Band:	Karnivool
Album:	Sound Awake
Style:	Alternative metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	June 2009

01. Simple Boy
02. Goliath
03. New Day
04. Set Fire To The Hive
05. Umbra
06. All I Know
07. The Medicine Wears Off
08. The Caudal Lure
09. Illumine
10. Deadman
11. Change

"Hello! Hollow Halo! Can you hear them calling?"

So implores the opening words of the mesmerizing closer '"Change," and I can only hope you can hear Karnivool calling, because this album is stunning.

Building upon the promising alt metal sound of previous album Themata, Karnivool add a more prominent progressive edge to their sound here, developing a sound that seems firmly camped between alternative and progressive metal styles. The heavy, down-tuned, complex riffing and passionate vocals are combined with ambitious songs in length, structure, and time signatures, and inventive guitar playing and exciting drumming. The combination of these elements results in a sound that, whilst comparable to other bands (Tool are regularly name-dropped as a reference for Karnivool), is most certainly their own, and which offers them a good opportunity to explore musically, resulting in the varied yet consistently excellent Sound Awake.

The songs on the album seem to have something of a 3-phase distribution going on - with the shorter, punchier, more clearly alt metal-based songs that open up the album leading into a middle composed of mid-long songs that are less direct and more sonically sprawling, with the eventual culmination in the two 10-minute-plus closing songs. Some might argue that a bit more mixing up of the different songs might give a slightly more balanced sound to the album - however, I really enjoy the flow and seeming "build-up" feel that the track list delivers. As for the songs themselves, my feelings towards them are similarly split into three camps.

"Simple Boy," a somewhat brooding yet quite restrained opener sets the emotional tone for the album, before the angry "Goliath" and explosive "Set Fire To The Hive" really set the album alight, sandwiching the quite simple and soft yet enjoyable "New Day." This quartet really provides some strong momentum to the album; however, whilst all interesting and enjoyable, the following 5 tracks don't quite maintain this momentum, and on multiple occasions I have found my attention drifting during this passage of the album, only for one of many strong moments to draw me back in. Nevertheless, this shift in quality from "excellent" to arguably mere "very good" is ultimately rescued in the closing two tracks.

I think Calabi says it best in the album thread on this website: "If this album was shit except for the last two songs I'd give it a 7. That's how well this album closes." I fully agree with this sentiment. Between the slow burning "Deadman" that feels like it's going to explode any moment with the sheer emotion and passion found throughout, and the truly extraordinary, multi-faceted "Change," a song I can't find the words to accurately summarise or praise, there is more good material in the closing 23 minutes of Sound Awake than in the entirety of a large number of full-length albums. This staggering conclusion rounds out an album introduced by the energy and emotion of the opening third of the album and fleshed out by the explorative ventures of the middle to ultimately deliver a wonderful final package.

If you want music that is varied and regularly expansive, yet grounded and avoiding musical excess, and which delivers plenty of passion and emotion without becoming draining, I fully recommend this album. It far outdoes anything the band achieved prior to its release, and given my relative disappointment over Asymmetry, I'm still waiting for them to reach this level again.