''Themata'' is the debut full-length album by the Australian

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

band

Karnivool Karnivool is an Australian progressive rock band formed in Perth in 1997. The group currently consists of Ian Kenny on vocals, Drew Goddard and Mark Hosking on guitar, Jon Stockman on bass, and Steve Judd on drums. Karnivool emerged from a band ...

. The album was released independently on 7 February 2005, and was distributed via

MGM Distribution MGM Distribution (Metropolitan Groove Merchants) is the largest independent distributor of Australian music and music related merchandise and was established in April 1998 by Sebastian Chase. MGM Distribution was specifically set up as a dist ...

. The album was released in the United States on 10 April 2007 via Bieler Bros. Records and in the UK on 7 May 2008 on the Happy Go Lucky label. The album was well received in Australia, with

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

Magazine describing it as "a ten-track journey of soaring melody". Three singles were released from the album, "L1FEL1KE" in 2003, " Themata" and "Shutterspeed", both in 2005.

Background

Guitarist Drew Goddard wrote all of the album's songs and performed drums on every track, except for "L1fel1ke". "Roquefort" was initially supposed to be recorded with a horns section, but the band did not have time to do this during the recording of the album. Harry Angus and Kieran Conrau of

the Cat Empire The Cat Empire are an Australian jazz/funk band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1999. For most of the band's duration, the core members were Felix Riebl (lead vocals, percussion), Harry James Angus (trumpet, vocals), Will Hull-Brown (drums), ...

later recorded trumpet and trombone respectively for the single version of "Roquefort". This version has been played live on a few occasions, including at Rock-It 2005, during the

Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music listener poll hosted by the publicly-funded, national Australian youth radio station, Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Australian and alternative music of the y ...

on 26 January 2007, and at the 2010 Melbourne Big Day Out.Drew Goddard said the following regarding "Change", stating "'Change' wasn’t originally conceived as a two part song.

We had written about 60% of "Change" as a whole piece and were desperately trying to finish it in preproduction for inclusion on ''Themata'', as we thought it was shaping up to be an absolute cracker. Due to the nature of the song, the time needed to spend on it and the time we didn’t have we decided do the thing that annoyed everyone so much, and chop it at the peak of the climax, and then finish the 2nd part for inclusion the
next album ''Next Album'' is an album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, his first to be released on the Milestone Records, Milestone label, featuring performances by Rollins with George Cables, Jack DeJohnette, Bob Cranshaw and Arthur Jenkins (percussionist) ...
. The title "Change" seemed fitting as this was the last song (mostly) written during the ''Themata'' sessions and almost signaled what we thought could be a change of direction on the next album.… It seems we were pretty spot on going by the general feel of the new material. It just wouldn’t have found its place on Themata.

Track listing

Charts

''Themata'' debuted on the ARIA top 50 in June 2015.

Certifications

Release details

Personnel

Karnivool * Ian Kenny – lead vocals * Drew Goddard – guitar, drums, backing vocals, string arrangements * Mark Hosking – guitar, backing vocals * Jon Stockman – bass Additional * Ray Hawkins – drums on track 6 * Novac Bull – additional vocals on track 2 * Leigh Miller – string arrangements on track 2 * Eve Silver – string arrangements on track 8 * Ezekiel Ox – whistling and castanets on track 5

References

{{Authority control 2005 debut albums Karnivool albums Bieler Bros. Records albums