LIGHT OF DAY, DAY OF DARKNESS

This album is a definite work of art. The Purest form of progressive music is quite shown in this album. Only one piece, a piece that brings perfection in every second, with the right amount of instrumentation, and a beautiful production.

Terje Vik Schei, also known as Tchort, has accomplished practically every musician's dream. To make all music by himself, with no other orders or ideas, and that's what maintains this album's integrity. In a few Words: A Masterpiece of prog metal!

There re bands that just play for changing lives. This is an example of bands that has changed mine. Progressive Metal that doesn't sound like Dream Theater is hard to find these days, so i first got really surprised when i heard this album. I might accept it made me and my band a bit jealous, i have found a bands i really envy, a band that wallows in complexity with an enormous sound richness. In one piece we've found the ultimate Progressive work of art.

I agree - amazing album, very melodic, very unique...reason for that - Tchort had something to say, he fully expressed himself and was never able to do that again. It is all of his music, he composed it it all and wrote the lyrics. Beautiful, fullest lyrics I have ever heard, same level of deapth as Porcupine Tree. It might not be virtuosish like Dream Theater or Rush, but it sound nothing like either one of them. The guitarist played bass in other bands, but he took up guitar here. He is not magical with it, but he runs rhythms/melody well. You do not need virtuoso guitarist to sound awsome, you need a good composition to sound awsome..and that is what you get here. Vocals (in one part put through same effects pedal as the guitar) are very dark, have their devilish part on the first half of the song. Very unique, the only band who could write one-hour composition because Tchort wanted to, because he had to say something in it, because he could. It feels like it is meant to be an hour long, and it is impossible to listen to parts of it. Either all of it or none (preferably all).

I disagree - this is not progressive music. This is Black Metal, unique to Norvegians. It can never be considered progressive, it has a very strong Pink Floyd influence in it. Black metal does have such shadowy and sad ideas, sometimes even demonic, it mostly bases around strong very heavy instrumentals, guitars/bases, powerful vocals (but never death metal grunts, can be using baritone or even lower as long as it is not a grunt or scream). None of it can ever be considered progressive, there is a reason it is called black(dark, shadowish, demonic).

This review could be the shortest ever: Excellent. But, ok let's see why this second release of the Norwegian band is so excellent. First as you may have notice, the album is a whole unique song of 60 minutes: the dream of many musicians is made a reality by guitarist Tchort (Carpathian Forest, Ex. Emperor, Ex. Satyricon), who composed all the music and lyrics for this masterpiece.

Musically dedicated to his son, the song has all you wish to find, from soft accoustic passages to heavy chords, saxophone solo to more variable speed riffs, women screams to growls, but never hitting the extreme limits of each style and above all, maintaining the logic of the song. And that's what amaze me the most: whereas some bands tend to make long songs a succession of riffs, this one is very homogeneous, you really feel like listening to a single song. Lyrically dedicated to the Bottery brothers (In The Woods, and former GC members), the soft and quite monotonous voice of Kjetil Nordhus perfectly scatters some interrogations such as "Why am I not what I used to be?", "Where did I fail?","Why do you torture me?", "Would I then reach divine entity?", that is to say "Doom" lyrics for sure! Dream, insanity, perfection, etc. "An everlasting mental and emotional journey" as Tchort himself said. The sound is good, you won't notice any bad things about it, and the production was made under Tchort control so that the album cannot sound in a different way than he wanted it to be. "This is my musical legacy", he says, and I cannot say more.

Oh yeah, I gave it a perfect score , which I don't gave so easily as others do...but if this release is not a masterpiece, WTH is it? Anyway, no review could tell you how good it is, so find Light of Day, Day of Darkness now!

First, Stan, In my opinion, Black metal is becoming more and more Progressive music. Second, You're all right, this is the perfect record, melodic, dark, emotional and very intelligent at the same time. Finally, i got to say that i also consider this prog metal, although it has too many doom and black metal elements, It's deep, dark and complex as bands like Porcupine tree, Opeth and tool. Masterpiece indeed, go buy it!

If after reading this dissection you decide to venture out and pick this disc up there will certainly be some questions to be asked. One of those questions would be whether or not this actually a metal album. Well, I'd have to say I've visited many metal sites myself and have questioned whether or not some of the discs at many of these sites are actually metal. An example of such instances would be when I see the band Katatonia featured at some of these sites. I own two Katatonia discs and even though I don't hear anything on either album that resembles metal, somehow they've been lumped into that category. Don't get me wrong; I love Katatonia, but they're not metal. As far as Green Carnation goes, the majority of this album is not metal, but when the metal it does contain flushes out of my speakers it is as heavy as anything you and I have ever heard. With that said, being this disc does flourish some impressive metal moments I have no choice but to dub it a "Millennium Metal Masterpiece".

After reading several reviews highly recommending this album, I finally ventured out myself to track this one down. 'Album' is probably not the right word for Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness due to the fact that that is the name of the only song on the disc. The only complaint I have about this would be that it is only one track lasting 60 minutes; therefore, it's not easy to skip around. One plus to this is that there is only one song name to remember, whereas when other bands produce marathon songs they give them several different names, movements, parts, etc. I guess the only benefit to dividing up this song would be to get to certain points in the song more easily. With this being the one and only complaint I really have here it probably could have gone unsaid, but I thought it would only be fair to you, the reader, to know this information before you add this album, I mean song, to your wish list.

I have always been the first to admit that I don't like using other bands as comparisons, but I'm gonna go against that here because I really see no other way to give you a full description of what's going on here. The music on display here is comparable but not confined to the elements put forth from bands like Pink Floyd, Katatonia, Anathema and Opeth just to name a few (well, four actually). Just looking at three of those names I personally haven't heard much metal come out of them, but Opeth has definitely proven themselves to be metal-worthy and the heaviness I hear on this disc is most reminiscent to them in my opinion. My opinion could be way off compared to what others might think, but that's the beauty of being in control of this dissection. My opinion is the only thing that matters here.

This album contains many peaks and valleys as far as tempo goes, but the overall mood for the most part is sullen and dark. With many build up parts over the first 35 minutes or so, the song kind of winds down into a section where a female with an operatic style converses with a saxophone. It is an extremely dark section and although at first it was a little much for me, I was able to appreciate it even more after what came next. With guitar solos usually showing up at the 3/4 point of most songs, that is exactly where I found one about 45 minutes in this trip. And the solo has got to be one of the best I've heard in my life. It doesn't contain all the fancy finger and pick work used by all of the guitar gods in the business; it just contains simple notes that speak to the listener with feeling and soul. Perfection in my book. Besides the above mentioned female voice, other voices used in this piece include a children's choir, an opera choir, a few different male voices and a screaming voice. Diversity is what this track is all about, and there's plenty of it.

In conclusion, this is by far one of the best discs I've gotten my hands on this year and I strongly suggest any and all "true" musicians pick it up. That's not to say it's not going to appeal to non-musicians, but if you're a listener that doesn't have a tolerance for diversity and you expect the music to always slap you in the face, then this may not be for you. If you're interested in hearing some sound clips, you can find some at their label's website. Last but not least, this album came out in Europe in late 2001 and wasn't released in the US until early 2002. As a result, that will make it available to make my top 6 albums of the year list, and that's exactly where I see it ending up.

THIS IS IT!

This is the CD I would take on a long trip if I was limited to one item. It is a fabulous kaleidoscope of sounds that captivate your senses through this marathon, one hour (YES 60 MINUTES) song/album. The Gods surely whispered in Tchort's ear (the band leader and composer) while he wrote this masterpiece, for it smacks of divine intervention. What is amazing is the fact that it manages to hold your interest (it really absorbs you) and keep you coming back for more. In fact when I first listened to it I was in my car and it mesmerized me. I wouldn't stop driving because I didn't want to stop the music. I keep driving for an hour even though I only went to the post office 2 miles away.

Light of Day, Day of Darkness Now what about the music? It is impossible to describe this music but I will try. A soft synth starts out this masterpiece which is soon joined by a subtle tea kettle whistle and some light guitar and drum work at the two minute mark. A childs voice can be heard in the background as the vocalist starts his agonized, melancholy singing about the 2:40 mark. This continues for about a minute and then after a heavy metal interlude is joined by a choir, then after another minute a very crunchy guitar comes in with the singer until the 6:30 mark, whereupon we slow down again and get reflective for about two minutes when the guitars and choirs very heavily chime in. At about 10:50, as good as the music is so far, Green Carnation is just getting warmed up, the music gets even better and we've barely gotten started.

I haven't mentioned the symphonic orchestra yet but their presence, mostly in the background, is invaluable. At the eleven minute mark the guitars, choirs and orchestra come together for a half minute leading to a drum and guitar interlude. Violins join in and take over at 12:40 and then the singer comes in joined by the crunchy guitars, singing "I think therefore I am, You are a fantasy made by me, I dream this world, When I end, the world will end with me, I am everything you are".

We are now at the 18 minute mark, at a slow heavy guitar part where the male choir sings for about two minutes and then solo for another minute culminating at one of my favorite parts. At twenty-two minutes and counting Green Carnation puts on their Pink Floyd hats for about five minutes and then becomes Green Carnation again until halftime(about 32 minutes).

At the 32 minute mark, a seemingly unrelated five minute section with a solo saxophone and lady singer makes it's appearance. I love lady singers but not this one and I find this section jarring and distracting in a most flawless performance otherwise.

At the 38 minute mark we return to the dark brooding passages that we experienced at the 18 minute mark, then a nice keyboard section that sounds slightly Pink Floydish again. This section also contains a great whining guitar solo. Now at 44 minutes(only three quarters of the way through), the music gets reflective again via our great singer and a plunking guitar changing to an organ at 46:30, then the pace picks up with the crunchy guitar a minute later.

At the 50 minute mark, the singer and both choirs join the crunchy guitar with a little up tempo section which leads us back to our half time singer and the full orchestra doing they're exceptional imitation of 'Salome' sitar and all. Back to the familiar G.C. sound and beat at 53:30 for a couple a minutes, then slow acoustic guitar and violins, leading to an ethereal sound and a baby talking. Then the Grand Finale and it is wonderful. If you think this sounds like a symphony or an opera, IT IS!!

Tchort himself writes inside the album literature; " Light of Day...is musically dedicated to my son, Damien Aleksander for bringing joy, inspiration and meaning to my life, and lyrically dedicated to Christian and Christopher Botteri - on an everlasting mental and emotional journey".

Similar Bands Evergrey, Therion, Thy Majestie, Dream Theater, Aryeon

I could write a book about this phenomenal creation, but here's the bottom line. LIGHT OF DAY is a profoundly, serious composition that is a must for the symphonic and progressive rock collector! GET IT, TURN UP THE VOLUME, PUT ON YOUR HEADPHONES, FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT AND GET READY FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR MUSICAL LIFE!!! TEN STARS!

This album is a total masterpiece!! Reminded me a lot of Pink Floyd's early works when they manipulated emotions so hard to describe. Music speaks for itself. Tchort and his band have recorded a song worth to enter to the vast walls of Immortality. This kind of monster explains and shows everything Green Carnation is. Undescriptable, Timeless, emotional music.

This epic,conceptual masterpiece is the best metal song/album ever,and one of the best progressive concepts ever.Fabolous moments through entire album,you just can't stop listening to it,it's a perfect remedy for short days and long winter nights .If you planify to travel somewhere buy this and take it with you!

Take a seat and have a listen, this is an only track of 60 minutes. As a prog lover I do have some experience with lengthy tracks but this goes even further. Ok Green Carnation try to convince me that you can keep my attention for that long. In fact, they did. Haven't been bored for one second. What an outstanding song ! The atmospheric music and the songlines that are detached to it take time for a slow development from one magnificent fragment to another. The music on this album is baptised in a melancholic, dreamy mood. Throughout the album there seems to be going on a battle between hope and disappointment in the vocals ; I guess this what they mean with "light of day and day of darkness". The song takes off with a kind of ambient soundscape that would be suitable for using on a soundtrack but then the tension is building up till the guitar riffs drop in without disturbing the large landscapes of sound. The influence of Floyd is heavy felt on the keyboard parts which consists of organs and atmospheric keyboard sounds that include elements from space rock as well. But also some vocal parts are reminiscent to Floyd ; sounding lazy and astral at the same time but mostly very sad, great all the way. At one point there's even the famous riff of another brick in the wall. The drums are carrying the music in a slow and majestic way. Is this band preparing itself for stadium gigs ? I wouldn't mind ! It may seen odd but that doesn't mean this album isn't heavy. Off course also the guitar contains several screaming Gilmour ingredients but there's also some expanded heavy parts where the chords get damn meaty and some vocals are getting near to the sound of a death grunt. But then again in other parts of this album, the delicate playing of flute, piano or sax takes over without sounding out of place. It seems there's quite some diversity in styles but the changing of the different atmospheres goes smooth enough, you have to listen very carefully to notice it. Green Carnation are building on the strongest elements of Floyd, combine it with progmetal, eastern influences and even some Faith no more vocals. What do you get ? A high original but overall magnificent record with an enjoyable atmospheric, yet powerful sound.

Being unfamiliar with the band but having read several positive reviews my expectations on this album were pretty high before listening to "light of day, .". Still. got overblown by this fabulous record. This is great. I want to buy all of their albums !!!

Awesome! A 60 min epic song that is never boring. The album has several songs in one completely coherent and linked. Splendid riffs, guitar effects, atmospheric keys, variable drums, and good male and female vocals, although I would prefer more of the wonderful vocals of Synne Soprana Larsen, unfortunately gone in the next album of this band. As a good prog album there are long instrumental parts. This album is surely a masterpiece, in spite of bitter reviewers with poppy and mainstream tastes. Highly recommended.

It's very hard for me to describe what I felt after listening to this overwhelming piece of music. It's overwhelming in that it is a lot to take it, whopping in at a hefty 60 minutes, and it's overwhelming in the musicality and the ideas that flow forward. There are many good spots on the album/song, and there are some dry spots that make it seem like they could have cut out an extra 5 or so minutes. Regardless, this album is a phenomenal piece that should not go unnoticed.

Let me begin on the music part by saying that there are varying degrees in heaviness on the album. There are very quiet, symphonic parts, and then there are great heavy metal sections. What's great about the vocals is that there is a choir that helps guide the way throughout the entire track.The drumming is varied and comes in and out according to the tempo and mood of different tracks. Many elements of influence are heard throughout the recording, ranging from Floydian soundscapes to more eastern influenced sections.

My least favorite part of the album is when the female vocalist has a solo around the 32 or 33 minute mark. It tends to drag on and I usually restrain myself from skipping it. I really appreciate the acoustic work that follows. It's very mellow and gives off a soothing sound. The crunchy guitars are also very welcome, with many memorable and intricate riffs laced with incredible bass and drums.

Overall, this is a work that all should check out. There are only a few parts that I do not enjoy, but once I get through them, it's smooth sailing. I give it a four because there are places where they could have cut out some time, it would have been better as a 55 minute track than a 60. Regardless, the band never ceases to amaze me with each listen. 4/5.

Whenever I listen to a Progressive Rock or a Progressive Metal album, it is practically impossible not to compare it with other popular progressive albums. Most progressive albums will have "Pink Floyd-ish" passages and/or some segments with certain "Opeth- esque" influences that will flow from soft and atmospheric to technical and melodic, culminating most of the times in explosive triumphant heavy passages with powerful riffs and driving double bass drums...yummy!

Green Carnation should be considered a melancholic progressive metal band. Light of Day, Day of Darkness is an overture with perhaps one very distinctive attribute which separates it from all other albums in this field, and that is that the album contains only one track. Mind you, the length of that track is one hour long! The song includes a male lead vocalist, some female vocals (soprano style), and some choirs.

To keep the listener cued in throughout the length of the song, the band mixes soft acoustic passages with more aggressive ones, moving from heavy more intense moments to soft atmospheric ones. The guitars are technically imaginative shifting from acoustic to electric with all the ease of a well-seasoned progressive metal band. The remarkably even mid-range vocals of "Nordus" are mostly clean and full with only a couple growling moments to speak of.

The band also obtained the contribution from an additional 10 musicians and a 21 member strong choir. In addition, to complete this studio album, they exploited more than 150 tracks and 600 separate samples. The results are as you would expect, the production is flawless, a truly phenomenal album from beginning to end.

The pace of the album is slow and leisurely so as to deliberately build the emotion "Tchort" is trying to invoke in the listener. At times the cadence is relentless, but always effective. The entire movement flows effortlessly alternating from soft progressive rhythms to varying patterns of aggressive double bass drum beats. I think I mentioned that already, didn't I?

The music will move you. You will experience moments of sadness, anger and happiness. The album's true power is derived from the dense, rich, and subtly textured music. Pay attention, this potent album will influence many progressive metal bands in the future, I'm sure of it.

Kudos to Tchort and his band, for releasing the most ambitious artistic album of 2001. Everything I love about progressive music is here; atmospheric passages, slow calming moments, aggressiveness and a good variety of vocals overall. The album radiates with confidence, style, originality and intensity. :)

I realize a lot of people give extra high ratings to concept albums, especially single song concept albums. Most of the time it is totally undeserved. However, this album really is interesting. I was very skeptical because with the exception of Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick, most of these projects fall woefully short of a 5 star rating.

In all honesty, so does this recording. It isn't an "absolute, must have or your life will be unfullfilled" kind of recording. However, it is better than most skeptics like myself would have thought. Even my "metal-phobic" friends and co-workers enjoyed this effort. It's got enough metal to have a bite when needed and enough prog to draw you into their world. I've only listened to the album 7 times since buying it a couple weeks ago, so I'm not too deeply involved into the lyrics and story. Then again, I rarely pay attention to lyrics unless they are audaciously bad.

I'm not going to go into minute by minute detail other than to say as others have said that the female vocalist's solo in the middle of the song is not only bad, but it is also out of place and ill-fitting the rest of the music. Personally, I ripped this into a sound editor, removed that section, and reassembled the track. That alone puts it in the 4.5 star category. All in all, this is well worth the $12 investment and will definitely provide a lot of musical enjoyment in the years to come.

This very good progressive metal album is very original and unique. There is only one track, lasting more than one hour! It starts with charming baby voices with a Bono- esque lead vocals. Amazingly, the lead vocals tone then almost never sound anymore like Bono of U2, except for a bit around the 45th minute. The lead singing often consist in intermittent & almost spoken pairs of words. The rather monolithic, SLOW and sustained rhythmic electric guitar has a good metal sound, although it is maybe a bit too dirty, reminding the typical sound of metal band "Pile Driver" in a less powerful and fast manner: the bass here does not support as much the electric rhythmic guitar; however, the sound remains quite metal of the 80's, unlike the rhythmic guitars of Pain of Salvation, which has more the grunge sound. There are many pleasant background organ of the 70's as keyboards; there are other more modern keyboards parts, and the presence of many pleasant symphonic arrangements-like makes me think if they are not emulated by keyboards. The track is not tedious to listen, because the airs and rhythms involved often change and are catchy and pleasant to listen. The album is not really guitar solo-oriented, although it contains a couples of very good ones, being more atmospheric, visceral and spacey than bombastic and melodic. The drums are really varied and refined: they are a strong point one this record. Right in the middle of the track, there is a long bit where a women sings with a Sinead O'Connor-esque voice; it is done in a very mellow and mysterious Middle Eastern atmosphere; there is a gloomy unidentified wind instrument that sounds a bit like a sad saxophone; the experience is memorable although it is a bit lengthy; I think the permanent humming combined with hazy & futuristic bubble sounds which evoke a huge boiling process in the background is essential to render the enigmatic character to this part of the track. There are some interesting distortion-free or acoustic guitar arrangements. This record is less structured, fast, nervous, accessible and emotional than progressive metal bands like Symphony X and Shadow Gallery; that's why it may belong to a class apart.

Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness is the second recording for Green Carnation. It features none of the musicians who made up the official line-up from Journey To The End Of The Night, save for guitarist and GC mastermind Tchort. It is also made up of one sixty minute track. Constructing a one-song full-length release is a tricky and challenging task. Few have attempted such an effort within metal circles and even fewer have succeeded in making such a recording work. Edge Of Sanity's Crimson comes to mind immediately when taking such works into consideration. Crimson was a monumental achievement not only for Edge Of Sanity, but for the metal genre as a whole. Crimson was a forty-minute journey through the realms of death/black/doom/power that succeeded on a number of levels from the master instrumentation to the powerful production. But the most important factor for this composition was the song itself, which maintained its flow and captivated its audience for its duration. It felt like fifteen minutes rather than forty. Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness joins Crimson at the throne of one-track album genius.

Gone are the meandering musical passages and cumbersome arrangements that crippled the otherwise impressive debut. The structure is tight and focused. Every passage has a meaning to the whole piece and nothing is here that doesn't belong. The foundation of this sound still resides in the atmospheric doom field, yet this time there is a healthy progressive rock element that plays a significant role in the delivery of the story. It's a musical journey in the true sense of the term. The In The Woods... comparisons can still be drawn, though to a lesser extent this time around, and they really are the only comparison I can comfortably make. The music rises and falls, paralleling the emotions expressed in the words. The inclusion of choirs and strings add to the grandiose vibe of the music, as does the outstanding production. The sound of this album is crystal clear and powerful.

Where the lyrical concept of Journey To The End Of The Night was based on the passing of Tchort's daughter, Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness was inspired by the birth of his son. The lyrics read as an introspective take on the journey of life. The challenge of matching the themes in the lyrics with the relating musical passages is met, the music really acting as a soundtrack for the story. The artwork in the packaging is also representative of both the music and lyrics. The photographs of serene landscapes and tranquil horizons taken by Tchort for each page of the booklet set an appropriate imagery to accompany the atmosphere in the music.

At an extra twenty minutes, the song/album is entirely compelling. The new players that Tchort has assembled for this effort are top-notch performers. While replacing the talented Botteri brothers is not easy, guitarist Bjorn and bassist Stein handle themselves very well here. Original drummer Anders Kobro (In The Woods..., Carpathian Forest) returns with his inventive and material enhancing skills, really tightening things up in the rhythm department. New vocalist Kjetil Nordhus is not very far removed from his predecessor, as he possesses a similar tone. But his delivery relates better to this material and he is overall more convincing. Throw in a number of guest musicians including a vocal appearance by In The Woods... Jan Kenneth and you've got an impressive collection of musicians who have clearly bought into Tchort's vision for this work.

All in all, this is just a fantastic work. All sixty minutes of this composition are thoroughly engaging. There are multitudes of bands who will never write one four minute song that is as compelling as the entirety of Light Of Day... Green Carnation have grown immensely from their debut and have created a classic album that stands as one of this genre's finest achievements.

I have to give these guys (er., this guy - Tchort) credit. This is a superbly produced piece of progressive art. I'm not sure if it is actually progressive metal or something else, but it doesn't really matter I suppose. For older guys like me the words progressive and metal usually conjure up pictures of Ronnie James Dio and Ritchie Blackmore and "Lady of the Lake", so I'm probably not the right person to make that call anyway.

I picked this up at the recommendation of a friend after rambling on to him about how much I liked Ayreon's Human Equation. I'm not sure what this friend felt the connection was to this album, as I don't see one, but it's a great bit of music anyway. Conceived as a single contiguous work, the song fills the entire CD with no interruptions. Unlike albums like The Wall or Human Equation though, this one isn't even subdivided into smaller palatable portions, which is probably my only beef. While the overall composition is definitely worthy of an uninterrupted session, it's not the kind of record you're likely to put on for a casual listen, so it doesn't get played too often in my house.

Like I said the sound is largely metal with pretty strong progressive overtones, but there are a few interesting deviations. Around the middle is a short stretch of melodic male vocals with a driving, almost hair-band rhythm and a straightahead beat that is actually quite catchy. Unfortunately this is followed by about five minutes of what I believe is an oboe in a kind of hash-inspired dirge with some crazy chick chant-singing in a combination of accented English and gibberish. That's where the song seek would have come in handy.

The next few minutes feature a male voice that gets almost annoyingly close to launching into gutteral screech vocals, but manages to stay just this side of discernable before the guitars fade into that kind of tense and barely controlled tempo that bands like Opeth and some later Fates Warning do so well. The petered-out ending into a twisted kind of children's lullaby makes for a bit of a strange finish, but the experience is worth an hour of your time every now and then.

I guess I'm not really sure what this album is all about lyrically, but I have to say that it is one of the most interesting listens in the progressive metal category I have heard outside of some of the Ayreon albums in quite some time. A definite excellent addition to just about any collection. Four stars.

peace

It seems like GREEN CARNATION had enough musical ideas to compose an epic prog-metal track spanning 40 mins. However, 40 mins tracks have been done before, and in an attempt to create something special they decided to extend their work an extra 20 mins to create an epic of epic proportions. The novelty of having a hour long track really hurts the quality of the album. I may be wrong with my conjecture, but judging by the music, I seem spot on.

Musically the album carries a very monotonous feel. The music develops slowly, yet thoroughly through the whole piece, but it happens at such a gradual rate that at times the piece can become overwhelming. The robotic vocals do little to fix this problem; they are repeated in the same emotionless, drone like voice throughout the album. If this doesn't wear you down, the hour long bombardment of depression will have the perkiest of prog-heads on the verge of suicide.

The best example of the pointless extension of the album comes around the halfway mark. The metal onslaught gives way to symphonic, eastern influenced atmospheres, and an angelic female voice cuts in to deliver chants to the audience. This interlude isn't necessarily as bad as it is pointless.

Now, all criticism aside Light of Day, Day of Darkness has some truly great moments. The drumming varies throughout the entire piece, propelling it forward while staying fresh the entire time. The vocal harmonies are fantastic with the backing Operatic choir and children's choir, and the combination of slide, acoustic, and electric guitars add a heft dose of flavor to the metal riffs.

LoDDoD overreaches its abilities. If all fat were trimmed this could be an excellent 30-40 min track, but while the idea of an hour long track does tickle all of our esoteric bones, practically it doesn't work out.

At the first listenings the album sounded monotonous to me as well but after more spins it started to grow on me more and more. I won't write so much on it because of my laziness but I must say that I think this is one of the best prog-metal albums I have ever heard besides all albums by Pain Of Salvation.

From start to end this opus is very elaborate and it contains so much ideas that some bands could only dream about it. When they start to repeat some theme and you are getting close to a boredom, they immediately change it to something else and the band can surprise you even though you have heard it many times before. Well, they can surprise you with every new album but that's another story.

I highly recommend this album to everyone!

Not a bad song, and not a bad band! Green Carnation puts out an hour long song, the longest that has been written in Metal history! Yay for them! Not to include that the album/song is really good too. It's got the softness, the hardness, and the all together great metal rendition. Now, Green Carnation is a dark band, and a unique band, making this all the better. Though it is a little wierd about 30 minutes into it with the lady, (i really didn't like that part at all). I love the fact that it's the longest song, but also that when I tell my fellow freinds who are "3-4 minute only nuts" their jaws drop and they ridecule my music all the more (frustrating as it is when they do that) I enjoy telling them that my music atleast has the talent to captivate one person for an hour and six seconds when I get sick of their emo music not 1 1/2 minutes into the song. The creater of this song is great, and he puts alot of talent and power into the album. I must say that this album has some really good qualities to it! 4/5 for it, if you like Riverside, Evergrey, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Dream Theater, you'll like these guys! Give it a try it's truely a great song! Go Green Carnation!

One year after releasing their eponymous debut GC went back to studio to record their second album consisting of one 60 min long track only. Both Botteri brothers have left the band meanwhile and actually Tchort as the band leader was the only one left over from the original line-up. But in fact he managed to gather a whole bunch of musicians and vocalists, amongst them 8 classically trained singers (male and female) and an entire children's choir next to 4 regular band members to help him realizing this magnum opus presented here. All music and lyrics of this concept song/album had been written solely by Tchort which deserves big acknowledge alone. What's the concept exactly about never became quite clear to me but according to the booklet he calls it his musical legacy, saying that it's musically dedicated to his son Damien Aleksander (who's as well participating as baby's voice) "for bringing joy, inspiration and meaning to my life" and lyrically dedicated to Christian and Christopher Botteri "on an everlasting mental and emotional journey". And I think the latter expression describes best this record - not really an everlasting, but an hour long inspiring and haunting trip through all kind of imaginations and emotions.

I won't describe the music presented here in detail because I think this has been done elsewhere often enough already and much better than I could do. In short this composition obviously is divided into three parts, first one lasts up to 32:50 when the female oriental sounding voice starts singing and the last one starts after that strange but impressive excursion around 39:00. And as much I've to say that this middle part was always my least favourite one and that it seams to be rather disturbing and out of place, it serves very well as a kind of control point for orientation. The first part is after a quite mellow intro alternating between heavy doom metal riffs and more lyrical sections. Vocals are mainly clean ones apart from a few screaming ones which are presented by Roger Rasmussen who has been put into duty especially for that job. There are as well some THERION-type male choirs and orchestral arrangements also typical for that band to be found here. But this is by far not the only obvious influence here, others are for example some kind of psychedelic doom metal as done by related band IN THE WOODS, undeniable there's as well a touch of PINK FLOYD present to name at least one seminal band. But overall GC manages here quite well to create their very own unique sound and though there's a main theme as a kind of thread being repeated in different variations throughout this track it never starts meandering and keeps the listener's attention at any moment. The second part sounds completely different from the rest and really marks a kind of break. In some way it's taking up a bit the dreamy atmosphere from the introduction for the first part and though it might sound quite inappropriate I'm sure it's more than just a filler. The elegiac, oriental sounding and extremely high-pitched voice combined with sax tunes has in a way a rather mesmerizing effect though for sure needs quite a lot of spins to get used to. After vocals have reached almost painful frequencies some tunes of acoustic guitar are leading over to the third part which is certainly the most versatile and prog-ish one. Starting from around 40:20 there's one of the absolute highlights of this disk - an awesome solo played first on acoustic guitar accompanied by some tender piano tunes and then continued on electric guitar. After a short slightly psychedelic and odd sounding section the music gets much more into a symphonic and orchestral but nonetheless heavy vein, the oriental-styled female vocals return for a short while and the composition reaches its climax. Then there's some mellow acoustic guitar, tasteful keyboard sounds and baby voice and one would expect that it's coming to its end before heavy guitars are returning for 1 or 2 minutes and a lullaby played on a musical clock is finally closing the disk.

As a summary I can't do other than calling this work an unique and exceptional one and giving it a full-score rating. This record is certainly to be considered a must-have in any metal-oriented prog collection!

A concept album? No, a concept... song. A 60 minute song... that's really unusual, even for a progressive metal band. Hard to review such an album, as it takes many many listens to fully discover and appreciate everything that can be found in a song like this (usually I listen to an album 10 times before submitting a review, this time it took me maybe 40 listens before I could remember the main melodies). The music here is a mix of atmospheric and doom metal with clean vocals (male and female, normal and operatic).

The album starts with a mellow intro with acoustic guitar and the voice of a child. Then the electric guitar makes its first appearance after 3 minutes for what could be the first "main theme" ("Crimson tide... light of day, day of darkness"). The song becomes quiet again for a few moments and then a heavier moment around the 8 minute mark with... two growled words ("voices and.. CALLS" then again "I stumbled and... FALL") that introduce an operatic passage with classical singers (very reminiscent of Therion). The song turns acoustic again after 11 minutes for two minutes of an instrumental interlude before the second main theme of the song starts ("I fell asleep to sweet lullaby... the dream was so enticing... light of day, day of darkness") which ends with a beautiful melodic moment with keyboards. The song then becomes much heavier again with distorted guitars, but with a slow tempo and an alternance of normal singing and operatic singing (very doomy, My Dying Bride comes in mind here). After 22 minutes, the melody changes again, more spacey, a bit like Pink Floyd "One Of These Days" meets Therion (fabulous screaming guitar in the background) for five minutes of instrumental music. After a four minute bridge of doomy metal, the second main theme is repeated until, at the 32 minute mark, the song ends brutally... female vocals can then be heard with a saxophone in the background (this part sounds a lot like The Third And The Mortal, and like most other people here it is my least favorite part on the album - the saxophone solo is nice though, and it would have been great for the end of the song... without the female vocals). Five minutes later, the main song starts again with an acoustic guitar, then the distorted guitars come back again for more doomy metal. At the 40 minute mark, the acoustic solo really sounds like My Dying Bride, or better, The Eternal (a beautiful moment again, and the guitar part after 44/45 minutes *really* sounds like The Eternal). The next 6 minutes see an alternance of mellow parts with gentle vocals and heavy parts with distorted guitars. After 51 minutes, a short moment with a sitar introduces the first main theme again. In fact, the last 7 minutes of the song are close to the first 7 minutes with the sequences played in the reverse order (main theme - mellow part with Tchort's son's voice - intro). Too bad the last minute with the music box ends the song in a pretty weak way...

Rating: 90/100 (5 stars)

I discovered this release here in the Archives and specifically in the top 100 list; one day when I didn't have any idea what to buy next, I decided to try to make the top 100 useful and try to get most of the top albums in the genres I prefer; so, while looking in the progressive-metal genre's top 100 list, I found this little wonder among the top 20. I bought it after reading a couple of very positive reviews. But I didn't bought it without any hesitation or doubt: there's a lot of highly-praised releases that I just don't like or that I think are way overrated. So, with some fear of dissapointment, I put this cd in the stereo the other night, and listened...

...and AGREED.

This album is a MASTERPIECE of progressive metal music, and of prog in general. It just blow my mind off. When I saw that the screen said "track 01 - 60:07" I got really worried; I mean, I was sure at some time my concience would begin to fail me or that sleep would try to win over me; you know, 60 MINUTES of continuous non-stop music seem like a little bit too much EVEN for prog. But no sir, NOT AT ALL. I have never experienced something quite like the easiness with which the time just... flew by. I kept seeing the stereo's scren in amazement: 10:00, 20:00, 34:00... and so on, till the 60 minute mark was reached. And never, NOT ONCE did I even start to close my eyes. Why? Because what I heard, was SPECTACULAR.

I won't try a detailed section-by-section review of the "song" because is really impossible, at least not until I've heard this cd like ten more times. But I think I can summarize what the music represented for me in a few words, even after just one listen.

What we have here is a prog-progmetal mix-dream: this is NOT pure prog-metal a la Dream Theater: this is NOT just death metal a la Opeth; this is NOT psychedelic metal a la Riverside; this is not pure prog-conceptual metal a la Pain of Salvation. No... This album HAS IT ALL. We have a lot of pure grinding metallic moments, many passages of death-metal riffs, many atmospheric, spacey moments with psychadelic guitars and keys; we have unusual instruments like Cello and winds; we have quiet passages, we have hard rockin', straight metal passages; moments of rhythmical interest, momenst of the utmost MELODIC BEAUTY. We have everything we were looking for AND MORE. Just to give an idea, let's try a mix made of Pain of Salvation, a but of Opeth, a lot of Tuonela-era Amorphis (a band I consider to be prog in three of their latest releases), a bit of Evergrey (the good stuff, not MMA debacle), just a little of DT, some Floyd, lots of Therion (the orchestral and choral moments).... man, if I keep on naming references in Green Carnation's sound, I'd probably go as far back as some 60's bands... (well, that's obvious: influence goes forward and is "inherited", so if a band is influenced by someone who was influenced by a 60's band, then the first are influenced by the latter, too). But I'd say those are the bands that came to my mind quicker.

And, lest we forget about the performers, we have to say the a word about the musicians themselves: the playing is of the highest level here, with very competent performers in every instrument but specially in the guitars, where mastermind Tchort just shines with sheer brilliance. The singer is quite good, too: he know how to properly SING, with great melodic skills, but he also knows how to growl. Yes, there's some growling to be found here (not too much, thank you Tchort) but it's not of the annoying kind: is a deep, concentrated, obscure and harmless guttural sound that doesn't take away from the quality of the music.

So, in the end, I have to say: this is a 5 STAR ALBUM: it is an ESSENTIAL addition to any prog-metal collection worthy of being called a collection. An outstanding, original, amazing effort that truly represents all that metal is capable of, when conceived and performed by musicians that really know how to extract the last drop of vital fluid out of it.

Recommended to: EVERYONE. Even if you don't like prog-metal or just metal, please give this a try: it has enough interesting features and enough melodic fragments to leave you more than just satisfied.

Not recommended to: Well, I have a problem here.... I'm at a loss for words. I don't have anyone not to recommend this album to. But for the sake of tradition, I just have to find someone. And it is: not recommended for people that aren't able or don't have the time to sit down for a FULL hour to listen to this from beginning to end... IT HAS TO BE DONE THAT WAY.

I can only agree with the last (and some more) reviews on this album: a masterpiece! I just got interested in this album by reading some reviews here on the site and decided to just order the album; without regrets.

However: sometimes it doesn't turn out this way. I also bought a lot of albums from Dream Theatre and King Crimson by reading their reviews, but I wasn't impressed. For me music is emotion. Therefore the music has to "touch me" in some kind of way, which for example DT's music doesn't, but Riverside's, Opeth's and Porcupine Tree's music does. Don't ask me why: tastes are not the same and one cannot dispute about personal tastes. For me I guess the music in itself has to be quite complex, but also not too complex (meaning experimental). I think Green Carnation found the perfect way to blend musical styles and genres, since this is definitely not a pure metal album!

Great concept of the album is that it only consists out of one 60 minute long track. In this track there's a big variety in moods and tempo's, varying between classical, acoustic to heavy metal riffs, but always for the sake of lifting the music to a higher surface. Tchort is a mastermind and this album only makes me more curious after other GREEN CARNATION and IN THE WOODS. albums. If I could only take ten albums with me to a deserted island right now this would definitely be one of them!

This is a masterpiece of progressive music, generally speaking. The more you listen to this album, the more you appreciate the work done here. I 'm sure that some people will find the idea of one song- one album strange and wrong. Well these people don't enjoy prog and they don't read this, do they? Now for the rest of us, fortunately the length of this song is not the only thing that makes it prog. The music does it! And it speaks to your soul as it goes through heavy riffs to melodic and creepy female vocals and to a colossal guitar solo, not so technical but very emotional. I am sure that progressive metal is where you put this album but it is a limited way to judge it. I recommend it to every fan of the different.

After recently purchasing this album it has quickly become one of my all time favourite albums. It is a stunning album, one which deserves to go down as a classic of not only prog metal but heavy metal in general.

It is a daring album, only one 60 minute song. Such an attempt could have easily turned into a pretentious, self indulgent disaster. But Green Carnation somehow did it succesfully creating an epic piece of music. This is essential to any prog metal collection.

Green Carnation's Light of Day, Day of Darkness is an amazing feat in music, and it's a very,very good song. However, I can't bring myself to call it a masterpiece.

Light of Day, Day of Darkness is a very impressive song. I love parts of it, particularly the first 6:30 or 7 minutes and around 22:00 among other sections. There are too many weak sections in it. One obvious problem with the song is its length, it's difficult sometimes to listen to the whole thing. However, that doesn't detract too much from the song.

I would still highly recommend Light of Day, Day of Darkness to everybody, as it's really quite a journey and an impressive piece of music. I just don't hear a masterpiece when I listen to it.

Much would I like to give this album 5 stars just because of one thing... the whole album is just one hour long song!!! I mean, this should clearly be THE album among albums, the song among songs, right?...right? Well...sadly no, it doesn´t come even close. Sad, but true.

Don´t get me wrong, the song is still pretty good, but if one is gonna try to do an hour long track, it might as well be the best thing ever! Others that have attemped this colossal odyssey have done quite the good jobs; Dream Theater´s Six degrees of inner turbulence, Edge of Sanity´s Crimson and personal favorite Beyond Twilight´s For the love of art and the making, keeping the epic not only good and well composed but full of fresh ideas, interesting interplay and with more than one "Oh my God" moments. This however, isn´t the case with Light of day, day of darkness. There are not many impressive moments thrue out this album, thought I must give it to Tchort (the main composer), the whole thing goes quite smoothly thrue out the entire hour and nothing seems out of place or too forced. Having said that, some variation would be nice, cause most of the piece is quite similar in style to...well, most of the piece is pretty muh the same! With some exceptions here and there, like simple acoustic passages (which are quite good), use of different choirs and a sax/female vocals solo. This last two however, aren´t really that good. The use of the choirs is rather weak for me, they could have done it so much better, with so much power, but the end result are multiple voices singing quite flat and uniteresting, and the sax/female vocals solo is down right bad. A sax in metal?...mmm, not my cup of tea really, and of many others. A cello perhaps, would have been so much better, and the femal vocals are just as uninteresting. Another big problem for me are the lyrics. It seems to me Tchort wanted to speak about everything here, but he ends up speaking about absolutly nothing, for the lyrics have no connection from part to part, which might be good in some cases (Yes anyone...?) but here it´s really a weakness. Also, the vocal lines are quite poorly done, no good melodys, no great singing, although I´m sure that was intentional for making the album have a more melancholic feel to it, so ok, why not?

As I have said before, this is not a bad song, you might like it quite a lot, but for me, there aer way too many flaws (yes, down right flaws) for me to even give this album 3 stars. If you make an hour long song, better do it more than right, do it exceptional.

First of all I want to thank "evenless" (Martijn) for introducing me to this amazing album. GREEN CARNATION actually formed in 1990 but never got off the ground then as Tchort left to play bass for EMPEROR, so the Botteri brothers formed a band called IN THE WOODS... .Tchort and the Botteri brothers would record only one album together as GREEN CARNATION called "Journey To the End Of The Night", GREEN CARNATION's debut in 2000. The Botteri brothers would leave after that release.That debut record was about the tragic death of Tchort's daughter, and needless to say it is filled with darkness,pain and sorrow. I need to say as a father that I can't possibly imagine what Tchort went through and is still going through.That kind of pain is only known by those who have experienced it first hand. This is the follow up record and Tchort dedicates the music to his new son, while lyrically he dedicates it to the Botteri brothers.Tchort describes this release as his "Musical legacy". And this record reveals the emotions and feelings of Tchort of what he's going through, and went through, but unlike the first album this is seen through the "joy, inspiation and meaning" that his son has brought into his life. So there is hope in this album, but also a lot of darkness and anger. In the liner notes is a picture of a little white casket with a young woman laying beside it, holding it, with her head resting on it. The other pictures in the liner are beautiful photos of nature. Musically this sounds more like IN THE WOODS... than anyone else although I was reminded of ANATHEMA during some of the quieter parts.This is a single 60 minute song that tells Tchort's feelings without being interupted.

The song starts off rather atmospherically with some eerie sounds as the soundscape builds with guitar and drums as we hear a child making noises. Reserved vocals come in at about 3 minutes that change to a full sound 5 minutes in with some good guitar riffs. Great ! Organ melodies come and go.The lyrics are so emotional as he sings "Insanity reached me it's hand". 8 minutes in the vocals are aggressive and the sound is heavy and angry. 14 minutes in we get some very heavy drums and bass that accellerates. Nice ! This is followed by a spacey, dreamy soundscape that suit the lyrics that are about a dream he had. 20 minutes in we get some BLACK SABBATH-like guitars and vocals and it gets punishingly heavy again. 22 minutes in it lightens up some with some incredible instrumental work.

Some nice organ work and riffs dominate until 25 minutes in it almost stops before we get the heavy riffing again as the light and heavy are beautifully contrasted. The drumming is fantastic here and throughout this song. We get some female vocals after 33 minutes with a reserved sax solo. She gets close to screaming during her vocal melody. At 39 minutes the male vocals and the heaviness is back. A long amazing guitar solo 42 minutes in and i'm reminded of ANATHEMA 45 minutes in. More heavy riffing and she's back 52 minutes in. The guitar is incredible and then we hear the child's voice again with synths that are broken by blazing guitar and pounding drums. The song ends with the sound of a music box playing.

There are some heart wrenching lyrics in this song, but I can tell you that the music is as good as the words. This is truly a masterpiece !

4.3 Stars.

This is a very coherent and accessible epic (except for that vocal solo in the middle) with simple, yet effective guitar riffs/themes and vocal melodies. The song really flows smoothly from one section to the next and the melodies and riffs are very listenable, making the huge song very likable at first listen. I would love to give this Heavy Metal masterwork a 5-star rating since it is a 60-minute long song which is very challenging to make, and Green Carnation has pulled it off! However, I just can't give it 5 stars as I just can't see it as a masterpiece for several reasons that I will discuss later.

A reason why this album is so smooth is that most of the music sounds similar to the rest of the album. A huge majority of the album is spent introducing new heavy metal riffs while those operatic vocals are usually present. Of course, there are some very refreshing parts, but the disc lacks a bit of variety sometimes which is crucial when dealing with a song this long. The song uses certain formulas that seem to be repeated a bit throughout, such as a slow acoustic melody being played and then a distorted guitar follows with the same melody, and avoiding guitar solos (though it can be also seen as a good and refreshing quality)

Other issues I have with the disc: the vocals are not very impressive, though they are no mediocre by any means. The ending is in my opinion a failure as it just cuts off a beautiful positive moment and it ends with guitar riffs played in the beginning of the album and a fade in to a musical box melody which sounds very weak musically.

Of course, my main issue is the middle part of the album. For almost ten minutes, the music stops and all that's left is a female vocalist and a saxophone. The saxophone sounds sad and slow while the vocalist sings in many different ways, including a moment where she screams her lungs off in a very disturbing way, making it sound like if a guy had a "zipper" accident in his crotch. Overall, I find that moment a bit out of place, very uneventful, and too peaceful and also too disturbing for this album.

Despite these flaws that prevent the album from being called a Masterpiece by me, it is still a highly recommended disc that will grab you at first listen and never let go. In my opinion, this isn't much of a "prog" album, even though it's a 60-minute long song. It is just dark heavy metal being stretched for an hour in a mostly successful way, with some acoustic passages to bring contrast and that beautiful synth driven passage near the end with the sound of a baby. All these 60 minutes are played with just one guitar solo, so keep that in mind.

Recommended!

I'm not feeling this. Even if the drums were acoustic (if those are acoustic drums, then Kobro should be ashamed of his drum set), and even if the guitar wasn't incredibly overpowering, and even if the album was sliced into songs (which of course isn't necessary at all, but many find it so) and even if the blaring heavy metal was toned down, and the colourful, trance-inducing moments were extended, this album would still not cut it for me.

You're listening to this album - rather, you're pledging an hour of your life to this music, and the glorious, climatic ending is approaching and you start to get excited, and this whole hour is about to pay off. Guess what. No pay off, no glorious rise, no "Aching Men's Feet", no "Land's End", no Grand Finale. Instead, we get a repetition of the main riff, which has the exact mood as the majority of the album, leading into a distorted music box playing a tacky lullaby.

Despite these significant flaws, there is really some great music here. A lot of the riffs and melodies are beautiful, or genuinely exciting, and the atmospheres are all fantastic. The addition of orchestra at certain points is quite affective. The soft sections, comprised mainly of acoustic guitar, soft female voices, and keyboard-spawn atmospheres, are very well played. My only problem with this/these section(s) is when a woman blasts, rises to a higher note, blasts, rises, blasts, rises. It's very (dare I say) cheesy, and the woman doesn't do a phenomenal job. Also, the 60 minutes tend to drag on, more often than not. The lyrics, at times, are interesting, but aren't altogether fantastic or fresh.

It's a decent album that lands somewhere between 2 stars and 3, but unfortunately is held back by many flaws and a terrible ending.

(Post Script: To those who proclaim this concept of one 60 minute song groundbreaking: Mike Oldfield did this 11 years earlier, and Arvo Pärt did a 71 minute song, too!)

Ahhh, this is my attempt at reviewing this album. Now, this is not the type of album you go and review without some energy. This consists of a single song, or rather, movement. 'Song' surely doesnt fit in this category. It's a whopping 60 minute long masterpiece, something that few have and will attempt. The most recent one to come to mind is Dan Swano's Crimson, another masterpiece, though quite a few minutes shorter.

Light of Day, Day of Darkness starts slowly, with some ambient synth effects, ghostly whispering, and vocal whining that always reminds me, amiably, of a kettle's whistle. Then there's the infant's cooing and the real music kicks in. The ambience is almost overwhelming and frightening. There are no sudden breaks here, a continuous flow of sad ethereal music. A heavy riff kicks in, only to be replaced by a female chorus and Gregorian ambience. It is really hair raising.

Another guitar riff kicks in. My only gripe with the sound in general is that I do not like the guitar's tone. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong here, but it sounds very compressed and fizzy to my ears, almost solid state. It reminds me of my old guitar fx processor. Anyways, on to the music itself. This riff, that is the one that starts at 4:40, sounds a bit simple to my ears. An organ helps it along in the background, giving it that slight Deep Purple feel. This riff is quite long, and I find it a welcome change when the clean bit starts at around 6:50. Big ambience here, with nicely mixed drums. Reverb gives the impression of playing in a large closed area. At 8 minutes we get a long howl. The composition is great, with the screams coming after some particularly fitting lyrics. The vocal style changes a bit here, becoming deep and ominuous. The riffing in general sounds very doomish, keeping simple and heavy. Female vocals are layered over the main singing in a few places.

Then comes a change. A very beautiful change. A fast tempo drum beat kicks in, and an ambient synth line fills in the spectrum beautifully, with the slow guitar riffing continuing in the foreground. A perfect acoustic part continues from here, and a violin section is layered over as lead. This part is really atmospheric and beautifully composed. Then the gritty riffing comes in, in my opinion spoiling the sound somewhat. The vocals are nicely backed here. The song flows slowly into a laidback section, with acoustic, violin, drawn out vocals. Extremely atmospheric and moody. Again, it goes back into the guitar riffing, something that I'll never be at complete peace with. There are several progressive sounding changes around this part, minute 17.

Quick tempo riffing alternates with slower tempo riffs, never sounding too sudden. Nothing too unpredictable either. The slow part around the 19th minute is very welcome, along with the heavy doom riff following it. Some nice guitar harmonization here. The singing is fluid and connected. Heavy riffing and more harmonization continues until the beginning of one of the most interesting changes I've heard. This low quality muffled clean guitar track kicks in, with a rockish sounding melody. Synth and distant guitar are layered over this line, which is then lost beneath heavy riffing with the same melodic idea. This instrumental section sounds very proggish and Deep Purple, with the organ in the background. Nicely done.

The 25th minute and beyond sees some ambient drumming, nicely drawn out and not boring. The vocals kick back in during the 27th minute. The riff with synth from the 10th minute is repeated here, and sounds perfect. The 29th minute sees some very My Dying Brideish guitar harmony. A quiet section reveals the triggered snare, something that probably turned me off a little bit.

All of a sudden the established riffing is taken away and we are left with ambience during the 32nd minute. An anguished female vocal line starts, along with very medieval sounding strings (am i right?). The vocalist starts to (intentionally) sing some very dissonant accidentals, turning it all into a very creepy section. The vibrato on the female vocals sounds scary as hell. This part sounds very experimental, and to be honest, I've never met anything like this before. This is the perfect amalgamation of progressive metal and doom.

An acoustic guitar starts playing some slow sad notes at around the 38th minute mark. The violin plays a second line, which leads into some very heavy riffing with the same tune. This is probably the most doomish sounding part in the whole movement. After this comes a faster tempo change, with the drums giving the impression that a 4/4 section is going to follow, but instead going into a 6/8 beat. This sounds very progressive and is very well done. A nice wailing guitar solo follows. I think I hear a couple of bad notes, and an offbeat part, but nothing too bad, and it quite suits the style.

Then starts the last opus. A quiet part with some acoustic guitar playing and more ghostly whispering. Very creepy and effective. Childish humming in the background turns your hair up a little bit more. Then at 45:53 this grandfather clock type of bell comes in, but very dissonant sounding. You start to imagine yourself in some kind of hellish cathedral. A damped guitar riff lightens up the atmosphere somewhat, leading to a pretty standard doomish guitar part. Some more simple riffs ensue, with deep vocals and atmospheric backing. Strangely enough I like the modulation on the vocals at around the 51st minute.

An interesting light section follows, with Middle Eastern sounding tunes, and ambient female vocals. This lasts till the middle of the 52nd minute, where some of the previous riffing kicks back in. Unfortunately, I must say that by now this riff grows a bit old on me, and I start having trouble imagining why they didn't try something different.

The heavy guitar riffs stop during minute 55, with some very beautiful sad classic guitar starting up. The guitar sounds very flamenco around here. It is a very sad section, with some baby coos adding to the melancholic atmosphere. A simple yet nicely layered heavy riff comes in at around the 57th minute, and the feeling that we are arriving at a conclusion is very present here. The riffs fade away, leaving us with a musicbox tune. The kind of musicbox with rotating cylinders and metal prongs. This always reminds me of the Alp Mountains. Very very creepy and touching at the same time. A large distant pop concludes the music.

The flow of the composition is amazing, with no part really standing out, except perhaps for the dissonant female singing in the middle. I like most of the ideas, but I had problems with the guitar riffing and tone. The guitar riffing almost sounds too cliched at places, and the tone leaves something lacking. The singing is also not really my style, though that only amounts to opinions. This is a definite must-buy for fans of doom music, especially the ones who like the more experimental side of things. It is also an excellent addition to any of the other prog lovers. OVERALL, 8.9

An Excellent Concep Album!

I have been listening to this album (in its entirety) more than 10 spins already. Everytime I listen to it, I thought that I would be getting bored because the duration is very very long . 60 minutes plus! The whole album contains only one song. My prediction was not wrong especially when I found there were some repeating riffs and chords from this album. Quite strange to me that the repetition would make me bored and stop playing the CD .. but it has never happened to me as I always successfully completed the whole song even though on some occasion I had to pause due to mandatory breaks like a time for pray (to perform Muslim's shalat). But after that I usually continued the album until it really completed. Another strange thing is that I always want to spin again after the whole album is completely listened to. The more I spin the album, I come to think that this album must be something special which could have created magic into my ears and my mind. I salute the band on this!

Composition.

I think on composition, this album has perfected itself that it could produce a stream of music with good melody (not that catchy, actually) in such away throughout the passages of music the band has inserted great subtleties which enhance the nuance of the song. It's quite obvious there are combination of acoustic guitar fills, string orchestration and soft guitar riffs which then accompany vocal line, delivered in metal fashion. The arrangement has been made in such a way that from one segment to another, there are practically obvious distinction of textures even though the rhythm section (most of the time delivered through guitar riffs) are pretty much the same or similar. Usually, I listen to this album with decent stereo set but this time while writing a review, I put my Sennheizer headphone .. wow .. it's a nice stream of music I am hearing now.

On harmonies, I can say that the music produces balanced sounds of voice, guitar riffs, acoustic guitar, and string section while drumming is performed in variety of style from power metal double bass drum pedal in fast tempo and sometimes it takes a break in slower beats. The last thing on composition is on structural integrity. I know that this one track album sounds like one straight style but .. if you look into greater details, there are curved lines in its transition pieces which make it very clear that this is definitely a progressive music genre, for sure! There is major break at approximately in the middle of the track where there is practically silent segment followed with female chanting. It's a great break, I would say.

Musicianship

I truly admire Tchort's songwriting skills because from this definitely long track he could create the song that moves smoothly and not being interupted abruptly by any segment which might destroy the whole spirit of the music. The album is composed, written and arranged - both musically and lyrically - by Tchort . As he said it "Light of Day... is musically dedicated to my son, Damien Aleksander for bringing joy, inspiration and meaning to my life, and lyrically dedicated to Christian and Christopher Botteri - on an everlasting mental and emotional journey. This is my musical legacy - Tchort.

On band meber's virtuosity in performing their respective instruments, I do not find that this album demonstrates clearly any member's technical skills. It sounds to me that the whole music is pretty far away from musician's ego in performing their long solo part, for example. So, this is an album to enjoy regardless the virtuosity is technically high or just mediocre. It does not matter to me, because the band has successfully created excellent melody, rhythm section and grooves in a balanced mood. I don't see any musician's ego (I believe there was) demonstrated here.

Overall, each musician plays their role excellently in a balanced way.

On production, this album was crafted beautifully during studio recording because the sonic quality is really excellent as well.

Overall, this is a grandiose work by Green Carnation and I finally decide the this album deserves four stars+ rating. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

An hour long epic of conceptual prog metal sounds great, eh? Not so fast. Shakes and Pat have this one nailed pretty good and I'll just second them. This is an ambitious album with some great parts and decent moments but overall is not as impressive as advertised to this reviewer.

Never has an album cried out for an edit job of 20 minutes more than this one. As a 40 minute piece this would be a much better album. There are so many minutes of plodding in the first half, the second half of this album is certainly the better half. The space from around 40:15 to 44:00 is especially nice with some soft piano building into a lofty electric solo that is quite emotional. One impression of this album is that it reminded me a bit of the musical color of Sabbath's old song "Heaven and Hell." Good song of course, but it clocks in at 7 minutes. To me, "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" (even the title is cumbersome!) is like taking the musical ideas of something like "Heaven and Hell" and stretching them to one hour for the apparent prog cred of having an hour long piece, without making sure there is enough quality and variety to support the length. I don't feel there is but you'll note many respected reviewers disagree so decide for yourself.

The CD booklet is nice with lyrics and great photography. But a far cry from In The Wood's "Omnio." Many good moments with lots of filler in between, but far from essential. 3 stars.

This is one of the assets I discovered on progarchives. It got great reviews and lots of recommendations and that always makes a person curious. But it was also the one hour track that intrigued me. I do not only love epics but also collect them. And then of course a track of 60:06 is one you can't ignore.

Downside of these facts is that you approach it with high expectations. In those circumstances it's almost bound to become a disappointment. But I saw that coming so I tried to get into this album with an open mind and I'm glad I did because the first spin indeed caused a bit of a disappointment but after some more listens I grew into the complex song more and more and I think I'm ready for a fair judgement now.

The whole thing starts with quiet music when suddenly a young child starts babbling, the music gets louder and the vocals set in. This goes on for a while and just about after half an hour the music quiets down again and a female singer takes over. This sounds very much ok to me, it's variegated singing, intriguing and almost a bit enchanting. Then the music swells again, I really like the third quarter of the song, at about 2/3 the only real guitar solo takes its turn, after first listen I thought it was mindblowing but after a few times I got more critical and noticed it's not really the best solo I ever heard, still good but no more.

In the last quarter at first the song is quite heavy but towards the end it gets more and more quiet as to complete the circle. Rounding up I have to say I admire the composition, I think it's better than the execution without wanting to maintain that Green Carnation is a band that falls short in that department. The performance is good, very good even but not perfect. Final conclusion: I'm glad I bought it and I think it's fair to say that the average rating so far (4,3) reflects the right score for this magnum opus. So 4 stars by me.

Music is best when it results directly from inspiration that the composer has at the time of writing said music. These ideas and emotions propel the song indefinitely in different directions as the composer is led to channel them. The composer does not know how long the song will be ahead of time, but he does know that when he is finished, the length of the song will be appropriate.

Now here we Green Carnation's "Light of Day, Day of Darkness," a sprawling piece, lasting in excess of 60 minutes. In the progressive realm, it's not uncommon for a band to play long pieces, but 60 minutes is quite a bit longer than even the longest ones in our memories. Conveniently ending just after the hour mark, this piece screams (or proclaims convincingly in a reasonable tone and at a reasonable volume) "I planned this." Tchort must have had the ambitious goal to produce an hour-long piece ahead of time. I'm as reasonable a man as Tchort is ambitious, though, so I gave him benefit of the doubt here. Maybe he was so remarkably inspired that he, unaware at the time of its writing, wrote a glorious and powerful 60-minute piece.

Time and time again, though, I feel like it's not worth giving benefit of the doubt anymore, and I question my having doubts beforehand. Indeed, "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" comes off as largely written to achieve a goal set beforehand. That's not to say that it isn't replete with excellent riffage, melodies and so on. In fact, roughly 40 minutes of this thing are pretty darn good. Despite the rather flat tone and timbre of the vocals, we are provided with several strong melodies, and a growl so brief it's not even worth noting (yet here I am noting it). There are also riffs galore that lead the way along side the vocals. The drum work provides a firm foundation and implements a variety of beats that help keep things interesting throughout the first half of the piece. There are sparse uses of orchestral instruments and choir as well.

But Tchort was obviously not content with writing just another really good 40-minute piece. So, a little over half way through this track, which has been really solid in its writing so far, we are subjected to a rather strange middle-eastern influenced duet between a saxophone and a female vocalist. Out of place to begin with, it really wears out it's welcome as it goes on for five minutes before another instrument appears. The instrument, an acoustic guitar, takes us into a nice acoustic passage which later builds into the albums only guitar solo. The solo is a great, melody and emotion-oriented one and I could see it taking the song to its finale, but under the circumstances imposed by Tchort, we have another 17-18 minutes to muddle through. Within these minutes are some of the album's stronger bits, including what should have comprised the finale, but the momentum of the song was halted by the aforementioned duet and even the intensity the band tries to bring back fails to an extent as a result. On top of that, the place where the song should have ended ends up being a teaser ending (as it occurs at the 55-minute mark) and the band builds their way back into that same ending a second time (with inconsequential variation). And even that didn't get us to the 60-minute mark, so the piece ends with about a minute of music box music. A rather anti-climactic ending, I say. That music box might have actually worked out if the song was appropriately long and with that single finale, but hey, that's not how it went.

As another point of criticism, I must also say that the production sounds a bit stale. It's not as thick, atmospheric and luscious as it could have been given the technology at the time and I do believe it's over-compressed. The atmosphere is there, but it could have been more engulfing.

So, what many on the ol' Archives (and other prog fans as well) claim to be a masterpiece really is not. Green Carnation clearly know how to stroke a prog fan's bone, as well as their own, but others like myself are not so easy.

An only piece masterpiece... Dark, melancholic and powerful example of imaginative prog metal.

Mixing a lot of obvious influences (Pink Floyd, Anathema, Opeth, Black Sabbath...) Tchort orchestred and directed his fellow musicians to make this 60 minutes long song, a dark and beautiful ride through the sad feelings of a twisted mind, giving us a glimpse of the thoughts of this mind in form of music... ¡And what a music! The Opeth-like acoustic guitars, playing some folkie melodies are really well mixed with some stronger passages, with great riffs and rythms, where the vocal melodies shine... ¡Kjetil Nordhus made a great vocal performance here! Variated and full with sentiment.

The only problem I find with the album is that it's a little repetitive in the end... The second half of the song, after the marvellous part with the female voice and the sax, is maybe a little weaker than the first, but it's not a real problem, while the level is really high throghout the full 60 minutes. I also love the oriental influences we can hear in the end of the second half of the song... ¡And the Marillionesque keyboards in the end are also really original in this context and a good addition! The album is so full with details and worthy passages that it would me take too long to list them here.

Best songs:... Should I answer?

Conclusion: marvellous album, a prog metal masterpiece and a must for lovers of the dark and experimental side of metal. Complex, diverse and intense piece of music, wich wins with every hear you give to it. If you are into prog metal in the style of Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Pain of Salvation... Buy this one, is better than almost all the albums of these bands. If you are not, please listen to it... It's a work not to be missed, really.

My rating: *****

Awesome. Utterly awesome, no compromise. But not a masterpiece.

When i first heard of this album, one thing was running through my mind: an entire album of progressive metal? This is probably better than sex!

When i first ran it through on my iPod on a very long train journey to Glasgow, two things were running through my head: god damn this is a long train, and jesus this IS better than sex.

The second and thrid time i listened to this album my opinion of it gradually deterierated. Yeah, it is truly amazing what these guys have come out with here: a sixty minute metal tune that never gets boring and is very creative. However, there are a few things that let it down slightly: first off, the vocals. They are very bland in comparison with let's say Opeth or VDGG, but you can still bare them. Next off, it CAN get a little repetitive. I'm not too keen on the chord sequences in the section from 10 minutes - 20 minutes; they all seem rather generic. On the good side though, extremely good musicianship, tasteful guitarwork, phenomenal drumming, clever keyboard use and oh my GOD! The male choir! It sounds astonishing when weaved into the heavy works of Green Carnation, and i love it! I also love the girl's voice at about 30 minutes, on contrary to some of the previous comments - very nice indeed.

Now onto some technical analysis. The opener is fantastic and very progressive, even in comparison with some of the masterful progressions on this site e.g. Echoes. I find this bit very Floydian and a great listen. When the distorted guitars finally kick in with some really special vocal lines, your average prog metal fan is in heaven. It then goes through a lot of flowing rhythmical changes until the 20 minute mark, that of which include 7/4, 3/4 and 5/4 time signatures, tempo changes galore and a few cheeky half time sections. It then gets Floydian once again past the 20 minute mark and once again we are re-introduced to the metal vein.

At approx. 30 minutes, it starts to get interesting. The band stops abrubtly and we are introduced to a mysterious Bangra-esque violin, drone and female vox section that is, IMHO, the best section of the song. Beautiful, you have to listen to it yourself truly, and it is what the album/song is all about. At about 40 minutes we are brought gently into the metal heart of GC with a once again Floydian progression, first guitar, then bass, then drums and almost immediately after, a blistering overdriven solo that gets me every time. This part really takes the song to epic proportions. The keyboards are used very tastefully and the chord sequence is also a big step up from some of the previous in the track.

At almost the 50th minute we are brought into the final post-metal section of the song, and what away to finish! A few of the previous themes are used here and to great effect, once again elevating the epicity. The male choir are at their peak in the 10/4 part, and it is one of the highlights of the album, and i really haven't got a bad word to say about this section of this great exciting song. The experimentation is brought to a new level here, where the Bangra theme is brought back once again, along with the female vox and what appears to be a backing tabla (?). Nonetheless, the finale is really something, and bring the song to fantastic closure when one of the riffs from the first 10 minutes returns with a triumphant metal fist.

The only criticism i have with the ending, is that they seem really quite desperate to make the hour mark and really drag on the chimes for the last 2 minutes or so.

A really groundbreaking and fantastic album regardless of its flaws i.e. the vocals (bar the choir and the girl), repetitive chord sequences, final 2 minutes or so of chimes... 4 stars from me, and excellent album and a must have for any prog metal fan.

4.5 stars really. This is an excellent song and album with powerful guitars and all kinds of switches and it always keeps you guessing. One moment you think you have it pegged and then you are listening to something totally unexpected. It definitely works for me. I am just struggling with the idea that this is a true masterpiece to stand beside the other prog greats, but it is also much better than a few albums that I have given 4 stars to. I will go ahead and round up I guess, because this is like nothing else I have heard and I love to listen to it.

When I first heard this album, I had probably higher expectations. Based on the very positive comments, comparing this album to an opera, I expected impressive melody complexity, with outstanding vocals etc...

Melodies are however a bit poor, repetitive, and singers have nothing special to show.

This comment should be understood in its context: I am not a fan of post- styles, such as post-metal. I could say the same thing about almost all top-rated album of this sub category of prog rock. So if you like the melancholic tone, the sound of metal guitar used as texture and not expecting complex melodies, you will probably love this album.

A stunningly beautiful and mesmerizing piece of music. Exceptional stuff.

There has been many great records over the years and this, Green Carnation's and Tchort's greatest moment and achievement thus far in my opinion, can go head to head with any of the classics of the last 5 decades.

An album such as this doesn't come along often, in fact, taking into account the amount of pure pleasure and enjoyment which I derive from this album every time I listen to it, can only be described as breathtaking. There are only a handful of other albums which gives me the same satisfaction as a whole.

Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness should and must be listened to in it's entirety, every time.

Calling this record a work of art might be a good place to start when trying to describe it to someone who hasn't had the pleasure. It will fuel your imagination, shatter your senses and will leave the music lover inside you completely satisfied yet still impatiently waiting for that next listen.

Even the CD cover, which I own the digipack of, is beautifully done and I think suits the music which it houses and protects just fine.

This album deserves five stars, it deserves your attention and I hope that Tchort, as a member of Green Carnation or otherwise will give us another one...

Almost perfect, to me its a masterpiece!

I have this album in my collection for about a year now and after many listens it still gets even better every time. Light of Day, Day of Darkness is almost pure progressive metal. Almost means that you can feel some other influences what you will if you get this album. You can also hear so called death growls and not very popular part of the album when the female vocalist (Synne Soprana) has a solo part.

Production rating: 9 /10 Songwriting and Arrangement:9/10 Cover Art rating: 8/10 Enjoyment: 10/10

Songs: Light of Day, Day of Darkness 9/10 - My favorite song on this album ;). I don't want to talk much about it as usual, just what to say I recommend you to buy it. If you like any metal music you could like this one.

It is hard for me to decide is it master piece or not but my final rating is: 4.6/5

I don't have a problem with excess in my music, so long as that excess comes with copious amounts of creativity, artistry, and variety... qualities which this lauded metal epic possess very few of. It's an hour-long exercise in chugging banality sprinkled with a few genuine moments of excellence.

At a glance, Light of Day, Day of Darkness does have a cool, creepy vibe to it. There's a brooding sense of aggression and loss behind every passage. Vocals are decent, guitars are crunchy, at rhythm section lays down a strong and appropriate foundation. Musicianship is overall good (especially drums). Up to the first chorus we're given great, dark, moody and aggressive stuff, if somewhat typical for the genre.

The problem, is that one can fast-forward the track up to the 30 minute mark and hear almost the exact same thing. The melodies are repeated, as is the one (!) memorable lyric (See the unseen, hear the unheard-- pretty cheesy). Guitars remain distorted, crunchy, and rhythmic throughout, with solos drifting into the background. After the first display of the album's shtick (at about the 6 minute mark), it's all down-hill redundancy to its halfway point, and makes for what is essentially dark background music. Perhaps the worst element is lead vocals, which croon out a plodding monotone of trite, angsty lyrics.

During the second half we're given an 8 minute break with a nice bit of atmosphere and female vocals, ruined expectantly by the return of bland crunching and pompous, boring lead singing. At least there's a proper guitar solo shortly thereafter. The grand finale sees the return of the same plodding, crunchy timbre: quarternote^nth.

I call myself a fan of dark music... but this album is just boring and uncreative. It's one good idea uneccessarily stretched out. Even judicious editing (down to, say, 40 minutes) wouldn't save it because it would still be the same thing over and over and over again. Light of Day, Day of Darkness is about as over-hyped as they get, and at best holds up only to the occasional listen, and even then only for fans of the genre.

Songwriting: 3 Instrumental Performances: 2 Lyrics/Vocals: 2 Style/Emotion/Replay: 2

Thick as a Di....Ahem, it's pretty thick, alright.

Best song : Hahahahahahahaha! Actually, the best moments are possible the first 5 minutes or so.

Overall Rating: 10

This is a sixty minute progressive metal masterpiece, which is nothing short of one of the greatest achievements known to mankind! Or, it should have been. Sadly, it's not. No, maybe a better title for this album would have been thick as a trick, because the 60 minute song length can trick you into thinking it's can't be anything but an inarguable musical master-work. There are several things that drag this beast down several notches, barring it from reaching those lofty heights of sheer aural orgasm.

The most inescapable of these is the song's sheer magnitude. It can't help but be crushed under its own behemoth stature. Where I used to defend extended song cycles by explaining how it isn't a standard 5 minute song, stretched to 15, 25, 45, whatever minutes, but it was a truly evolving, diverse, flowing musical journey, and used to explain how albums such as Thick as a Brick were an admirable excuse to tie a plethora of smaller song segments under one cohesive conceptual banner, I can't do that with Light of Day, Day of Darkness, because it literally sounds like two 5 minute songs that got stretched out to 60 minutes. I don't feel as if the band, or Tchort (whoever came up with the idea) really wanted to make this for any other reason than to have made such a long song. The song just goes into a myriad of repetition for the first half hour, repeating those same chord sequences, recycling those same doom metal riffs, returning to those same cheesy male choir chants, and completely overusing what started out as a suitably intriguing melody.

As I said before, the first few minutes or so are quite interesting, and offer a vague glimpse at what might have been, before someone let their ego butcher things ten ways from blood-soaked Sunday. It's still fairly entertaining, if a little pedestrian. The doom metal melodies are laughable, if you pay close attention, and the soft acoustic passages you find a couple times are nice little jingles, but nothing really grabs your soul like you know it should. I listened to this song the entire time, teetering between fully entertained and anxiously bored. When you look at it, the song's main theme is very well written, but for an hour of solid, uninterrupted music, it honestly goes nowhere. So I sat here the whole time, anxiously awaiting for something to pick up, for it to go somewhere, for the journey to commence, but that moment never came. The same basic melody gets monotonously repeated for the first half hour, so that neat li'l jingle-tune you hear at the beginning? That's what you'll be hearing for a long while, pal, so either get used to it and love it to death, or jump ship. Me, I still think I'll reach for the life-raft, thank you.

Then, when you think that obnoxious doom chug won't ever go away, boom, the song just drops into the voids of eastern pleasure (not that pleasure). Actually, it's just some woman doing her soul thang, terribly. I am reminded of Claire Torre's Great Gig In The Sky vocals, but these are simply atrocious in comparison. She's got a nice voice, but it lacks passion, it lakes direction, it lacks ...good melodies, and it sort of gets on my nerves, plus that sax work is predictable and amateurish, at best. Oh, and to top it all off, this movement goes on for 6 minutes and is set to this stupid synth background that silly black metal bands tend to use all the time. They call it "atmosphere", I call it "brain-dead garbage". And as soon as our eastern soul is relinquished, it goes right back to the song's original plodding melody, but a little more palatable, on account of the tasteful piano addition, but it's still mind-grinding in how god damn repetitive it is. And that's the whole story. It's just way too much music for how predictable and generic the musical theme is. Maybe if they'd chopped the album in half it would be easier to consume, but there are only three main ideas, so I'd strip it to a fifteen minute EP, myself. It's usually entertaining, but none of it grabbed me like the 60 minute running time seemed to promise.

***

GREEN CARNATION - Light of Day, Day of Darkness

Just one song over 60 minutes....

Well, it is a good idea, there are groups that tried to do that prior than Green Carnation (FW - Pleasant Shade of Gray, Jethro Tull - Thick as a brick...), or in form of a conceptual albums (PF - Dark side of the moon, Genesis - Selling England...) and succeeded.

Green Carnation failed. This is not one song. This is a mixture of catchy riffs and melodic build-ups with prolonged solo. And that's about it. It is good but nothing more than that. I personaly think it deserves a few listens but then it starts to fall apart. It does not contain timeless material like above mentioned classics. This is catchy metal music, easy to listen, easy to forget...

Light of Day, Day of Darkness is the second full-length studio album by Norwegian experimental/ progressive metal act Green Carnation. While the debut album Journey To The End Of The Night (2000) was a very melancholic affair which lyrically evolved around the death of the daughter of bandleader/ composer/ guitarist Tchort ( Terje Vik Schei), this second album while still melancholic in sound has more positive lyrics inspired by the birth of Tchort´s son. The album consists of one 60:06 minute long song.

The music has roots in melodic doom metal but there are lots of progressive rock elements in the sound too. The vocals are clean male and more seldom female. With a song that´s 60 minutes long I expect to get tired somewhere along the way but Light of Day, Day of Darkness actually manages to keep me entertained the whole time. I don´t know if the album has seen a vinyl release but around the 32 minute mark there´s a short break which could indicate that. The guitar riffing style is slow and melodic most of the time and there´s also an omnipresent organ which is a big part of the sound. It sounds like there are quite a few different singers who contribute to the album but they all have enjoyable voices. Note the Dead Can Dance influenced female led part after the short break at the 32 minute mark.

The production is good. Warm and enjoyable.

Light of Day, Day of Darkness is a rather unique album and it´s very hard to compare it to anything else. Personally I wouldn´t call it a masterpiece but that´s of course an aquired taste. I´m willing to rate it with 3.5 - 4 stars though and call it a very intriguing album release by Green Carnation. I´d say this one is a must-hear even though it doesn´t really appeal to my personal taste.

This is the kind of album that suspiciously sounds as if it was written for me. Green Carnation has the majestic melodious doom metal sound of The Gathering's Mandylion mixed with the quiet and spacey atmosphere from Anathema's Judgement. Both bands with a strong Pink Floyd flavour in the sound, and so does Green Carnation. Unfortunately, there are a couple of things that reduce the enjoyment.

The album brings one continuous 60 minute piece of music and the band has been very successful at making it flow very smoothly and spontaneously. At no point does it sound gimmicky like Mike Oldfield's Amarok for instance. There are some parts where the music plods along a bit but I'm a doom metal enthusiast so that's no issue for me, I'm used to worse plodding then this!

The music is solid throughout but lacks true highpoints, moments of splendour, crescendos that build up a tension and release it with a devastating blow. Everything stays too much at a same volume, pace and intensity. There's no 'wow'-moment at any point. Only the guitar solo around 42 minutes gives a try. Another thing that bothers is that the chorus is repeated too much in the first half. The vocals are warm and melodic but are totally lacking in dynamics as well.

There's one more issue with this album and it's the female vocals halfway in. Who gave this poor woman the idea to sing higher then she possibly could? She's miles off her high notes. The effect is very amateur and grating at best. It's probably an attempt to sound like Dead Can Dance but it's a sad failure. This vocalist is no Lisa Gerrard and certainly no Diamanda Galas, who would have ripped this section apart! Besides, the melodies are very unremarkable. Worst of all, this whole album is mastered as one track so you can't even skip this part. Ripping to mp3 and cutting it up seems to be the only solution to avoid this.

Light Of Day might be an attractive album to try modern metal because it has no gruff vocals, but it is misses the dynamics and imagination to reach true greatness. It's a solid 3 stars album and it could maybe have been 4, but the hysterical female vocals in the middle simply shatter one star to bits.

This is an unfortunate but probably all too common case where less would probably be more. If this album/song had been trimmed down to about 35 or even 40 minutes I would not hesitate to give it 5 stars and call it one of the greatest progressive metal epics of all time. However, there's just a bit too much here, and especially towards the end of this album I often find myself looking at the time remaining and inwardly groaning.

The good parts, however, are pretty darn good. The music is dark, haunting, and atmospheric, but still rocks enough to have some great headbanging moments. It's very dynamic as well; the different sections and motifs flow together well and there's a good balance of heavy and "light." The vocals throughout are very good, they fit the music well. Most are clean, though there is some growling interspersed throughout. Honestly, the best way to get a feel for what the music sounds like is too look at the cover; it captures the feel of the music very well.

As mentioned above, though, it ultimately feels like the band just runs out of steam. After about 35 minutes, there's an interlude featuring some soft music and female vocals that goes on for a bit too long, and the album never really recovers. In my opinion, the music after this break simply does not measure up to that before, lacking some critical element that leaves it feeling far less memorable and even at times boring, which is a very bad thing indeed when we are dealing with a track of this length.

That said, the strength of the "good parts" make this well worth your time and money, and I'm content to call it a flawed masterpiece.

4/5

Very Ambitious, and They Almost Pulled It Off

Green Carnation's LIGHT OF DAY, DAY OF DARKNESS was one of the first albums suggested to me when I came to PA in 2008. I acquired the album not long afterward and it has sit in my library waiting for review for a long time. The reason for the delay is that I'm not sure exactly what I think of this. At some level, this hour long song / album / epic is brilliant. But there has always been something not quite right. I couldn't put my finger on it. But while reviewing the almost perfect and similarly ambitious CRIMSON by Edge of Sanity, the difference between realizing an ambitious project and not quite nailing it finally came to me.

First of all, LODDOD is a continuous piece that is mostly doomy metal a la Katatonia or mid- tempo Opeth with some nice low register clean vocals provided by Tchort (formerly of Emperor). There are a few black metal allusions here and there, but the influence of Pink Floyd is much more evident (find the "Goodbye Blue Sky" bit for fun). As many have mentioned, there is a middle section with a solo female vocal accompanied by a single violin that is extremely spare and splits the metal sections in two. While the idea was interesting, the execution is very rough, with the vocalist clearly struggling and missing pitch at the climactic moment.

Like Katatonia, this album sounds great superficially but gets a bit repetitive and bland on close inspection. Unlike CRIMSON, whose extreme variety of sounds, vocal timbres, and tempos all make sense within the context of the song, LODDOD varies from soft mid- tempo melancholy to harsh mid-tempo melancholy. When riffs return to tie the piece together, it seems more redundant than summarizing. And most importantly, where CRIMSON packs a massive amount of ideas into 40 minutes, LODDOD stretches it to 60, with less meat on the bone.

Goth metal in general is way too bland for me. Anathema, the Gathering, the whole crowd, I believe, impressed by creating a new sound that made sense. Adding metal guitars and drums to goth works extremely well. But the sound alone can't carry an album. You have to have the songs. Green Carnation had about an EP of good song material here.

Despite the criticism, I do really enjoy this album. Every few months it serves as the soundtrack of my workday and functions very well. I also would rather listen to a band taking some risks, reaching for the sky, and missing a little, than a band playing it too safe. A little more edge and some trimming of the fat and this would have rivalled the great metal albums. As is, it's still a great part of any prog metal collection.

It took me a long, long while to decide that this was a five star effort. I keep wanting to deduct a star because of the drag of the 20 minute mark, but I feel 4 would be understating a very ambitious and epic work. It definitely set a powerful and somber mood for me and I have listened to it through enough to say it keeps me capitivated every time I accept the hour long journey. Not the greatest single song/track album ever made, but close enough to warrant a lot of consideration for those with broadening prog tastes and enough time on their hands to listen to an hour long piece of progressive metal of the most refined kind.

Excessive music? Well, here is the blueprint for excess.

One hour long progressive metal opus. As the reviews around this release show, it's got a huge reputation as one of the greatest one song albums of all time. I don't disagree with that. But there's not that many to compare it to. When I think of a fantastic one track album, I think of Jethro Tull's two masterworks, Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play. There isn't a comparison to make between them and Green Carnations 60 minute dark journey. But we can't really think about comparing progressive metal of the 21st century with the 1970s prog rock, can we? I'm sure you can find people who do.

They're completely different cans of worms. They are bursting with ideas and instrumental prowess, and in many ways, very satisfying in their approach. Of course, there are always shortcomings that prevent me from saying outright that this is the definitive statement of all progressive music, and defines the movement entirely - because it doesn't. It just happens to be a very long, very competent piece of music. That's all.

There's nothing too memorable about it, but when you're on the journey, you may not think so. It has power, and wields it unrelentingly. Perhaps that's grounds to question if this is really comparable to other one track albums. It doesn't share the same instrumental showmanship of Jethro Tull for instance, there are dense, heavy riffs and plodding drums and bass. It's not a speeding tune at any point, so you'll have to get used to the pace that is offered in the first few minutes.

Lyrically, it's pretty vague. And lyrically, it doesn't seem to emerge anywhere special. Do I know an easy way to say that it doesn't share masterpiece status with some releases? Well, I just said it. It's not the best thing out there, but if you want ambition, power and occasional wow moments, then this release may just offer it to you.

In their later works, Green Carnation wisely altered their technique - which only increases my appriechiation for their work. At times it has more then its mammoth length to help it stand out. There's some true greatness somewhere in the beast. But I can't help thinking it could have been shaved at least a little bit.

4 stars.

Tchort's stab at the old Thick as a Brick album format delivers some pretty but rather forgettable progressive metal combined with some decidedly nonstandard and rather variable lyrics. To be honest, I think the album veers into cheesiness a little often for its own good - the female vocals partway through the composition, as others have noted, require the singer to sing higher than she's really able to handle, whilst the use of a children's choir just pushes the saccharine undercurrents of the album to the forefront. I understand that the piece is Tchort's meditation on the death of his daughter and birth of his son, and whilst it's laudable that he'd use such personal material as fodder for the album, on the whole I don't think it succeeds as material for general enjoyment.

Writing an hour-long song is difficult.

First, the whole band has to be on board with a project of this level. Then they have to write enough material. Then they have to link it all together. They have to keep it tight for recording, even if it is segmented into movements. And there is the possibility playing it live. Not to mention that a lot of bands that write hour-long songs play progressive music, which tends to be more technical and complex than many other styles.

Writing a good hour-long song is even harder. Keeping one continuous piece of music of such a length interesting, captivating, and fresh can be quite a challenge. There should be some sort of buildup or payoff at the end, making its structure especially important. It's very easy for disjointedness, or too little variation and too much repetition to become an issue. And of course the actual sound of the music is always a factor.

Taking all of this into account, Green Carnation doesn't at all do a bad job with their sophomore album, Light of Day, Day of Darkness, which comes in at almost exactly sixty minutes. For a lot of people, with extended song length comes higher expectations, and although LODDOD, in the end, is a success, it is still flawed and misses some opportunities.

Green Carnation's core sound (not an entirely unexpected observation I make here) is the most prevalent and primary style played throughout the song, a doomy prog metal fueled by fairly standard, often chugged riffs. Nevertheless, those heavier moments are satisfying and energizing although the riffs aren't particularly memorable. The keyboard tone is retro, sticking to the background, and vocals are mostly clean. Nordhus is a competent singer, though nothing special, but the main drawback in this category is the very unnecessary children's choir at the beginning.

No matter what happens in the song, LODDOD always reverts to its main doom metal style and in fact rarely deviates from this general sound, save the acoustic passages placed here and there. This constancy lends it some more atmosphere and keeps it from screaming "PROG" at you, but overall I would say that this is a bad thing. After a while, a monotonous, trudging feeling seeps in and things can get a bit dull, an issue that often plagues songs of this nature. While the floaty beginning (not very different from Moonsorrow's Jddstd Syntynnyt) raises the bar for the rest of the album, the next 57 or so minutes do not really live up to the expectations that Green Carnation attempts to create.

Thirty-three minutes in, we arrive at the strangest, longest, and most distinct variation from the rest of the song's doomy riffing. Everything dies down and we are treated to a woman yodeling (?), backed by a melancholic saxophone. It's a despairing and empty section, and the woman sounds as though she is about to explode or at least shatter glass at one point. Not pleasant to listen to on its own, this part still seems as though it has an important function ? it might signal the rest of the song to start building up momentum towards a grand finale once the other instruments come back in. And there is in fact a glorious potential ending here, if the time between the woman singing and ending was more fluid and perhaps longer. The guitarist unleashes an epic solo as the song rebuilds? and the band promptly continues to play for seventeen more minutes after he is done.

At this point transitions become clunkier and the actual grand finale is falls short. The payoff is not quite there, but at least the ending doesn't painfully trail off in an epitome of anticlimactic-ness.

Green Carnation has some good ideas but LODDOD is lacking the factors that would have pushed it from a merely competent hour- long song to an excellent one. With too much emphasis on just one sound and some structural issues, it does not find itself in the upper tier of prog/doom/we-love-to-write-long-songs metal. In fact, it almost certainly would have been improved had it been cut down.

The masterpiece by Green Carnation and one of the peaks of experimental Norwegian metal. This is a conceptual album, at least sonically, spanning 1 song of 60 minutes. The suite is very ambitious for a metal band and you can hear several influences from doom metal/black metal to progressive rock (Pink Floyd), progressive metal touches and even some world music with Arabic shades.

Music is well balanced and never dull. Interesting moments include growling during the chorus, something that Green Carnation hadn't done for a while, Arabic mellow part, acoustic guitar and keyboard section. There are also strings and brass instruments.

Compositionally, it is the biggest departure, together with "Acoustic verses" from a metal sound although there are several quite hard moments.

Listen to this multiple times to begin appreciate the meisterwerk.

My expectations come from my 2020 discovery of the band through their 2020 release, Leaves of Yesteryear, which I really loved.

"Light of Day, Day of Darkness" (60:06)

This is a difficult song to review because it is not broken down into parts as many bands do (including commons-membership band In The Woods). I will have to say that there is very little in the first 24 minutes that wows me; it is all more simplistic and straightforward (and less engaging, less-charged) than I was expecting. The vocals and music are quite underwhelming. The instrumental section beginning in the 25th minute, however, is awesome; it's as if the band has finally clicked into full sync and full and enthusiastic engagement. Even the group vocals that follow are more spirited than anything that came before. Since the Bandcamp edition that I'm listening to won't let the album exist as one 60 minute song, has it split into two parts, I'd give the first half, (32:45) a score of (55/65)

The second half (27:20) opens with six minutes of minimalist Latin soundtrack mood music over which guest vocalist Synne Soprana vocalises Clare Torry style. Fellow metal band HYPNO5E used the same palette and style as these first thirteen minutes to great effect in their own 2018 masterpiece soundtrack Alba - Les ombres arrantes. At 13:11 a series of "church bells" signals a shift toward more thick metal-like walls of sound--as well as the first time we here this lead vocalist with his Greg Lake-like tone and presence. All instruments play in sync during the sixteenth and seventeenth minutes until some guitar effects and growlish-chorale vocals enter and take us deeper into the darkness. Porcessed lead vocal at the end of the eighteenth minute gives an eerie robot/machine-like effect. Then the sound palette suddenly shifts over the bass and drums to a Middle Eastern style wiht sitar, string synths, and operatic female vocalise. By the 20:00 mark, we have somehow seemlessly morphed back to metal (the appearance of the Hammond and slide guitar helps). Machine gun bass drum in the 22nd announces a kind of crescendo. A prolongedly slow start leads to a very entertaining and satisfying middle and sad, pull-on-your-heart-strings ending. I can't say this is great music but I like it; it's eminently listenable--and truly proggy. (50/55)

Total Time 60:06

B+/four stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection.

Green Carnation's 2000 debut Journey to the End of the Night was a difficult affair: a dark, hardly penetrable album, shrouded in pain and desperation, that only occasionally opened up to reveal the genius of Tchort's musical ambition. Light of Day, Day of Darkness is where Tchort's art finds its full expression, resulting in a masterpiece of dark progressive metal that any fan of cerebral, ambitious music should listen to at least once in their lifetime.

When you put this record in your CD player for this first time, two things jump at you: 1) the album duration is just above 60 minutes and 2) the album contains only one song. Yes, that's right: Light of Day, Day of Darkness consists of one, 60-minute long song. Some of you will just write this off as pretentious crap ? and there's no denying that pretentious is a word not unheard of in the realms of progressive rock/metal. But Light of Day, Day of Darkness is the real deal. It's where wild ideas and ambitions somehow, and miraculously, are pulled off.

For the occasion, Tchort gathered together a whole new set of musicians compared to the debut album: Anders Kobro (In The Woods?) on drums, Stein Roger Sordal on bass, Bjørn Harstad (also In The Woods?) on guitars and Kjetil Nordhus (Trail of Tears, then Tristania) on vocals, with Tchort himself also playing guitars. The list of guest musicians is also long, and includes vocalists Synne "Soprana" Larsen and Jan Kenneth Transeth (both In The Woods?), pianist Bernt Moen, saxophonist Arvid Thorsen, and producer Endre Kirkesola who played sitar, keyboards, strings and Hammond organ on the album. As it should be clear from the list of names and instruments, there is a lot of talent and colour on this record, with a myriad of instruments and sounds meticulously interwoven to realize Tchort's vision.

The 60 minutes of the album can be roughly divided into two sections. The first 30 minutes develop around a slow-winding tempo and a repetitive, melancholic guitar riff that firmly root the song in gothic/doom territory. Kjetil Nordhus' crooning vocals add a dramatic outlook to the music, with a beautiful, recurring melody that gives continuity to the song and creates a mellow, reflective mood, further heightened by interspersed clean guitar arpeggios and languid keyboard parts. The second part of the album is more experimental and progressive. It contains a long section with saxophone and female vocalizations, a children's choir, some impassioned male vocals that reminds me of experimental band Manes, before the song ends in a gorgeous landscape of electronic sound effects with vocoder-filtered vocals.

Light of Day, Day of Darkness is an immersive listen. Although the monumental nature of this musical piece requires time and patience to be fully appreciated in all its nuances and details, strangely it also works well at an epidermal, instinctive level, as the gorgeous doomy riff and vocal melody that open the song return over and over throughout the composition, lulling the listener for its entire 60 minutes. The sheer ambition of this musical project is astonishing. It is even more impressive that Tchort managed to pull it off, creating an album that is filled with brilliant ideas, great performances and that works at multiple levels. I cannot say this of many records out there so if you are a fan of ambitious progressive music this is a "buy or die" kind of album.

If I had to define this album in a few words, I would do it with the phrase "An extensive and histrionic trip surfing the despondency of a dreamer".

"Light of Day, Day of Darkness" is a one hour song that runs through multiple crises of a sad man who misses the past and would do anything to live it again even a little longer, but, as he logically can't, he 'takes refuge' in his internal battles and lives a comfort zone in his existential crises.

This hour full of music begins atmospherically with the sound of wind and overwhelming keyboards (many tints of space rock) that gradually immerse us in the essence of the song. After 10 minutes, I assure you that you will already find yourself trapped in this sea of heavy riffs and addictive vocals. Maybe some parts can get too heavy due to the slow repetitions of the slow riffs, but this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. There are albums that you listen to at a faster pace, and there are others that you listen to at a slower pace. If you are patient enough to listen to it, you can enjoy a very pleasant and vigorous piece of rock. In fact, it seems to be an album that, the more times you listen to it, the more enjoyable it becomes due to its particular rhythm and structure.

The biggest flaw I see in this album is that it has moments that are stretched out just to get to the hour song. It is very noticeable in some parts. If you ask me, I would subtract 10 minutes from these 60, but maybe I'm wrong and it wouldn't be the same. Despite that, as it is, it's a more than enjoyable piece of work. There is no doubt that it is a well done project!