I’m not beating the “sleep on an album for months and then really enjoy” allegations
With this album in the past, I usually only listened up to New Day, Set Fire To The Hive was really off-putting to me and it stopped me from listening to the rest of the album. Well, I powered through it one day, and oh wow, Set Fire is actually a decent song, and the hidden gems at the end that are the last four songs, oh what I was missing! Especially Deadman into Change is actually amazing, and I am now playing this album on repeat (along with actually going back and listening to Themata). I had already been listening to their Asymmetry as of late, so I guess I’m just full Karnivool-pilled at this point.
If you want an album ranking go elsewhere, I don’t know if I can pick between Sound Awake and Asymmetry. I might have to say Asymmetry because of songs like Eidolon, Sky Machine, Float, and Alpha Omega, but at the same time, Sound Awake has The Caudal Lure, Illumine, Deadman and Change, and at this point I might even be leaning towards saying Sound Awake is overall more consistent (even if Asymmetry has some great songs, some are also skips for me as of right now).
Edit: Also forgot to mention, but uh, holy bass