Karnivool Repurpose 'Themata' Riff In Epic New Single 'Opal'

Perth rockers Karnivool have just unleashed another chapter of their highly anticipated fourth album, In Verses, which drops in February 2026.

The song, Opal, is a sweeping epic. It features ambient textures heard on 2013’s Asymmetry, and the callbacks to the past don’t end there. Within the track is a repurposed riff from 2005’s Themata, blending the band’s earliest creative journeys with the new.

Opal follows the already released singles Drone, Aozora, and All It Takes. In Verses lands on Friday, 6 February, via Cymatic Records / Sony Music and marks the long-awaited follow-up to Asymmetry.

Frontman Ian Kenny remarked that the new single “takes you out to the desert by the end of it,” and with the repurposed riff from 20 years ago, any Karnivool fan will be happy.

“Opal pulls together ideas from some of my earliest days writing with the band,” said guitarist Drew Goddard. “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.”

Goddard added, “Twenty years later, it found its place here. Jon [Stockman] 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.”

You can pre-order/pre-save In Verses here and check out Opal below.

Back in June, Karnivool shared the single Drone, their first new song in four years. At the time, they commented that Drone was only the beginning and had been lifted from an upcoming “larger body of work.”

The release of Drone followed the band’s Australian tour announcement a month beforehand, in which the band revealed they’d been in a Perth studio with longtime collaborator and producer Forrester Savell for “the better part of five months.”

Throughout the tour, Karnivool showcased “new material, road-tested for the first time,” while older songs were “bent into new shapes.” The tour allowed Australian fans to “get a taste of the next chapter of Karnivool before the rest of the world.”

Kenny said of the tour and the band’s new music, “We can’t bloody wait to get out there and share what’s been brewing in the Karnivool riff pot, and show folks what they have to look forward to.”