DVD REVIEW: Decade Of Sound Awake – Karnivool

This year has been a perfect time for reflection. With the world coming to a virtual standstill, it has created the perfect opportunity to look inwardly and take stock of where you are and what brought you to this point. This is something that the Australian progressive titans KARNIVOOL have taken on board and have channelled towards commemorating one of the most monumental stages of their celebrated career to date: the release of their seminal record Sound Awake.

The original plans for the anniversary had been for a sold-out tour across their native Australia. However, thanks to the outbreak this plan was quickly put to rest, and the band had to think of other ideas of how to include their loyal fans in the proceedings. The result was a live streamed set comprising of the album in full, along with a selection of other special tracks performed at the famous Heath Ledger Theatre in Perth. The livestream was so well received at the time that fans requested in their thousands for a physical version to be made available to them to own and thus the Decade Of Sound Awake release was born.

As you can expect, the band have gone all out on the production value. The high-definition cameras stalk the members as they play the opening to Simple Boy amidst a sea of stage lights whilst facing a dark curtain. The idea of contrasting elements has always been key to the KARNIVOOL ethos and that is front and centre here as the heavy, low-end musicianship plays off against the soaring vocals of Ian Kenny who is on top form from the very start.

As the band really kick in to gear you are reminded as a fan just how superb Sound Awake is as an album. Song like Goliath and New Day cover a tremendous amount of musical ground in such a seamless manor that you forget that collectively they have a running time of nearly 13 minutes, and therein lies the difference between KARNIVOOL and many of their counterparts in the progressive music scene. It’s not until the latter stages of New Day that the curtain in front of the band drops and we see the rest of them drowned in the light from the stage. The sight of a completely empty theatre in front of the band makes a for quite a sight, the empty seats would usually be in raptures with the high quality of performance and electric energy coming from the band as a collective on the stage.

It takes the best part of an hour for the frontman to acknowledge the audience directly, but when the music is this captivating and the performance is this enthralling you can forgive that fact. Why break the stride of a band who are firing on all cylinders and reeling off complex songs like All I Know and The Caudal Lure as if they were three-chord pop rock songs?

Change is a real highlight of the set. The hauntingly beautiful guitars echo around the vast, empty venue as Kenny stands amongst the empty aisles surrounded by smoke in a moment that sends chills down the spine. The song is a real nod to the aboriginal history of Australia and that is accentuated by the inclusion of traditional percussion and a digeridoo player. This shouldn’t work. In fact, for any other band it wouldn’t. However, as previously stated: KARNIVOOL are no normal band. The rendition of fan-favourite Fade is as water tight as ever and makes you wish that the circumstances for the performance could have been different. This is the part of the set where the atmosphere would have been at fever pitch and the crowd would have been bellowing the words back to the stage. However, the band perform with such aplomb that you cant help but be swept away in the harmonized vocals and infectious grooves.

The set is drawn to a close with All It Takes and with that KARNIVOOL wrap up a career spanning, mind-bending performance that will do wonders for their ever-patient fans as they hold on for the group’s long-awaited fourth studio album. There are plenty of bands that are swimming in the same expansive waters as KARNIVOOL, but there are few bigger fish. This is a band who seem to constantly grow as artists and we simply cannot wait for the release of new material to sink our teeth in to.

Rating: 9/10

Decade Of Sound Awake is set for release on December 10th via InsideOut Music.

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