Review Summary: The poetic median
Karnivool.
Much has happened since we last saw each other.
Quite like the pageantry of the bastardised nu-metal namesake, there is something bitterly nostalgic about a carnival washing up on your shores. A big top frayed by years of travels beyond the horizon. Are the marvels within the tent just an artefact of rose-tinted wonder? Or does the theatrical genius endure with time?
Well. Here arrives the circus.
2013’s Asymmetry was a polarising and aptly named record. An album as jagged as it was sweet. A difficult digestion of dissonant guitars and off-kilter melodies. In retrospect, an omen of the road to come. Sound Awake, for many, was also an aptly named record. A full-frontal awakening. Those two albums, collectively, represent the light and the dark periods of life. A yin, and a yang. Both sit at opposite ends of a very long spectrum, yet they counterpoint each other so necessarily. In between these symbiotic poles sits an underswell of grey. Space between the highs and lows. Verses between the chorus.
With age, these metaphorical verses seem to grow in length. Explorations into life’s margins are fewer and further between. The dark moments can settle, but so too can the joy. Without close scrutiny, existing in this space can feel akin to a slowly numbing limb. Scar tissue amassing. An anchor into the in-between.
It is no secret that this album was born from, at least what appeared to be, many years of creative stagnation within the band. However, for those following along since the now decade-old live demos, the final strokes on the canvas may come as surprise. They have been broken down to their smallest atoms and reconstituted. It is an album that bears the scars of time, but also the wisdom that follows them. A collection of chapters that, while on the surface seem comparatively muted compared to previous works, tell a captivating story of love, loss, and the grey into which they lead us. More importantly, it also shows us the way out.
In Verses, then, finds itself aptly named as well. It is Karnivool at a meticulously balanced valence. Heavy, yet delicate. A beautiful musical bridge between their historical creative triumphs, yet one that could only have been built through the struggle of finding its place outside of them. A reminder that grey space in between is never wasted. It contextualizes, it matures, and it grows anew.
That is the achievement of In Verses. It does not demand asymmetrical attention, nor does it freight in an awakening. Not all creative wonders are extracted from the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Sometimes they’re extracted from the space in between. The poetic median. Inside the verses.
