Today we’re joined by none other than Michael Gagen, guitarist extraordinaire at bands you may have heard of, like hazards of swimming naked and (ex-) Arcane, and bands you’ve probably never heard of, like Echotide, agrammeofsoma and more. We don’t know which of those bands you’ve heard of, but we…
Karnivool have now finally returned with Asymmetry, an album that is not only by far their most challenging work to date, but one that may also be their most accomplished.
Successfully composing layered epics of greater than ten minutes in length and thematically intricate concept albums is no doubt a feat of great skill and application, worthy of the praise and attention we laud upon the musicians who bless us with such challenging listening experiences. However, what is less obvious, and less often recognised, is just how difficult it is to write songs that are more compact in structure, yet are of such depth that they continue to reveal new secrets and subtleties with each repeated listen. Hailing from the current Australian school of alternative and progressive rock, JERICCO have, with their debut album, Beautiful In Danger, managed to compile a collection of songs that do exactly that.
Even though Karnivool’s Themata preceeded it by just a few months, there can be no doubt that it was Cog’s seminal 2005 debut album, The New Normal, that ushered in the golden era of Australian progressive rock that continues to this day. However, after the release of only two albums, and with seemingly…
