Review Summary: Awesome songs hampered somewhat by sub par studio work - I need to get over it and just enjoy an awesome record.
POSITIVE:
There's no more exciting musicians working today than Karnivool. They take all the elements I love in music and bust their asses writing interesting and forward thinking songs. Asymmetry is a continuation of this. Songs are ***in brilliant - you have the occasional trite line from Ian Kenny, but lyrics are secondary to his melodies which are ACE.
NEGATIVE:
There is a muddiness to this record. It breathes FAR better at high volume.
If you read recent interviews with Hos/Kenny, they've explained that it's performances with little studio work.
Nick DiDia - perhaps he helped them focus in the studio, but the end result is one I wish were better production-wise.
Yeah, half the battle is recording correctly and capturing a good performance.
So if you're gonna take that approach, when you have something as sonically towering/perfect as Sound Awake to live up to, as tight a band as Karnivool is, you'd better be a master at mic placement and capture everything perfectly.
Or not. It's brave on their part, can't deny that. And it's not like it's completely gutted, the record sounds *solid*...it's simply not the crowning mix achievement that is Sound Awake. Perhaps the weight of such a career high has pushed them too far in the opposite direction. Find a middle ground boys, your genius writing deserves a master at the helm.
In reality this is a total bull*** proposition - the reason they were able to assemble these songs in this way had plenty to do with their experiences in the studio with Nick DiDia - but humor me - imagine these same tracks treated with the delicate perfectionism of SA - wouldn't that be more desirable?
