{"id":397812,"date":"2025-09-04T17:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397812\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T17:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:31:11","slug":"green-carnation-a-dark-poem-part-i-the-shores-of-melancholia-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397812\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Carnation – A Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Not gonna lie, I did a double-take when I saw that Green Carnation<\/b>\u2019s fantastic Leaves of Yesteryear came out five fucking years ago. And what a different time that was. We were balls-deep in Covid hell, I was living in a 600 square foot apartment in one of the hottest shit holes on earth, and I had a completely different job than I do now. But I didn\u2019t mind any of it because I had my beloved Leaves of Yesteryear, which I still talk to staff about regularly. They love it. Many fans considered Green Carnation<\/strong>\u2019s 2020 release a return to form for the band, and A Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia continues where its predecessor left off. But it also incorporates everything we\u2019ve ever known of the band\u2019s catalog. Returning to the days of Light of Day, Day of Darkness, the band sets out to tell us a new story. Instead of accomplishing it in a single, one-hour song, The Shores of Melancholia marks Part I of a three-part series. This is one hell of an undertaking, but I\u2019m here for it.<\/p>\n

The sole purpose of The Shores of Melancholia is to set the tone of the trilogy, using its lyrical content and progressive nature to lure you in without answering any questions. The answers will come later. Throughout this first part of the trilogy, you\u2019ll explore grief and inner turmoil, all the while trying to decide if you should headbang or hang your head in utter despair. More than the previous record, there are tracks here that are a total mind-fuck, transitioning endlessly between grooving riffs, melodic passages, and sadboi atmospheres. This does give a sense of return to Light of Day, Day of Darkness, with its numerous riff changes and progressive elements. But that\u2019s where it ends. This is a different Green Carnation<\/b> these days. A band that honors its legacy but refuses to become stale.<\/p>\n

\ufeffA Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia by Green Carnation<\/a><\/p>\n

For example, the album opens with two groovy numbers that take those elements from their rocking 2003 release, A Blessing in Disguise, and shove loads of details into them. \u201cAs Silence Took You\u201d begins the album with a dark, slow-moving introduction that evolves into an effect-laden blanket of bassy licks and soft vocals. When the chorus arrives, the true strength of Kjetil Nordhus\u2019 voice rings in the clouds. After following this pattern for a while, it evolves into an attractive chug that amplifies the energy and takes this sad song into even darker territories. Lyrically, this song has hit me hard lately, being that I lost my father suddenly a couple of weeks ago. Like the lyrics state, I never got to say goodbye as silence took you. But as far as groovers go, the follow-up track takes the urinal cake. With various slapping riffs that get your noggin\u2019 rockin\u2019, the chorus stands out for its very folky attitude. It\u2019s a perfect blend and a song I find myself repeating constantly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While the two opening pieces get the juices going, the two that close the album take you down into a dark place. The atmospheres that introduce the title track are massive, sucking you into melancholic bliss. It also has the biggest, most beautiful chorus of the record. The best part of the song is the hauntingly gorgeous, yet rather simple guitar lead that resonates throughout. While \u201cThe Shores of Melancholia\u201d might be the strongest of the album, the closer, \u201cToo Close to the Flame,\u201d is the most progressive. This epic number is a rollercoaster ride of emotions\u2014at one point sinister, at other times uplifting and foot-tappable. It also has plenty of those patented chugs Green Carnation<\/b> is so good at utilizing when introducing new builds. But I can\u2019t end this review without talking about the album\u2019s literal black sheep. We haven\u2019t heard black metal rasps in Green Carnation<\/b> since Nattefrost\u2019s contribution on Light of Day, Day of Darkness, but you are not prepared for \u201cThe Slave That You Are.\u201d This song uses Enslaved<\/b>\u2019s Grutle Kjellson on vocals, while, sometimes awkwardly, the band fuses old-school black metal with progressive sound. While not uncommon for Enslaved<\/b>, the progressive elements of Green Carnation <\/b>make it a wild ride.<\/p>\n

The only track that doesn\u2019t grab me as strongly as the others is \u201cMe, My Enemy.\u201d Lyrically, it does a great job fitting the theme. But it\u2019s ballady pace with spacey Pink Floyd<\/b>ish effects takes me out of the mood a bit. Though it\u2019s a shocker to go from this track to the aforementioned \u201cThe Slave That You Are.\u201d It\u2019s difficult to measure the greatness of an album that is only one part of a trilogy without knowing the final result. But, as this album stands, Leaves of Yesteryear is a stronger record as a whole. But, again, the day all the pieces come into place, this trilogy has the potential of being the most adventurous endeavor the band has ever taken. There are a lot of surprises on this new album, which I appreciate because if you look at the band\u2019s catalog, no two records are the same. Based on this record alone, I\u2019m quite excited to see how this plays out. <\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> 3.5\/5.0
DR:<\/strong> 9 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> 320 kb\/s mp3
Label:<\/strong> Season of Mist<\/a>
Websites:<\/strong> greencarnationsom.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/greencarnationnorway<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> September 5th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not gonna lie, I did a double-take when I saw that Green Carnation\u2019s fantastic Leaves of Yesteryear came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[743,10268,137365,137366,77,137367,269,36745,26420,24761,6080,6082,137368,137369,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-397812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-743","9":"tag-3-5","10":"tag-a-dark-poem-part-i-the-shores-of-melancholia","11":"tag-enslaved","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-green-carnation","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-norwegian-metal","16":"tag-pink-floyd","17":"tag-progressive-metal","18":"tag-review","19":"tag-reviews","20":"tag-season-of-mist","21":"tag-sep25","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115147222865264333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}