Karnivool “In Verses” Album Review
After a 13-year wait, Karnivool delivers a sound that’s grander, more decisive, and more exciting than anything they’ve made before. Released via Cymatic Records, IN VERSES has all the offerings we’ve come to expect from this band, huge choruses, jaunty guitar and drums, and an ever rising heaviness, but now with an all-new punchiness, an inventive variety of sounds to keep you on your toes, and an undeniable weight behind their lyrics. The album presents itself like a journey. A back-and-forth self-analysis progresses the lyrics, motifs of reflection and belief fuel the emotion, and the dramatic imagery and music dance between caution and confidence to increase the tension.
Each song feels just as much a warning as it does a prophecy, just as much a questioning as it does an assertion. The album never gets too specific with its intentions that it detracts from your own interpretation, but it never strays too far from specificity that it loses its identity either. IN VERSES stands at a daunting 63-minute runtime, with almost all of its songs crossing the six-minute mark. Each song is so vast and so densely packed with interesting sounds and lyrics that every one of them is begging to have a whole review to itself.
We begin with Ghost, which tells us we have lost our way, forgotten who we are, and the agency we have. It suggests we have built our survival on convenience, and are quietly pleading to “run away forever,” to “flee the lion’s den.” It paints the picture of a hostile world having corrupted us. It is punchy, it is annoyed, it is looking for a way out. “Forget the truth, preserve the evidence” suggests an early disconnect between our own sense of honesty, and the material honesty of the world we live in.
Drone and Aozora are determined for us to escape these ideas. Drone shows us our prison in more detail, with confident, menacing guitar, a catchy, lulling groove, and a mindset fixed on self-captivity, “I wanna stare at the sun till it burns out.” Aozora then contrasts this with a look outside the prison bars. Here, we pick up the reflection motif. We examine ourselves and those around us, and make the final assessment that we want to discover something beyond what we know. We are “waiting for the great escape.” The music drives this mantra and builds until we are listening to the most confident, loudest proclamation of hope.
Animation cannot help but feel conflicted by Drone and Aozora, telling us about the “illusion of hope” but knowing that we need to “feel the fall” regardless. This internal struggle is a perfect match for Karnivool’s blend of progressive metal and rock elements, their intensity sinking and rising throughout the song to match the mood. All three of these songs were released as singles, and all three of them slot into the album seamlessly.
Conversations is the longest song on IN VERSES, partly owing to its minute-and-a-half instrumental intro, which allows you a moment alone in your thoughts before describing the insurmountable hardship of living in the fallout of something. Despite the title, Conversations is an isolating song, as it imagines all the things that could have happened if we had made different decisions, better decisions. All we have in the fallout is the confidence in the choices we made, but it is difficult to remain confident when there is nothing to validate our decisions. The song leaves us with the repeated lyric, “keep digging now,” as we fade out, getting buried alongside all the others who became overwhelmed and left behind.
Reanimation continues with a timid tone, emphasising the loneliness in Conversations with even more repeated lyrics, before pining for the way things were. The song slowly picks up from here and reaffirms itself with bolder singing and an epic guitar segment from legendary English guitarist Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats, Asia).
This leads into All It Takes, a song originally released in 2021 and remastered for IN VERSES. Despite the distance in release, All It Takes fits into the album quite snugly. It brings back Karnivool’s musical intensity where Conversations and Reanimation simmered, and is driven by accusatory, heartfelt singing about using an obsession as a selfish vice.
Remote Self Control arrives quickly and loudly. The almost oxymoronic title provides the song with an immediate conflict, how can you be in control when you have given so much of yourself up to someone else. Remote Self Control is both cutting in its opinion and understanding of the craving, with “It’s so much fun when you don’t feel anything” and “You win by default” as standout lines. It robs anyone living on autopilot of the false success they perceive by claiming their worldview is only an “imitation.”
The last of the singles, Opal, is up next. Its sound is reassuring, comforting, in the face of the last few heavy songs. With the addition of a harp and string elements, Opal provides the validation long sought after in Conversations, for both the pain and the healing we have gone through during the album.
Salva then provides the perfect conclusion for IN VERSES. It shows a true change has occurred throughout the course of the album’s story. The decision is made to run away, to embrace the escape from Aozora. The song still allows us to feel as if this escape is dangerous, but there is peace in accepting the danger willingly. The music understands this and follows along sensibly, despite its complicated nature, building to a bagpipe crescendo that is impossible to ignore.
IN VERSES may very well be Karnivool at their best. Amongst such a strong catalogue of albums, I find IN VERSES has left the biggest mark on me, and I suspect I will be mulling over this music and these lyrics for a long time to come. Its diverse mix of sounds and pacing is endlessly exciting, and the broad presentation of its themes, the deep emotion, and the non-specificity of the lyrics provide meaningful commentary without feeling self-aggrandising. It allows the listener to reach their own conclusions, and I find that trust deepens my connection with the album.