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Life is built on predestined
coincidences. A record market, in November 1996, which, I realise
now, had a big influence on my musical evolution, was one of them. I
bought a lot of CD’s that would become real classics. There was also
a booth where I first got to hear ‘Empyrium’, a bull’s eye. And I
got to know the first CD from ‘In The Woods’, which made me buy
every album by these bands afterwards! Even the demos. (‘A Return To
The Isle Of Man – In The Woods’)
There’s a strong link between ‘In The
Woods’ and ‘Green Carnation’.
Green Carnation was founded in 1990 and released a demo
‘Hallucinations Of Despair’.
After that, the band changed its style and was baptised ‘In The
Woods’. Tchort joined Emperor, but now he’s Green Carnation’s front
man. The début of this reunited band was released in 1999 and was
entitled “Journey To The End Of The Night”. But the real revelation
came in November 2001 when they released “Light Of Day, Day Of
Darkness”. When I first listened to it, I thought the player forgot
to skip tracks, but it turned out to be a piece of work that lasted
for 60 minutes and kept me under its spell for the whole evening. I
can’t really lay my finger on it, but Green Carnation has an
addictive influence on me. When I listened to their latest album,
this time divided into 9 independent tracks, I stayed within reach
of the repeat button and suddenly four hours had passed by in
Carnation land.
Months beforehand, I was following the
studio reports on other websites and I was very anxious. But also a
bit frightened because “Light” was completely written by Tchort and
this time there were 3 different composers involved, causing a
differential pattern that offers us some successful variation.
Tchort wrote 6 songs, the bass player 2 and the singer 1 (and these
are not the least!). The music can be described as melancholic rock
with heavy elements and prog influences. Even more, because of the
abundant presence of the Hammond organ and mellotron, this album can
mean as much for Green Carnation as what Opeth is experiencing with
“Damnation”.
You have to give this kind of music
some time to get into. That’s why I was only canalizing some inner
feelings. To find out that three songs keep hanging around in beauty
and inspiration. “Crushed To Dust” starts the musical trip with a
powerful rocking guitar and strong choruses, for which Scandinavian
bands with Gothic tendencies are famous. (Sentenced, Amorphis).
“Lullaby In Winter” is already such a moving piece of melancholy
that makes my flesh creep. It starts off as a solemn slow by metal
icon Halford (solo albums); but it digs a lot deeper because, after
a few minutes, it’s showing the typical Green Carnation sounds,
which I, to keep it simple, describe as conjuring guitar riffs and a
humming warm Hammond organ. From which a sentence as ‘I know you’re
sad because it’s winter, but I can promise you a spring’ lodged
itself immediately into my musical memory.
It lingers on a bit more light-hearted
in a sweet gothic tradition, which means a dark voice with reverb
debit to the wave inheritance, catchy choruses and striking melodic,
emphasising guitars in the background that spread out above our
heads in a light, psychedelic entourage. Green Carnation goes
Paradise Lost? No, not really, the band has made its pile and goes a
lot deeper. This way “Into Deep” logically crawls up along a
well-considered bass line to transform into some flaming guitar
work. It sounds fantastic and we’re not even to the summit of their
abilities yet. This becomes obvious in “The Boy In The Attic”, in
which the piano lets us hear a bitter sadness. It contains just the
aspect of despair for which music can be so healing. Some elements
of the powerful epic “Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness” can be found in
this piece, cloning itself does no harm if you eventually reach the
public!
“Two
Seconds In Life” gives us a fragile, dark voice which rises as a
seeking tendril of ivy, searching for light, the fight of an
individual between good and evil, the wish to revolve in darkness
against the light euphoria of some enlightenment. The sentiment is
dripping off, again a favourite track! Let them convince you with
their super intense guitar riffs. What a cracker, written by singer
Kjetil.
”Myron & Cole” even shows strong Alice in Chains influences, through
which the times of the unfolding of the grunge becomes tangible
again, helped by the vocals and the Eastern tinged guitar playing. A
strong riff with embalmed keyboards, mixed in front.
”As Life Flows By’ has a rocking take off and is very accessible. To
the end, it climbs nicely uphill with double bass drums. Almost love
metal, like The Loveless, who, after the split of Saturnus, also
gave a dark gothic injection to their CD. The third song that
settled immediately in my head, is the closing track “Rain”. A
string band opens a rich scale of sadness with deep roots, it’s pure
beauty with lots of skill translated in words and music. Halfway,
some elements of the previous CD come floating to the surface, which
gives an exciting turn to the song.
Top
class!!! |
