Live Review: Karnivool (Acoustic) @ Crowbar, Brisbane

If it’s been more than a decade between drinks for a band when we’re talking about album releases, it’s fairly likely – and somewhat guaranteed – that much of the marketing and hype in the lead-up to said new album will swirl largely around just that – why so bloody long?

Why indeed, when Karnivool have certainly been active during this 13-year dry spell of records, with the band hinting that new material was being tinkered on here and there in between each members’ various side pursuits, most ostensibly vocalist Ian Kenny’s moonlighting in Birds of Tokyo. They even released a standalone precursor single (All It Takes way back in 2021) and were certainly not shy about playing the odd festival slot here and there, and better yet, embarked on a few of their own headline tours around the country.

There was nothing to suggest things had gone belly-up internally for the band between 2013’s Asymmetry and the now freshly minted In Verses. The five-piece didn’t dodge queries about conflicts and angst when a tour or show nudged them back into the promotion spotlight.

It seems so logical that a Perth band that formally kicked off in 2005, carved out a niche in progressive heavy rock with an insatiable fanbase, more than dipped their toes in outside projects, while strapping in for the chaos that everyday life threw at them from disparate locations around Australia, would encounter a fair share of natural tensions, distraction and energy away from the band and its needs. After all, they’re only human.

When more earnest questions began arising in interviews in recent years around where the band has been and when the next album was on its way, they were frank about personal highs and lows that each experienced and how some of these were enough to keep one’s eyes elsewhere. Ultimately, though, the band was adamant about the particular environment the beast that is Karnivool needs in order to absorb each album release and what follows, before growing into the era of a new one.

In 2025, the tide turned; instead of responding to questions around when their fourth album would see the light of day, the band confirmed it was shaping up for a 2026 release. That’s when the past 13 years were really picked over, allowing the band to glide over all the things that had thrown up roadblocks.

And in a weird way, the things that didn’t; part of what held the band back from creating their fourth instalment wasn’t even a ‘thing’ as such. A lot of the time, it was that Karnivool was just not organically in the universe where Karnivool albums spawn from. “It just took being in the right mindset, and the right timing for all of us to go, ‘OK, let’s do it,” guitarist Drew Goddard told The Music.

It’s a combo of this protracted journey and the never-ending, forever-building fervour for the five-piece that has resulted in this sold-out run of mini shows in a form that we’re not used to seeing them in – acoustic and in much smaller venues.

Karnivool have always thrived on scale – vast arrangements, seismic grooves, songs that feel built for cavernous rooms. Which is exactly why seeing them unveil In Verses in the steamy confines of the Crowbar feels so quietly radical. It’s usually a venue of sweat and shove – and having your drink poured by Yungblud if you were lucky a few weeks back – but it becomes something gentler for 90 minutes.

A red velvet curtain gives a nod to tonight’s special occasion, but otherwise the stage is stripped back to its bones: stools instead of risers, acoustic guitars where stacks of amps usually loom, and an audience packed so tightly you can hear sharp breath intakes and feel muscles tensing ready for release.

This isn’t the usual Karnivool as architects of prog-metal grandeur; this is Karnivool as compatriots, inviting Brisbane into their world. But true to their we’re-huge-but-we-still-don’t-take-ourselves-too-seriously form, they drift on stage and welcome us with “What the fuck are you cunts doing out here on a Tuesday night?”

All I Know from 2009’s Sound Awake is a mammoth track in its own right, but it’s also the perfect ice breaker to open tonight. Cote and We Are are old favourites that sound anew, and Umbra’s off-kilter 6/8 time signature is a tricky one to nail without Steve Judd’s usual commanding drums, but it stays its course and invites an all-in singalong.

In Verses itself is an album rife with space and restraint, in some part thanks to Karnivool’s “sixth Beatle” – according to vocalist Ian Kenny – their long-time producer and mixer Forrester Savell, who joins the lads later for a Q&A on stage and signing session.

It’s another metamorphosis of sound after their previous releases that were each defined by their unique character. Without distortion to lean on, the songs lean inward, then outward toward the audience. Bassist Jon Stockman turns out to be quite the ivory tinkler as he takes to the keys for Remote Self Control, and Conversations gives them ample space to shed the album’s layers and open up, letting Goddard hit his falsetto seamlessly and guitarist Mark Hosking to brightly pick and strum away.

Brutal riffs become new textures; rhythms soften into pulses. Kenny’s voice – always powerful – reminds us just how inimitable the man is, lilting above silence, cracking vulnerably, landing solid lines with a fresh intimacy.

They close as they typically do with New Day, which, in the acoustic setting, exposes just how meticulously crafted this song is, but renders it no less powerful when Kenny hands the singing over to the crowd.

What makes this night special isn’t just seeing the boys relax and take cheeky digs at each other, or juggle some questions from their manager Heath Bradby on behalf of the crowd, nor is it the novelty of hearing a heavy band go quiet – it’s the generosity, authenticity, and trust. Karnivool trusts the songs to stand on their own, and trusts their audience to meet them halfway.

In Verses is certainly something much larger on record, and will likely be even more of a behemoth when it’s back to normal Karnivool programming on future tours; but in this room, on this night, it feels perfectly sized for an intro into just what these boys have been up to during the past decade and more. A reminder that intimacy can be just as heavy as volume, and sometimes far more powerful.