GREEN CARNATION

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.

Green Carnation was a project first incarnated by its members in order to explore sounds other than black metal, so it should not come as a surprise that this band has been constantly changing. Featuring members of the Norwegian black metal band Carpathian Forest, Green Carnation first began with an artistic doom sound; their album 'Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness' is a classic for its style, and considered by many of this band's fans to be a masterpiece. The bottom line is that Green Carnation had a great thing going on, but if this project had become stuck in one sound like Carpathian Forest, it would defeat the point. 'The Quiet Offspring' sees a big change of Green Carnation's sound, and while many listeners may be put off by the simplified approach that they take here, the band does do an admirable job of taking on this new sound, although I cannot say it is an improvement over anything they had done before this.

While I would not quite say that Green Carnation has traversed into the realm of 'mainstream rock', there are some big moves that the band has taken towards tighter song structures, and an overall more to-the-point attitude when it comes to their music. Considering that this is the same band who churned out an hour-long epic, hearing Green Carnation now adhering to the much more common four minute formula is a little jarring at first, although I will say that it is not quite as bad as it sounds; the band hasn't totally turned its back on its fans. We still have a metal edge, and proggy sound in the songwriting, although these are much less integral to what the band is about on 'The Quiet Offspring'. The songs have a progressive metal sound to them, but the familiar textures are transposed onto a more accessible style. It's certainly not a preferable move in terms of enduring musical enjoyment, but there are some damned good songs here.

The production and performance is edgy (albeit in a 'hard rock' sort of way), but there are also sounds here that emphasize atmosphere in Green Carnation's sound; much of 'The Quiet Offspring' is led by groovy guitar licks and riffs, but Green Carnation gives the listener an alternative here as well. 'Childsplay' parts one and two are leaning towards mellow ambiance over any rock orchestration, and the standout track 'Pile Of Doubt' has a very atmospheric intro that harkens back to the sounds of Green Carnation when I really liked them. Here, I am not feeling their music nearly as much, although the band manages to pull off this hard rock sound very well, and even throw in some added layers. The album- from by understanding- is a loose concept piece about childhood, but there is not so much depth in it as to give it much attention. Green Carnation may have simplified (some might say 'dumbed down') their sound here, but 'The Quiet Offspring' is still worth checking out.

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.

I like this album, fairly well, with the sole exception of that one thing that holds it down. Most people probably know what I am talking about. Those female vocals with that middle eastern part. It seems very out of place and does absolutely nothing for this album/song, the part where her voice vibrates is just utterly terrible. If it were not for that one flaw then I would say this is a masterpiece, but I just can not. The rest of the album I think is pretty creative anf I feel they definitely put a lot of effort into this release. It is just dragged down by that one part.

Is it Green Carnation going Dream Theater, or are they just running out of ideas? I'll go with the latter, because the former is much more of a shameful venture. It's a lot like Blessing in Disguise, only less idiosyncratic, less shocking, louder, harder-edged, and more 'radio hard rock/octane metal for the late 1990's headbangers' sort of package. The title track's heavy one-two punch skip riff may be one of the band's best (it's not a long list of riffs that's in their possession, either). I don't care for the softer elements because it seems as if they didn't put any time into writing them into the metal segments, and who needs poorly written soft rock in between your poorly written hard rock? IF you're Tom Petty, you can come out on top with a rousing pop anthem, but where's Green Carnation's American Girl? Don't tell me it's 'Just When You Think it's Safe', which oozes post-stoner rock driving mentality. I hate it when bands have a nice rocking riff and then think it's fine to cut the riff out completely in favor of bass guitar and the singer, like they do on 'Between the Gentle Small'. I'll admit he can sing with conviction, and they aren't worthless by far.

This album is fun, it's not deep or introspective or brimming with creativity, it's just got some neat riffs and a couple vocal hooks worth checking out. 'Purple Door, Pitch Black' balances the melancholy with the upbeat (and more unnecessary synth backing washes) for a real ear-splitting engagement. 'Child's Play I and II' return to the directionless quietness of yore, but it sort of falls flat. Can you tell they/he hasn't had much experience with that sort of folk music? I sure can. I'm glad everything gets fixed in 2006.

Like many (nearly ALL) doom and death metal groups that had any inkling of self respect near the beginning of the new millennium, Green Carnation embraced gothic rock/metal to keep tasting that slight commercial appeal. Opeth went fully non-metal with Damnation, and do I even need to mention the movements of Tiamet, Anathema, and Katatonia? Yeah, it was a popularity move, but I can understand ? it's a pretty solid style that wishes most of all to meld pop rock with dangerous stylistics. But how often can you say you mine this area of contemporary sound for material you can cherish? Well, if you're anything like me, you'd probably answer with C. The answer is always C if you have to guess.

'Crushed to Dust; cuts back the flab of prog and the annoying black metal bucket whumping, guitar frumping noise-rock whatever ya got. It's hard rock all the way, with a nice, suitably ear-catching riff, and I'm glad he clean sings, because it better fits the song. Most of the songs are well built around fantastic electric guitar themes (such as the guitar harmonizing 'Writings on the Wall'). The music is primarily mid-tempo heavy crunch rock with overdistorted axes and aggressive, non-radio oriented clean singing. There are still many influences for the folks responsible for Blessing In Disguise ? namely those groups which began as death metal and slowly softened their sound over time.

Much of it is yet saddled with the rambling lack of excitement all the way through. 'The Boy in the Attic' simply bores me. The added piano's more than iffy, and the singing does quickly become repetitive. It's an improvement, and shows the group is more than your generic third rate goth rock group (they're a GOOD generic third rate goth rock group).

9 ? Best Song: Under Eternal Stars

It's a frustrating rip-off of Opeth. Is that going to answer your questions quickly and without mussing anything up from point A to B? The soft guitar melodies might as well have not been written in the first place, the female singing doesn't match the music one bit, and she is so damn monotonous! She's pretty and all, but what's there to do about honest-to-goodness melodic sense, huh brethren? When are we going to stand up and fight against this vile tyranny? Eh, enough of that biased hogwash. Green Carnation are more than competent ? founded by two black metal guitarists who decided that black metal just sucked it up big time by itself and that nobody would take them seriously as musicians unless they burned down churches and ate the corpse of their murdered best friend. Assuming this Tchort fellow didn't want to rot in prison with Isahn, we get black metal + progressive folk.

It's not new, and it's not fresh, and they don't know what the hell they're doing. 'In the Realm of the Midnight Sun' has the same simple bass guitar groove pounding behind keyboard and loud guitar and pseudo opera atmospherics for nearly fifteen minutes, which is almost unbearable. 'My Dark Reflections of Life and Death' is even worse, nearing 20 minutes. It'd be understandable if the songs differed even slightly, but to be perfectly honest, this isn't anywhere near the case. It's fine when the male is singing and his voice fits the doom guitar chug, but what else? It's competent, and I commend them for doing something so unpopularly popular. 'Under Eternal Stars' contains some nice moments, but it's another case of not enough substance. It's four epics, little wit, no real melodies to speak of, and a lot of repetitive themes. G'day.

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