scene.

Themata is a brilliantly put together album that will remind people mostly of Tool, with little sprinkles of meshuggah style technical metal, muse’s epic melodies and smooth vocals, but all in a package of surprisingly digestable 4 min songs.

I’ve given this album a frankly ridiculous number of plays over the last year (2000 song plays) and I still listen to the album the whole way through without skipping songs.  Highlights for me are the first single and title track Themata (how often is the single actually one of the best songs on an album?!) which features some of the more epic parts of the album, and has fantastically complex guitar parts through the chorus.  Roquefort, Synops, and Mauseum are other favourite tracks of mine.

Something that appeals to me is that the album sounds immaculate, and was made entirely indepentendly by the band.  Drew Goddard has since become one of my idols, contributing all guitar recordings, most of the drum tracks (he considers himself more of a drummer than a guitarist aparently*), and of course a good portion of the songwriting duties.

Do independent music a favour and buy this album, or catch them live if you’re in Australia.