Karnivool fans are nothing if not patient.

It's been six years since the band released new music and while the Aussie prog powerhouse have always taken their time between releases, the follow-up to 2013’s ARIA Award-winning Asymmetry feels particularly protracted.

"It’s one of the good and the bad things about this band: the time we take to put things together," guitarist Mark 'Hoss' Hosking admitted to Veronica and Lewis on triple j Drive.

Despite appearing inactive in 2018 to the public eye, Hoss says the band "got a lot of studio time in last year in bits and pieces." So, how much of album #4 is recorded? “It’s in the process... It’s a slow process for us, we don’t record like most bands do."

"We do a recording session then go away and pull the crap out of it and do it again, so to speak. This is stuff we’ve been working on for a fair amount of time and it’s come in various forms."

However, with their national 'Praxis' tour starting this week, 'Vool fans can take some solace in the fact the five-piece will be road-testing unreleased music.

"Playing new material live is something we’ve always done in the past, in various forms. But we’re a bit excited to play this stuff live and get people’s opinions on it."

"We have played some of this stuff live before," said Hoss (probably referring to songs with working titles like 'All It Takes', 'Reanimation', and 'Aozora') "but I don’t think anyone will recognise it from what it was, exactly. It’s a bit different, a bit more time and effort put into it."

And the big question: Is there an official timeline for album #4? "Nuh". So, for comparison's sake: looks like we'll get that long-awaited new album from Tool before we get one from Karnivool.

All the more reason to check out the new gear when Karnivool come through a venue near you. Check those dates below.

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Supporting Karnivool will be one of the loudest bands from one of the most remote parts of the country: Southeast Desert Metal, from Santa Teresa in the Northern Territory.

"It's about an hour east of Alice Springs," explains guitarist Drew Goddard, who discovered Southeast while visiting Ross River for the Bush Bands Bash. "Met a bunch of great bands and discovered there’s an excellent music scene there, largely reggae… and there’s a great metal band called Southeast Desert Metal."

"Saw them at Nannup Festival and at the Rosemount [in Perth]; they just blew me away and I said in the carpark after the show ‘Do you want to do some shows?’ They were like ‘Yep’ and suddenly it was happening.

Drew actually spent a lot of last year travelling to remote communities in Western Australia, getting involved with music workshops and skills development camps in regions that don't often get them.

"Places like Wiluna, Leonora, Laverton, Kalgoorlie – doing some music stuff out there and learning and enjoying the roadtrip."