No matter how long or where the journey has taken them, Green Carnation have always sought to climb the highest mountains. While founded by Emperor’s former bassist Tchort in the early ’90s, the Norwegians quickly amassed a cult following while blazing their own trail through fields of symphonic doom, hard rock, acoustic plucking and progressive metal.
Had they never returned from hiatus during the mid-2000s, this band would’ve been remembered for completing one of the most ambitious individual epics in metal’s vaunted archives. And yet, one mighty tale – or three, to be exact – continued to elude them. That is, until now. Two decades removed from its initial conception, Green Carnation have finally completed their masterpiece.
Today, the prog auters are announcing the first part of A Dark Poem, a grand and gloomy album trilogy that was inspired by Arthur Rimbaud’s dreamy ode to Shakespeare’s Ophelia. The Shores of Melancholia remains grounded in the band’s newfound heavy hooks, but though heavenly to the ears, lead single “In Your Paradise” is awash with doubt over our distorted view of the world.
“We are so excited to announce our long-awaited album trilogy”, Green Carnation says. “A Dark Poem promises to take listeners to the highest tops as well as their darkest inner rooms. Its opening chapter begins in a melancholic place that we have long associated with our music”.
Watch the video for “In Your Paradise” on the Season of Mist YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/_FWGHgS6Wh8
A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia comes out September 5, 2025.
Pre-order
https://orcd.co/greencarnationadarkpoem1
Pre-save on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/prerelease/2o7sN7WqyIQDx96WvqtYUm?si=qoQVyW1ZR9e0cVH3FHPIIg
Green Carnation will premiere all of The Shores of Melancholia live for the first time later this year at ProgPower USA.
Though just the beginning of A Dark Poem, The Shores of Melancholia pulls a page from across Green Carnation’s storied 25-year discography. It’s darkest and stormiest track even claws back to their budding days in extreme metal thanks to a special appearance from Enslaved’s Grutle Kjellson. But the idea for an album trilogy stems from the band’s previous epic.
“Back in the early 2000, after the release of Light of Day, Day of Darkness, our fans were asking us if we planned on writing another one-hour piece”, remembers vocalist Kjetil Nordhus. “But we weren’t interested in doing that again. It was already done”. While he recently rejoined Green Carnation after stepping away from the band in 2022, it was founding member Tchort who first had the idea to pursue an album trilogy. “Since getting back together in 2016, we like to pursue things that are extremely ambitious” Nordhus continues. “The trilogy felt like it might be just out of our reach, which made us want to see if we could do it”.
If a through line can be drawn between the various points along their journey, it’s that Green Carnation have always challenged expectations. After pivoting to hard rock with The Quiet Offspring, the band stripped down for Acoustic Verses. But the first glimpse from The Shores of Melancholia picks up the prog heaviness that they discovered upon returning from hiatus with 2020’s Leaves of Yesteryear. Like the sails of a ship, “In Your Paradise” opens with majestic, billowing leads before chugging full steam ahead.
“It makes you want to bang your head a little”, Nordhus says with a pleased smile. His baritone booms loud and clear over the song’s heavy bass groove. But even though it positively soars amidst brightly streaking synths, the view of the world from “In Your Paradise” is a far cry from peaceful. Just as the video flashes haunting images from today’s headlines, on The Shores of Melancholia, Green Carnation are hounded by fearmongers. “The Babylon, apostasy, the judgement day is here“, belts Nordhus with masterful command over his piercing upper register. “It’s in your head“.
“It can drive you crazy”, he says in reference to the daily barrage of misinformation. “Our brains can’t take in everything that’s going on around us, so we kind of believe everything we hear, even though it’s not all true. The media know which words gather the most clicks”.
The doom and gloom that creeps over “In Your Paradise” spreads across all of The Shores of Melancholia. “The album reflects the troubled relationship between our personal lives and the external world”, Nordhus explains. “It’s about losing faith in the world we’ve come to know and how that leads to an inner dystopia”. Rising above the fray with the grace of a dove, Ingrid Ose’s clarion call of flute eventually fades into the distance beneath the steady, pounding drums of war. “I think melancholia suits Green Carnation very well”.
On “In Your Paradise”, Green Carnation set sail on a grand and gloomy journey into an epic dark night of the soul.
The video for “In Your Paradise” was directed and edited by Rikard Amodei.
More praise for Green Carnation
“So, after many years, Green Carnation has returned, and with quite possibly the best prog metal release I’ve heard so far this year” – The Progressive Aspect (Leaves of Yesteryear)
“Leaves of Yesteryear is totally Prog; unashamedly Scandinavian; and a wonderful return” – Ghost Cult
“Nearly twenty-four years after its release, Light of Day, Day of Darkness is a treasure trove of masterfully crafted and emotionally resonant progressive metal” – The Progressive Subway
“But perhaps the secret weapon of this group is Kjetil Nordhus, the main voice, who molds his wise baritone to capture all the emotional registers” – Passion of the Weiss
“If you don’t know Green Carnation, you’re doing yourself a disservice” – Angry Metal Guy
“The band’s trademark ethereal melancholy has been sorely missed” – Echoes and Dust
“I’m beginning to think that Tchort is one of the most gifted men in metal” – Last Rites
Tracklist:
1. As Silence Took You (7:12)
2. In Your Paradise (7:04) [WATCH]
3. Me My Enemy (7:17)
4. The Slave That You Are (Featuring Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved) (6:16)
5. The Shores of Melancholia (5:38)
6. Too Close to the Flame (9:16)
Rebirth doesn’t occur overnight, nor can it exist in a vacuum.
Norway’s Green Carnation know all about starting over and working hard to achieve their shared goals, while overcoming adversity.
A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia is Green Carnation’s latest album, the first in a trilogy that is sure to please longtime fans of the band’s epic, landmark release, Light of Day, Day of Darkness. The Shores of Melancholia feels of two worlds; a level of immediacy combined with this insistent feeling that, yes, something substantial is indeed brewing within Green Carnation’s creative minds.
“I think it is right to say we are returning to a long-form storytelling like Light of Day, Day of Darkness,” begins Green Carnation’s vocalist Kjetil Nordhus, “…but just done in a totally different way. It is not feasible to try and copy ourselves by doing another hour-long song or anything. It has already been done. But on the levels of epic-ness and storytelling I feel that A Dark Poem certainly has those elements, within a three-album frame.”
The Shores of Melancholia is an album that’s sure to please both longtime fans of Green Carnation, as well as those new to the fold. The album opens up with two back-to-back bangers that incorporate the catchy rock arrangements that helped define the band’s Blessing in Disguise era. “As Silence Took You” and “In Your Paradise” are melodic, with strong hooks and choruses that welcome listeners to Green Carnation’s newfound heaviness.
The band’s bassist and songwriter, Stein Roger, explains, “A Dark Poem is a collection of songs that explore feelings of alienation in existential questions and down to the very inner self. The first part of the trilogy throws the listener into these questions from the first song. We hope to keep the audience trapped in there with us until the last second of the third album. The albums do vary in style, but always with the same basis. If we manage to keep the audience trapped within each album, we will manage to keep the audience trapped throughout the trilogy, which would be a great achievement.”
“Me My Enemy” starts out slow, anchoring a spacey, almost jazz fusion groove from drummer Jonathan Alejandro Perez with a bass line from Roger that’s impossible to deny. This song features some of the album’s most notably memorable lyrics, as well, as Nordhus delivers what’s perhaps the album’s definitive vocal performance. This song’s dark melancholy is juxtaposed against “The Slave That You Are,” an aggressive throwback to Green Carnation’s underground past that features guests vocals from Enslaved’s Grutle Kjellson.
Elsewhere, the album’s title track feels mysterious and moody, a song with a vibe that matches the evocative cover art from former Dark Tranquility guitarist Niklas Sundin. “The Shores of Melancholia” retains a chorus that’s striking and dynamic, thanks to the subtle keyboard playing of Kenneth Silden. Finally, “Too Close to the Flame” brings the album to a fittingly grand finale, clocking in at nearly 10 minutes, with some of the album’s most progressive arrangements. At the same time, however, the song breezes by with a natural sense of song craft that’s sure to make Green Carnation fans want to replay their journey to The Shores of Melancholia from the very beginning.
It isn’t as if Green Carnation need a lot of assistance retaining attention from their audience, of course, as evidenced by their triumphant appearance at the 2016 ProgPower Festival. This was a reunion born from tough times, a temporary hiatus that occurred in 2007 after a troublesome U.S. tour in support of their Acoustic Verses album.
Nordhus asserts, “since coming back in 2016, the extremely positive feedback from fans, record buyers, concert audiences, music writers, reviewers and the metal community in general has been very motivating for us, first to continue after 2017, and then to sign the very ambitious record deal with Season of Mist, which includes the trilogy project.” He continues, “I think, with A Dark Poem, we are doing something that will be a milestone in our career – challenging for ourselves, challenging for our fans, just the way Green Carnation has always been.”
Those fans have always possessed a profoundly emotional connection to Green Carnation, one that feels frank, unique and dedicated. The collective grief associated with the aforementioned Light of Day, Day of Darkness today almost feels like a legacy of sorts – cathartic energy that continues to connect listeners to the music of Green Carnation.
Kjetil and Stein Roger seem to be in agreement with this observation, admitting, “the very strong emotional connection is most certainly a connection we do feel when releasing new music, at every live show, and in the time in between. With Light of Day, Day of Darkness being an album that connected so strongly to so many people, there has never been a time where the band’s legacy has separated with this, and – in different forms – we have continued to explore many of the same themes as in that album, although maybe not that specific.”
The Shores of Melancholia and this idea of a multi-album series is one that’s been kicking around within the Green Carnation camp for years. There was even talk, at one point, of the band releasing a concept release titled The Rise and Fall of Mankind. Nordhus is quick to distinguish this first entry in A Dark Poem as dedication for the future, however, saying, “I think it is fair to say that the idea of a trilogy was born then, yes, but The Rise and Fall of Mankind never materialized. Although there might have existed themes and ideas at the time with The Rise and Fall of Mankind in mind, A Dark Poem is composed with 100 percent focus on writing new material that fit together as a monumental piece of music in three parts.”
The vocalist continues to discuss the timeline for this new album’s songwriting roadmap, informing us that, “it began before ‘The World Without a View’ [single], AND The Leaves of Yesteryear to be totally honest. When signing the new deal with Season of Mist in 2017, we had the trilogy project in mind, and it was part of the reason that we did sign a five-album deal with the label at the time. We knew that we needed time to do the trilogy project and planned to release one album plus re-launching The Acoustic Verses in the process, to give us enough time.”
If 2020’s Leaves of Yesteryear was the resounding call for Green Carnation’s aforementioned rebirth, then The Shores of Melancholia is the album where, from the point of view of both Kjetil and Stein Roger, the band lay it all out on the proverbial table. And that includes returning to the live stage.
“I can promise you that the ambitions are sky high musically,” reply both men. “With this trilogy we have put in an extreme amount of work over a very long period of time, and we are confident that this will be a milestone in Green Carnation’s career.” They go on to admit that, “what happens live is not only up to us. But by being a very active band with releasing not less than three albums in 2025 and 2026, we are certainly hoping to be a band that many people want to see live, and that concert and festival promoters want to book. We are already working extremely hard on The Shores of Melancholia live set, so we will be ready!”
Current line-up
Kjetil Nordhus – Vocals
Tchort – Guitar
Bjørn Harstad – Guitar
Stein Roger Sordal – Bass
Endre Kirkesola – Keyboards
Jonathan Alejandro Perez – Drums
Recording line-up
Kjetil Nordhus – Vocals
Bjørn Harstad – Guitar, Effects
Stein Roger Sordal – Bass, Guitars, Keyboards
Endre Kirkesola – Keyboards, Synthesizers, Organs, Effects
Jonathan Alejandro Perez – Drums
Guest Musicians
Ingrid Ose – Flute on “In Your Paradise” & “Me My Enemy”.
Grutle Kjellson (Enslaved) – Harsh Vocals on “The Slave That You Are”.
Henning Seldal – Percussion on “Too Close to the Flame”.
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