JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT

This is the first Green Carnation album born from the remanents of In the Woods, another iconic Scandinavian dark metal band. In fact, JttEotN sounds like a logical extension of In the Woods album Omino. The songs are long, almost jam oriented, somewhat symphonic, and feature a mixture of male and female vocalists. The female vocals are more operatic in nature and shouldn't be mistaken as similar to other Scandinavian bands using female vocals like White Willow and Paatos. And by dark metal, I mean in tone. The feeling in the music is melancholic and depressing; similar to Evergrey but not as heavy or as fast.

Given that Green Carnation have changed styles a lot between this debut and their more current output, the music on this album serves as a stepping stone to the incredible Light of Day, Day of Darkness concept album. If you like Light of Day, Day of Darkness, then you should pick this album up as well because it is very similar in most respects.

The only thing that takes away from this album is that the production quality isn't as good as it should have been. The bass is kind of muddy and undefined while at the same time it is mixed a little too high. It'll sound a little weird on a high quality stereo with good subs, especially when compared to the mix on Light of Day, Day of Darkness. All in all, this is a good album and a worthy listen as it doesn't disappoint or fail to deliver the prog-metal goods.