'This Has Been a 10 Year Endeavour': Karnivool on Album Four and Headlining Arctangent
Wednesday, 16 July 2025
Written by Matt Mills
Photo: Tobias Sutter
Is it possible for a band to make a comeback when they technically never went anywhere? If it is, then Karnivool are doing it. Four years since the arrival of their last single and 12 since their last album, the Australian prog-metal luminaries have just released a new song called Drone and are gearing up for a mammoth headline appearance at Arctangent festival in August.
Plus, as frontman Ian Kenny divulges to Stereoboard, their long-awaited fourth album finally has a release date: this coming October. During our conversation, Kenny spills all about his band’s new tunes, including the decade-long start-stop process that it took to make them, as well as what to expect at ArcTanGent. The next era of Karnivool kicks off right here…
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room: how are things looking with the new album?
“Very well! I’m pleased to say, the record’s done. It’s recorded and we’re listening to the mixes as we speak. We’re looking at an October release. Can’t believe I’ve said that out loud; that’s fucking wild, man.”
Every Karnivool album has a distinct vibe. Is there a previous album you can compare the new one to, or is it something different entirely?
“It all still feels very new, but it’s not as demanding, I don’t think, as [2013’s] ‘Asymmetry’. That was a hard record to chew through, but that was the intention. It may be closer to [2009’s] ‘Sound Awake’.”
What can we expect in terms of heaviness and just all-out weirdness?
“There are definitely heavy parts to it. There are some really dirty, dirty bits to it; some very weird stuff, too. There’s a song on there called Remote Self Control which has this wicked…it’s weird! It’s weird but it’s wicked, it’s got these really heavy parts and it kicks the gates in as soon as it starts. There’s another one there called Mono-Poly, which is sad and dark and weird as hell. Jon [Stockman, bass] does this Moog synth thing at the end, which is the weirdest shit I’ve ever heard.”
You’ve just released the new song Drone. How does that fit in with everything else?
“It’s good fun, man. It’s big, dirty riffs and it’s got a lot of attitude in it. It’s a fun song. Heavy but not, like Karnivool does. We find some way to balance out the bitter and the sweet and the heavy and the light. The chorus is a big singalong chorus, as far as we can write singalong choruses.”
Karnivool used to take four years between albums. What changed after ‘Asymmetry’? Why has it suddenly taken you 12 years to make an album?
“Well, we figured four years between each record was working really well for us. So, we figured, if we tripled it and took 12 years, then something really special was gonna happen!”
Mathematically, this is going to be three times as good as anything you’ve done before.
“I think there’s a point where you realise: man, you really want this thing to work, but you’ve also got to be mindful of how you’re serving the creative space as a group. If you’re in there — just trying to hammer it out and trying to make it something, and it’s pushing back because it doesn’t want to be that — you’ve got to just walk away sometimes and do other things and try and re-approach it. We had a few of those moments, but everything Karnivool does creatively is put together as a patchwork tapestry, and this time the stars aligned.”
When you have a writing process this long, how does that affect you as a lyricist? You change a lot as a person over 12 years, so have you gone back to lyrics you’d already written for this album and thought, “That’s not me anymore”?
“This has been a 10 year endeavour, making this thing in bits and pieces, and we’ve picked it up and dropped it so many times. There have been all these points where I’ve got these demo vocals and ideas, these lyrics that I loved, and then time passes and I listen to them and I’m like, ‘Why did I love that?’”
Is there any overarching concept to the new album’s lyrics?
“Sometimes, not by design, we will fluke a theme, but that always comes later, with hindsight. I think, in 2025, there’s a lot to look at, to poke fun at, to be concerned about. I would like to keep hope alive, but I don’t always believe it, so I’ve got to write about that, too: the fear, the doubt.”
Have any real-world events coloured your new lyrics?
“Not so much. I want to write about those things, and I’d love to make it really poignant, but I don’t always get to execute it like that. It’s always wrapped up in a bit of an obscure approach.”
Let’s talk about ArcTanGent. Headlining a festival like that to 10,000 people is a big deal. Are you bringing any upgrades in terms of production?
“We’re going to spend the entire fee on lights. I’m only joking, but we are spending a butt-ton on our lights. It’s a great opportunity to make a splash, man, so we don’t want to miss that.”
Will you be playing any new stuff that people haven’t heard before?
“Absolutely! We’ve been rehearsing and we’ve got about three? Two, definitely ready; three, working on it. Maybe by the time we get to the UK, we’ll have four.”
Depends how long the songs are, right?
“There’s nothing really under five minutes [on the new album]. There are some eight-minute and nine-minute things. We’ve got to figure it out, because we will be bursting at the seams to play some new stuff.”
You’re about to kick off the first new album cycle in 12 years, so there must be a new set of aspirations, right? What do you want to achieve — be it creatively, commercially, fan reception — this time around?
“I think that band’s just looking forward to getting in front of the people who love this band, because that shared space is fucking incredible. As far as the record, I just hope it can light the fire for anyone who’s searching for ‘other’ music. I think Karnivool, it’s prog but it’s something else and there’s more to it. I hope it lights the fire for some up-and-comers and they find something in that, or it takes them to another place.”
Karnivool Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sat July 19 2025 - BRISBANE Fortitude Music Hall
Fri July 25 2025 - WOLLONGONG Wollongong University Hall
Sat July 26 2025 - SYDNEY Enmore Theatre
Sat August 02 2025 - MELBOURNE PICA
Wed August 13 2025 - DUBLIN Academy
Fri August 15 2025 - COMPTON MARTIN Fernhill Farm
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