It is quite a while since I last heard anything from Green Carnation, in fact it was all the way back with their third album, 2003’s ‘A Blessing In Disguise’, and now they are here with their seventh, which is the first of three albums which were all recorded at the same time. Apparently Tchort had presented the concept to the band just when they were announcing to the world they were breaking up for the second time, so when they decided to reform again in 2014 this was part of the five-album deal agreed with Season of Mist. The vast majority of the material was recorded between April and December 2024, and this was released in September 2025 with the next instalment, ‘A Dark Poem, Pt. II: Sanguis’, released on 3rd April 2026.
It is strange to think that these guys started as a death metal act and have since then have been progressing through many different styles, so while many now describe them as progressive metal, they also fit into melodic metal, symphonic, gothic and even doom, and sometimes all at once. There is a feeling of sadness and melancholy which is pre-eminent in this album, and even though there is sunshine on the cover, very little of that makes it through to the music and certainly not to the lyrics. There are times when one may think of Candlemass, although Opeth is never far away and there are also elements of Floyd here and there, while we also experience Porcupine Tree-style sonic escapades and is that Muse over there in the dark, dark corner?
The lighter elements only truly come through on repeated plays, as although one’s ears are drawn to the vocals of Kjetil Nordhus, after that one normally gets pummelled by the guitars and it is only later that one realises just how much of an impact the sparse keyboards have on the overall sound. This is a very polished album, very produced, without much room for space between the layers, and this does somewhat impact the overall impression, although there is no doubt this is a very refined album indeed. This is probably not one to which I will often return, but that is down to personal taste as opposed to anything inherently wrong with the album, and I can see fans clamouring for the other albums to be released asap.
