How many years was this album in the making? I remember reading several interviews with Tochort saying he was writing Light of Day Day of Darkness part 2 and 3. Well, those haven't happened yet. What we got instead was an album consisting of three new songs, one cover, and one rerecording.
I was pretty skeptical going into this one. Green Carnation has been hit and miss for me over their entire career. The early stuff is by far the best, especially the first two albums. The first one has that In The Woods... weirdness that would carry over from the Botteri brother's involvement. The second album is an hour long song that actually justifies the total run time, a pretty rare accomplishment.
From there the band really starts to lose me except for a few songs here and there, until we got to Leaves of Yesteryear. This album feels like the band trying to find themselves again. They are trying to reaffirm their style... and it sounds like they are trying to go back to their roots to some degree.
Almost all of the acoustic leanings of The Acoustic Verses is gone. This is decidedly a metal album. Sure, there is quite a bit of quiet/acoustic elements present in the songs (especially in Solitude and Hounds). The songs are longer than they have been in a very long time as well, with the album spanning 45 minutes in just 5 songs. All of this is very welcome.
The metal has a decidedly doomier feel than the band has had in a long time. This one also ranks amoung their heavier entries... they haven't put anything out like this really since the debut.
I was concerned about the rerecording of My Dark Reflections of Life and Death, but it really fits with the overall feel of the album. Kjetil's voice fits wonderfully with the song, and its different enough to justify a spot on the album. The same can be said about the cover of Solitude, it fits exceptionally well with the feel of the album and is an excellent closer.
Green Carnation are back, and I for one am glad that they finally got it together to put out an album. I hope that there is more to come.
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