REVIEW: Karnivool - IN VERSES

Waiting for the great escape

63:17 // February 6, 2026 // Cymatic Records

It’s difficult to fathom just how much has changed since July 19, 2013. The geopolitical state of the world has gone from disastrous to beyond parody, automation and generative AI loom ravenously over the job market, and the French Bulldog has usurped the mighty Labrador Retriever as the most commonly owned dog breed in the United States. None of this has appeared to register to Aussie prog titans Karnivool, who have remained eerily silent in the twelve and a half years since the release of their third full-length album Asymmetry…for the most part. The rumblings began in late 2021 with the release of the fiery “All It Takes”, a decision that appeared to be a one-off creative exercise due to the even more puzzling silence that followed. At an agonizing pace, new developments surfaced; setlists gradually became peppered with previously unheard gems, press releases grew more playful and appeared more frequently, and the group themselves stepped into the light at a speed that even Gary the Snail found a bit too sluggish. The 8-month promotional cycle for IN VERSES has had legions of fans begging to finally whet their appetite, only to be confronted with an existential dilemma right as Karnivool’s long awaited fourth record is unveiled…will it live up to their expectations? Fortunately, when a group this poised and professional delivers a product this cohesive and polished, all the anguish their absence caused is forgiven.

IN VERSES pulls no punches about its identity, and makes clear from the get go its intent to drown the listener in overwhelming waves of frenetic tribal drumming, punishing low end, and jagged, yet angelic melodies that approach the galloping rhythms from increasingly unique angles. Opening knockout blow “Ghost” relies heavily on Karnivool’s penchant for patience throughout its first minute, gently drawing the curtain back with foreboding ambience and dizzying offbeat pulses courtesy of the almighty and caffeinated Steve Judd. Once again, patience is rewarded the very second that Jon Stockman’s inimitable bass tone rattles the listener’s teeth out of their sockets and takes external speakers on a field trip to the bedroom floor. Words truly cannot describe how pristine and dynamic Forrester Savell’s mixing job is on this record; his work on Karnivool’s magnum opus Sound Awake is already the stuff of legend, and he has somehow topped his own mountainous expectations with his effort on IN VERSES. “Ghost” is a prime example of his prowess; observe the way Stockman and Judd are privileged to essentially lead the track as the rhythm section, while Drew Goddard and Mark Hosking’s relentless riffs still manage to slot into the arrangement at the literal perfect level of volume and velocity. Similar aural tricks are used to seismic effect in tracks like the wonderfully retooled version of “All It Takes” and the frenetic “Remote Self Control”, which may contain Judd’s most jaw-dropping performance ever put to tape. Topping it all off, as per usual, is the unmistakable siren song of Ian Kenny’s vocals. I’m proud to announce that one of my favorite performers of all time hasn’t lost a step over the past decade, with Savell’s wizardry making the man sound more ethereal than ever, especially due to how eager Kenny is to explore the upper echelon of his range compared to past material (“Drone”, “Conversations”, and especially “All It Takes”).

Audiences may have feared the possibility of Karnivool stagnating creatively over such a long waiting period between albums, only to discover an ironic truth, that being the comparative strength of tracks on IN VERSES that stay within the Karnivool wheelhouse, as opposed to their more adventurous counterparts. It’s no surprise that “Ghost” is rapidly becoming a fan favorite, even accounting for the way its iconic drop-B intro riff echoes past songwriting triumphs by the band like “Simple Boy”, “Change”, or even Asymmetry’s “The Last Few”. The band is still practically automatic at writing fast-paced, rhythmic puzzles of prog tunes, and IN VERSES is at its unquestionable best when the boys are doing just that. Previously released singles “Drone” and “Aozora” play with deceptive dotted rhythms and sudden truncated measures respectively to keep the listener’s attention firmly on a hook, while “Animation” and “Remote Self Control” showcase Kenny’s enviable ability to construct impressive melodic phrasing over odd times. It’s only when the band opts to slow things down a touch that the minuscule cracks in the album’s foundation begin to show themselves.

Concessions can be made for the stunning “Conversations” and album closer “Salva”, as Kenny’s vocal talent and spacey guitar leads craft the former into another fan favorite, while the latter somehow transforms its rudderless first half into a bombastic finale replete with bagpipes and a percussive reprise of the almighty “Deadman”. It’s both the sequencing of the slower tunes, and their reliance on narrative storytelling, that tends to kneecap them a bit. “Reanimation” immediately follows “Conversations” smack in the middle of the record, and feels like more of a slog than it should, due to the two tracks accounting for a total of 15 minutes of dynamic downtime. Guthrie Govan’s feature on the track is instrumentally impressive, but doesn’t do much to remedy this effect, and one wonders if he could have been more effectively utilized elsewhere on the tracklist. Penultimate track “Opal” is a competently written song, but unfortunately only serves to highlight how much better IN VERSES is when Karnivool is going balls to the wall on all fronts. These tracks all rely heavily on Kenny’s lyricism, which has been known to be spotty in the past, and has honestly declined on this record. On tracks like “Conversations”, his performance is stunning enough to make up for it, thanks in part to the heavy lifting from the guitars and the drums. “Opal” doesn’t have nearly enough going on in its arrangement to salvage a first verse like this:

I’m sorry for your loss, please come back to us
All that we’ve been has all come and gone so easily
I don’t wanna be in this fight
When all the plans that we birthed all fold their wings and die

Criticism aside, I couldn’t be more thankful to have a new Karnivool album in my life in the year 2026. Looking out the window at the state of things becomes bleaker by the day, and it’s truly a blessing to have bright spots like IN VERSES worth praising in the world of music. It mainly subsists off of consistent strength, as opposed to spikes of glory that would catapult it into “genre classic” status, but consistently great music from Karnivool is more than enough to put a smile on my face. IN VERSES was more than worth the wait, and I’m excited to continue making memories with it over the course of the years to come.

8.5/10.

Yo Yo, check out these highlight tracks:

-Ghost

-Aozora

-Conversations

-Remote Self Control

Author's Note: DO NOT BUY THIS ALBUM ON BANDCAMP! It was discovered recently that a user was impersonating the band and profiting off of their music. Either buy IN VERSES physically, or listen on your preferred streaming platform.