Despite being a big band in their native Australia, selling out tours and winning awards, Karnivool have never really had the coverage on these shores that their music deserves. They have, however, gathered a small but fevered following in the UK which is increasing all the time shown by the fact that on this, the Divergence tour, they are playing to bigger venues than ever before on our fair island.
The 1865, a brand new 750+ capacity venue in Southampton, is the location for this particular show and the atmosphere is already starting to build as the opening band, Monuments, take to the stage. Hailing from London, Monuments waste no time in announcing their arrival with their refreshing and grooving brand of metal similar to Periphery and Sikth. It is their singer Chris Barretto who really sets the band apart though with his soulful singing voice, crushing screams and on-stage charisma, engaging the audience at every turn. Just when they start to get a little samey, they bring out a Saxophone for a couple of tracks, which adds a nice new dimension to their sound. Well worth a second listen.
Next up is the band everyone is here for, Karnivool. Opening with “Cote” the first track from debut album “Themata”, they proceed to go through a set broken up into 3 parts, songs from “Themata” then songs from “Sound Awake” and finally songs from their most recent album “Asymmetry”. This makes the performance flow really well and ties in with the recent Vinyl release of their discography, upon which this tour was based.
They played all their singles and some real fan favourites; “New Day” and a personal favourite “Deadman” being two of the album cuts that attained the most fevered reactions, while first album cut “Roquefort” featured guest Saxophone by Chris from Monuments which really gave the track a new dimension. Singer Ian Kenny, has an incredible voice live, and conducts proceedings like a wiry puppet master, captivating the audience whilst the band behind him, each extremely gifted musicians, are a tight unit and unquestionable masters of their work.
[Tweet “A tight unit and unquestionable masters of their work”]Throughout the majority of the show I felt like I was transported to another place by the music and the light show, able to forget any thoughts or stresses of the outside world, and it’s only the really special bands who can provide that sought of feeling.
Judging by the reaction of the crowd singing the words back at the band, and especially the amount of people at the show and the comments I heard afterwards, it surely won’t be too long before these guys are playing even bigger venues across the UK and gaining a lot more exposure.
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