Review: Karnivool at Ice Cream Factory
Karnivool at Ice Cream Factory
w/ TesseracT, Car Bomb
Saturday, July 18, 2026
Karnivool, in their home town, on a Saturday night, in an awesome venue, with sick opening acts? Yes please!!
Four-piece mathcore band Car Bomb started the proceedings to a game audience, already pretty decent in number. The outfit from New York, with their brutal, aggressive musical style were an interesting choice to kick off the night of mostly melodic prog metal that followed, but it sure woke everyone up! In amongst some bemused-looking faces, the four-piece most definitely had their dedicated fans in the early audience, though, with more than a few people jumping around, singing along word for word.
Vocalist Michael Dafferner seems like a lovely bloke, genuinely thrilled for the band to be touring Australia for the first time. Playing with awesome energy, Car Bomb were tight, yes, but in that wonderfully weird, almost-disorganised way only experimental genres can pull off… their musical style evokes something along the lines of if Deftones and Meshuggah had some kind of bizarre, brutal baby—this is meant as a compliment! Their set gradually gained momentum, building to the standout of the setlist—final track Secrets Within—an absolute banger with a brain-melting breakdown.
Up next was British prog band and djent giants TesseracT. While a complete vibe shift from the opening act, their moody, atmospheric, visually stunning show beautifully progressed an already great night along. Lead vocalist Daniel Tompkins’ voice is simply sublime, losing nothing in a live setting, and the two backup vocalists just lifted things to a whole other level. Doing as good supporting acts should, their setlist was carefully crafted, striking a good balance between the heavy and brutal and the melodic and moody.
Drawing predominantly from their two most recent albums, War of Being and Sonder, their set functioned as a great little tasting board of what TesseracT have to offer as a band for those in the crowd who might be less familiar with them, or, for the card-carrying fans, provided a satisfying TesseracT pick-and-mix to snack on before a main course of Karnivool.
As a complete stage show, these guys have it down to a fine art, with the visuals creating a backdrop which complements both the music and the way the musicians position themselves in front of it as a scene, lifting the performance into almost-cinematic territory. With their often almost-ethereal vibe, building into operatic atmospheres and back again, yeah… pretty much the perfect opener for Karnivool, and the crowd showed their appreciation both in terms of numbers as well as energy and engagement.
The transition from Car Bomb to TesseracT to Karnivool, rather than feeling like separate, disconnected scenes, began to tell a story of community. It was one of those nights where you just feel like you’re a part of something important as an audience member, as though the gathered were a congregation rather than a disparate horde who came together for a brief moment of individual worship. It was truly one of those gigs where there is nothing but good vibes going around—almost spiritual, reverent. Like… the metalhead’s version of going to church, maybe.
Oh, Karnivool. Is there another band who can drop a new album, tour it, and have the entire crowd already sing their new tracks off by heart? Probably, but whatever—it’s still a fucking impressive thing either way. The vast majority of the setlist came from their new album, In Verses, and yet, looking around the crowd, you wouldn’t believe it’s only been around since February. The highlights from the latest drop were probably Ghost, which was their opener for the night, and Aozora, both of which had an impressive amount of the crowd singing word-for-word. Trust Karnivool to drop new music that is so perfectly aligned with their unique sound that there’s barely any learning curve for their fans.
All of the bands made good use of the screen over the night. During Karnivool, at times the combination of sound, light and the backdrop almost evoked synaesthesia. Fucking hell, man, there was a harp! And bagpipes! Jesus, what a gorgeous, life-affirming show. When performing in Perth, there’s obviously the home-crowd advantage, and somehow this band is still able to cultivate an intimate atmosphere even in a bigger venue. Maybe when everyone in attendance has nowhere else they’d rather be, that’s what happens.
Frontman Ian Kenny was sparing but warm with his crowd interactions, letting his inimitable live vocal prowess speak for itself—a siren beckoning from the rocks to a moshpit of endlessly devoted fans, if you will. A faultless set by the entire band ended in style as they made the genius move of finishing with the holy trinity of Themata, Roquefort and New Day (before the harp came back out for the encore), and, as always with these classics, everyone lost their shit. Fuck me. How lucky are we?! Walking out of a Karnivool show, there’s always this feeling of “Damn, life is beautiful and it’s good to be alive”, and this time around was no exception. For those of us who can’t afford therapy, there’s always live heavy music, right?
Seriously, how good is the Warehouse space at Ice Cream Factory?! No queues for merch, drinks, bathrooms, easy access to whichever part of the room you felt like watching the action from, and just good vibes in general. Okay, maybe that last one is more down to the kind of humans Karnivool as a band seem to attract as fans, but still! Best winter night out in Perth in ages.
MELISSA KRUGER
Photos by Stu McKay
