A BLESSING IN DISGUISE

Green Carnation was a Detah Metal band before they found out, that progressive rock is much better. After their astonishing "prog-debut" album called "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" wich features a 60 minute song without any subtitles, Green Carnation released "A blessing in disguise" in 2003. The albums is quite different to its forerunner.

Sure, green carnation is listed as a prog metal band but regarding most of the songs featured on this album I would not agree unrestrained. Mainly because most of the songs are melancolic, quite mellow with beautiful melodies; very untypical for the metal genre. You don't get many solos because the sound is focussed on the overall picture wich is, like said before very melancolic. A very nice detail in their sound is the organ, wich is muted but audible and for sure is an enrichment for their sound. There are two songs I don't like, "Crushed to Dust " and "Writings on the Wall " are too gothic for my ears. These two songs are nondescript and can be skipped without concern. But the song between these two, "Lullaby in Winter" is a highlight. It's the best song of the album and I really recommend it. It's a dark and melancolic track with beautiful melodies and instrumental parts wich fit into the overall picture of the song. A beautiful song. "The boy in the attic" is another highlight. A lonely piano froms the intro of the song. Later on it gets a bit faster and more heavy, but has nothing to do with metal. Beautiful melodies and nice lyrics, very dark and sad. The song dies away with the piano heard in the beginning of the song. "Two seconds in life" begings very acoustic, almost sounding like jazz, most notably because of the drums and the piano. The refrain is an instrumental part with some distorted metal guitars wich are not too heavy, very nice and again diffusing a very sad mood. "Myron and Cole" is a faster and heavier song with some nice organ in the background, nice but not as astonishing as other songs. "as life flows by" is a bass dominated song wich is a good one to listen too if you need a break of all those complex and exhausting prog songs, again, the organ is a good choice because it makes the song much more interesting. The last track "Rain" is probably the most melancolic track on "a blessing in disguise". A good one.

So in general "a blessing in disguise" is a VERY good album. But there are some songs wich have a gothic touch besides beeing too heavy for the general sound and mood of the album wich is, yes I will say it again, very melancolic. I'm sure some of you won't like green carnation and some are prejodiced because of the genre they're listed in. But if you leave out Song No. 1 and 3, you get a mellow and dark album without too many, by leaving out the two songs, hardly any distorted metal guitars. I recommend to listen to some songs before you buy the album. Try "lullaby in Winter" or "Boy in the attic" and decide weather you like it or not. I for one like it and would give 4 satrs but being objective and thinking about you fellwo progheads I draw off one star, also because of the two bad songs.