Northlane Drop New Track 'Afterimage' Featuring Karnivool's Ian Kenny

5 March 2024 | 8:00 pm | Mary Varvaris

"Karnivool influenced Northlane by showing us that songwriting and nailing every transition live is more important than jumping around..."

Northlane, Ian Kenny

Northlane, Ian Kenny (Credit: Kane Hibberd, Louie Mosscrop)

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Aussie metal group Northlane have just dropped their latest track, Afterimage, starring Karnivool/Birds Of Tokyo vocalist Ian Kenny.

The highly anticipated third single from their upcoming EP, Mirror’s Edge, due for release next month, Northlane’s Marcus Bridge – already a phenomenal vocalist – is complimented by Kenny’s presence, with the song combining the best parts of both Northlane and Karnivool.

Some fans have heard the pensive, ambitious number, with Northlane premiering the song on their recent Dante Australian tour, with Bridge taking on all vocal parts. You can listen to Afterimage below.

Northlane note that inspiration for Afterimage stemmed from Karnivool’s significant influence on the band. Throwing back to when Northlane toured with the famed Aussie rockers in 2013, guitarist Jon Deiley said about Karnivool’s impact on his songwriting:

Touring with Karnivool changed my perspective on songwriting by showing me a solid groove is more interesting than some flashy technical bit. Writing a good groove means you can exploit it in different ways while still keeping it interesting over time.

Karnivool influenced Northlane by showing us that songwriting and nailing every transition live is more important than jumping around. We hopped on the Asymmetry tour years ago and were still riding the success of Singularity when we discovered pretty quickly some fans just want to stand and enjoy you playing the music perfectly. I think that's where our unhealthy, hyper-critical evaluation of our performance came from!

Afterimage follows the release of recent singles Dante and Miasma (starring Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall). The Mirror’s Edge EP will be released on Friday, 12 April – you can pre-order/pre-save the release here.

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Northlane started working on Mirror’s Edge a year after releasing their ARIA #1 album, Obsidian.

Bridge said about the upcoming EP, “It’s like looking at your reflection, looking at the past and everything I've been thinking about, or caught up within the last little while. There’s not much positivity in these songs, but it is about acceptance.

“Hopefully, by putting these songs out, I can leave that stuff behind and I can kind of find a new direction and something to be positive about on the other side of this mirror's edge.”

In recent Karnivool news, signs point to the band being back in the studio, with drummer Steve Judd sharing a suspicious image and tagging producer Forrester Savell. Over the weekend, guitarist Drew Goddard added to the hype by posting an Instagram Story alongside Savell and, like his bandmate, tagged Fox Hole Studios.