With their fourth album coming after a 13-year wait, Karnivool solidify ideas that have built, the world they have understood and the music that will endure longer than them.
When Tool did this in 2019, I rushed to the comment section of the tracks. Countless lives had changed, people had passed and the very fabric of how we understand time had differed. It was like staring into a time capsule inside a glass pendulum, where one band’s music is something countless fans have been waiting for. Karnivool is that band this time. Their collection is called In Verses, and it marks a glorious return of a band that changed the very DNA of this genre.
Re-entry, from space
Though Karnivool have been teasing this album for a few years, many wondered what it would sound like. Since 2004, the lineup has been the same, and all the band members have been going through their own experiences. Themata and Sound Awake were the albums that introduced the band to the people, and that’s something they will continue to associate and compare the band with. The rockers from Perth always wrote in an ambience in their music that was unnerving, incited thought and played with space. Every band member is virtuosic in how they express themselves through the instrument, so why would anything change?
You May Also Enjoy > A Snippet of our Conversation with T.M. Krishna and Munz from The Down Troddence on Maharani
What’s interesting to note is how the band expresses their notion of songwriting. Yes, it’s 3 albums in 15 years, but listen to the songs that have come out. Lead guitarist Drew Goddard had expressed during an interview in 2018 or so:
“We’re completely mystified by the songwriting process, and that’s the bottom line for us – we don’t know what we’re doing. We don’t. It feels like it’s out of our control a lot of the time”
An opening you won’t forget
The album opens with Ghost. Apart from incredible vocals and instrumental tone, this is the song that marks the return of Karnivool especially for those who have been patient enough to wait for this album. The riff is crushing, and it’s almost like the band returned as a ghost to make their presence known. As a performance, it is guaranteed to give you goosebumps. Ian Kenny has maintained his stature of being a vocalist who truly believes the lyrics he’s singing. His range is untethered as usual, and the music is a spatial paradise.
By far the best track on the album for me was Drone. Apart from the simplicity and mysterious cloud that the opening leaves, it’s the instrumental performance and time signature play that attracted me to this one. A chorus that has seared itself into my brain and soul forever, there is a lightness and darkness that play off each other perfectly. Post the 3-minute mark, it’s pure instrumental ecstasy that I can guarantee the crowd will be singing along to at their next show. The opening to Aozroa is legendary, from the vocals and drum pattern to that ridiculous fill that takes you to the main verse section. Riff? Man… I don’t know what to tell you.
The apt use of space
Animation – another single released earlier this year – was an ethereal experience for me when I heard it the first time. From the crisp percussion to the dreamy vocals, I have no notes for this musical journey. When they let you float like helium, they immediately pour lead in your soul to drop right back to Earth. And here is where I’d like you to return to that quote by Goddard. If they don’t know how to write songs, they allow the songs to write themselves.
It’s almost like the time for each note to play out has been determined by the melody itself. Kenny might be just revisiting ideas and thoughts in his head that fit into verses. No matter what this is, their journey of making music is rewarding. As a composer and performer, and for us, the fans who get to induct ourselves in the currents of the track.
By the time I reached Conversations, I’d been left teary-eyed. If you’ve heard Themata and even the later Asymmetry, you know how that sound is so very Karnivool-like. This 8-minute epic sounded like something I must deserve to hear, and the benefit is that I can return to this whenever I desire.
Traversing broad patterns through music
The vocal patterns remain memorable; the aural chambers they construct become your womb to settle into when you want to express the wavering textures. I would have never imagined a collaboration with Guthrie Govan, but it’s the age of the internet, and here we are. Reanimation is a reset unlike any other.
Two back-to-back epic songs really give you so much life, it’s difficult to state. It’s evident they have tinkered with these songs to reach these states of elevated progression and melodies, with Guthrie’s fretboard ballet shattering the planes of reality from the moment he enters.
An album that is on par with the best
All It Takes and Remote Self Control blurred the horizon to become some underrated gems soon to be in this album. I would never know the joy, but it’s thrilling to see work that bands can be proud of putting out that sound and making people feel like this. My criticism for this work was that it didn’t enter our lives earlier, and I will mathematically have fewer years to listen to this. Karnivool, if you ever do read this, don’t make us wait this long. Even if you would need this time to make music like this.
Opal and Salva close this album like the envelope of a love letter that was long due to be written. It is creased around the edges, and the ink has smeared, but it’s human. It appeals to the human in us, and it’s something that can never be taken away. It’s incredible Karnivool gave us these proses, and we can lose ourselves in these verses:
Check out our playlists here!
Check out our YouTube channel for music reviews, playlists, podcasts, and more!
