Northlane debuted “Afterimage” live recently during their huge Australian tour, which set the internet alight and left fans hanging to hear the studio version. A nod to their Node-era, Northlane have always pointed to Karnivool as one of their biggest influences; Ian Kenny’s vocals sit so naturally in “Afterimage” that the song feels written just for him. It makes sense given, according to guitarist Jon Deiley, touring with Karnivool in 2013 had such a profound 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,” says Deiley. “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!”
