"Set Fire To The Hive" is the fourth single and music video by the Australian progressive rock band Karnivool

Karnivool

Karnivool are 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 guitar, and Steve Judd on drums. Karnivool emerged from a band Kenny and Goddard formed during high school...

, their first from their second studio album, Sound Awake

Sound Awake

Notes"Deadman" does not run until 12:04, it stops at 10:08, and is followed by a re-recorded version of the closing song from Themata, "Change ", which then segues into "Change "...

.

Background

The song was debuted live at the Aeons Tour in 2008, was confirmed to be the first single on the band's MySpace and was released on 28 April, 2009. The earlier-confirmed music video was released on 8 May, 2009 and has received significant airplay on both Channel V

Channel V

Channel [V] is the brand name for multiple international music television networks owned by STAR TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation.-Channel [V] International:...

 and radio station Triple J

Triple J

triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

.

The song peaked at #11 on the AIR Top 20 singles charts

AIR Charts

The AIR Charts are the official sales charts for Australian independent music released by Australian owned, independent record labels. Presented by AIR, the Australian Independent Record Labels Association, the charts are calculated according to official sales figures provided by the ARIA Charts,...

.

The song, musically, is substantially different from Karnivool's previous work. The song has been described as the 'black sheep' of the album, with guitarist, Drew Goddard acknowledging as much.

In an interview bassist Jon Stockman describes the song as being

It was also released as an EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 on 15 September, 2009, as their debut release with SIN/SonyMusic Independent Network.

Digital single

1. "Set Fire To The Hive" (I. Kenny, M. Hosking, A. Goddard, J. Stockman, S. Judd) - 4:29

EP

1. "Set Fire to the Hive' - 4:26
2. "Themata" - 5:46
3. "Roquefort" (with Empire Horns) - 4:48
4. "Deadman" (Live at The Forum) - 10:37

Music video

The music video for the song was released on YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 on 8 May, 2009 eleven days after the song's release on the band's MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

profile. It is Karnivool's fourth official video, after Shutterspeed (2005), Themata (2005), and L1FEL1KE (2003).

The music video features the band playing in what appears to be a cube. To match with the first line, "I don't know what's wrong, but I'm on fire", Ian Kenny's arm is on fire. With the first lyrics of the verse, "We're slaves, in this medicated cage", A bird cage appears on Ian Kenny's head.