Reviewed on Saturday May 2 (photo by Ashley Mar)
The Metro on Saturday night was the third stop of Karnivool’s 17-gig tour around Australia in support of the ten-year anniversary of their debut album, Themata. It’s a bit lazy to structure a tour around an old album, but in fairness, it’s a tough life being an Australian band, let alone an Australian metal band, let alone an Australian progressive metal band. So, let them have it. Every little bit counts.
Bang on time, the Perth rockers rolled out onto the stage at 10pm, and after a quick word from frontman Ian Kenny along the lines of, “Ten years ago we released an album, and it started an amazing journey,” the band jumped straight into the pounding riff of ‘C.O.T.E.’.
Part of the magic of a live show is the setlist – will there be a blitz of their best songs? Will they meld two distinct tracks together? Will they shoehorn any covers into the show or even into their songs (à la Faith No More)? – but that magic is indelibly missing in a tour celebrating an album; of course Karnivool were going to play Themata from start to finish. After ‘C.O.T.E.’, there was ‘Themata’, ‘Shutterspeed’ and so on, until ‘Change (Part 1)’.
While Themata is a solid album and was a very impressive debut, it goes in several directions that Karnivool haven’t followed up as they’ve matured (and genres like nu-metal have fallen out of favour). Playing the album from start to finish also meant there was an inherent imbalance; aces like ‘C.O.T.E.’ were used early, while poorer tracks like ‘Sewn And Silent’ and ‘Synops’ inevitably had an airing.
That, however, didn’t matter to the crowd. Every strum, slap of the floor tom, change of time signature and spaced-out sway of Kenny’s arms was met rapturously by the rabid punters. Every time Kenny offered the mic to the crowd, the lyrics were returned perfectly, bringing genuine delight to the singer’s face. Even the announcement and performance of a new song (‘Aozora’) was eagerly lapped up by the gangbustingly enthusiastic audience. (Along with four other songs from more recent releases, ‘Aozora’ was stuck on the end of the setlist after the Themata playthrough.)
A lot of talk is emanating from the Karnivool camp that their next release will break the band’s standard four-year album cycle. And that, in a way, tells the whole story; it’s a bit disjointed to have a ten-year anniversary tour when, apart from the debut album, the band has only released about 20 other songs in a decade.
It’s a very hard thing to say about a progressive band, considering almost every Karnivool track is spring-loaded with calculated experimentation, but the slow movement from the Western Australians in the last ten years has meant that Themata isn’t as much of a distant memory as a decade might suggest. Whilst the performance was absolutely sublime, the familiarity with Themata and live renditions of its songs meant that the gig felt too familiar.
