Karnivool’s latest single sees past ideas collide in a promising taste of what’s to come.
After a tour and album announcement earlier this year that sent fans into a sudden frenzy, Karnivool have just released their latest single, “Opal,” which doubles as a sample of the upcoming album In Verses.
This sweeping journey of a six-minute single “takes you out to the desert by the end of it,” according to Karnivool frontman Ian Kenny. At its core is a delicately plucked harp, but the song as a whole is a collage of ideas that stretch all the way back to the band’s beginnings.
Guitarist Drew Goddard explains it best, saying it “pulls together ideas from some of my earliest days writing with the band. The riff in the middle and end was actually the first thing I recorded in the Themata era, on a computer at my parents’ house. Twenty years later, it found its place here.”
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“Jon dug it up, and we made it feel more current. The verse that starts with ‘You’ve been holding up…’ was a section left off ‘Aeons’ from Asymmetry. The whole track came together in a way we’ve never really experienced before – these old, separate ideas suddenly just fell into place.”
It’s a bold taste of an album that was crafted over five months, which the band spent holed up in a Perth studio with longtime collaborator Forrester Savell. The album is, according to a press release, a culmination of decades of life experiences, with ten meticulously formed and delivered tracks that “journey collective feelings of frustration, catharsis and a rediscovery of identity.”
When In Verses releases in February 2026, it’ll be the fourth studio album released by the band, and it’s been over a decade since their last album, Asymmetry. The band’s last major music release was their 2021 brooding single “All It Takes.” And to celebrate the milestone? A huge 13-stop Australian tour between July and October 2026.
“Opal” is out now via Cymatic Records / Sony Music. You can listen to it here.
