Green Carnation "Leaves Of Yesteryear (Digipak, France, Season Of Mist, SOM 560D)"

Leaves of Yesteryear is the sixth full-length studio album by the Norwegian progressive metal band Green Carnation. It was released on May 8, 2020, via Season of Mist.

This album represents the return of the band after fourteen years of absence from the recording studios. It includes a cover of the Black Sabbath ballad "Solitude", from their album Master of Reality (1971), as well as a new version of "My Dark Reflections of Life and Death" that originally appeared on their 2000 debut album, Journey to the End of the Night.

It is the first studio album with experienced Chilean drummer Jonathan Pérez (ex-Sirenia, ex-Trail of Tears) a live band member since 2016.

The album was met with positive reviews from music critics. Blabbermouth.net rated it with an 8 and describes it "(the band) has returned and settled into a gothic prog metal format on Leaves of Yesteryear, a solid album which is ripe with the qualities, dynamics and diversity that longtime followers would expect and crave". Licia Mapelli of Tuonela Magazine wrote an unrated yet positive track-by-track review of the album.

According to Tchort's writings in the booklet to Acoustic Verses in 2006, Green Carnation's next studio release was going to be the second part of "The Chronicles of Doom" trilogy, which began with Light of Day, Day of Darkness, and was going to be titled The Rise and Fall of Mankind, with an undetermined release date.

However, the announced album title was eventually discarded and its lyrical content was changed for unknown reasons after the group's long break. Instead, the new title and lyrics suggest a return to the band's earlier progressive doom roots, with songs composed mostly by the well-known formula of the duo of Tchort and Stein Roger Sordal.

Track listing

1. "Leaves of Yesteryear" Stein Roger Sordal 8:04
2. "Sentinels" Stein Roger Sordal 5:43
3. "My Dark Reflections of Life and Death" (re-recording of song from Journey to the End of the Night) Tchort 15:37
4. "Hounds" Stein Roger Sordal 10:10
5. "Solitude" (Black Sabbath cover) Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi 5:06

Total length: 44:36

"My Dark Reflections of Life and Death" originally appeared on their 2000 debut, "Journey to the End of the Night".

Recording information:

Mastered at Maor Appelbaum Mastering, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Produced by Endre Kirkesola and Green Carnation

Artwork by Niklas Sundin

Green Carnation "The Quiet Offspring (USA, The End Records, TE054)"

The Quiet Offspring is the fourth full-length studio album by the Norwegian progressive metal band Green Carnation. It was released on 22 February 2005.

In this recording, the band breaks away from their previous offerings. Although critically acclaimed and well accepted by fans, The Quiet Offspring has a more traditional rock sound and leaves behind much of the progressiveness and atmospheric feels of the band's previous albums, Light of Day, Day of Darkness and A Blessing in Disguise. Some listeners have criticized this transition, while others claim it would have been inconceivable to repeat the feat of the sixty-minute album.

Track listing

1. "The Quiet Offspring" – 4:05 (Sordal)
2. "Between the Gentle Small and the Standing Tall" – 4:15 (Tchort, Sordal)
3. "Just When You Think It's Safe" – 5:18 (Tchort)
4. "A Place for Me" – 5:26 (Krumins)
5. "The Everlasting Moment" – 5:09 (Sordal)
6. "Purple Door, Pitch Black" – 4:12 (Sordal)
7. "Childsplay - Part I" – 4:47 (Tchort)
8. "Dead But Dreaming" – 5:26 (Tchort)
9. "Pile of Doubt" – 5:56 (Sordal)
10. "When I Was You" – 7:22 (Nordhus)
11. "Childsplay - Part II" – 4:23 (Tchort, Moen)

Time: 56:19

Under license from Season of Mist.

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed at Sound Suite Studio, Marseille, during 3 weeks in August & September 2004.

Mastered at Cutting Room, Sweden.

Green Carnation "Acoustic Verses (USA, The End Records, TE063)"

Acoustic Verses is the fifth full-length studio album by the Norwegian progressive metal band Green Carnation. It was released on January 30, 2006, via Sublife Productions.

The album features three songs included on their 2005 EP The Burden Is Mine... Alone: "Sweet Leaf", "The Burden Is Mine... Alone", as well as the cover of Jon English's 1978 international hit "Six Ribbons" (only in the special edition).

Acoustic Verses was another stylistic shift for Green Carnation. On the album, as the name suggests, the band played all acoustic instruments, showing off a softer, warmer style for the band while retaining the progressive and darker feels they established since their debut. Acoustic Verses was a change with respect to the previous works of the group, in which practically all their members participated in its composition.

The album was met with positive reviews. Blabbermouth.net rated it with an eight and described it as "it's as lush, orchestrated, and enigmatic as any 'electric' album from this quizzical band".

Laura Taylor of Exclaim! said "similar to Opeth’s Damnation in some respects, Acoustic Verses covers more ground, perhaps in part because of the number of songwriters involved, but the album’s stylistic experimentation is very much in line with the Green Carnation’s proven pattern". 

Tracklist:

1. Sweet Leaf 04:38   
2. The Burden Is Mine... Alone 03:15   
3. Maybe? 05:02   
4. Alone 03:44  
5. 9-29-045 15:29  
6. Child's Play Part 3 03:32
7. High Tide Waves 07:49

Time:  43:29

Original Norwegian release in 2006 by Sublife. Cat.#: SUB-CD-001.

Licensed release by The End Records on January 24th, 2006 for North America.

Track 5 is split up into 3 different parts :

- My Greater Cause

- Homecoming

- House of Cards

Lyrics of the track 4.Alone are taken from a Poem by Edgar Allan Poe and are the same ARCTURUS used on the track with the same name in the "La Masquerade Infernale" album.

In some editions, they added the bonus track Six Ribbons.

Recording information:

Engineered and mixed at Brown Sound Studios, except track 4, mixed at Jailhouse Studios.

Violins, viola and cello recorded at Jailhouse Studios.

Drums recorded at Dub Studios, Kristiansand, Norway.

Mastered at Lynor.

Artwork by Jon Tønnessen

Green Carnation "Alive And Well... In Krakow (Limited Edition Digipak, Poland, Metal Mind Productions, MASS CD 1276 DG)"

Alive and Well... In Krakow, (a.k.a. Alive and Well... Who am I?) is Green Carnation's first live DVD, released under the Metal Mind Records label in August 2004.

The DVD contains the entire live show, bonus audio selections, interviews, biographies, discography, a photo gallery, bootleg videos and full 5.1 Surround Sound.

This live recording was made in Kraków in January 2004 and was released on 3 August 2004.

The band performed a variety of songs from their albums, including the first 22 minutes of their album Light of Day, Day of Darkness.

Tracklist:

1. Into Deep 07:00  
2. Crushed to Dust 04:23  
3. Writings on the Wall 05:00  
4. Light of Day, Day of Darkness, 1st Part 22:42  
5. The Boy in the Attic 06:10  
6. Myron & Cole 05:46  
7. Rain 05:44  
8. As Life Flows By 05:35  

Time: 01:02:20  

Recording information:

Recorded on January 31st, 2004 at Studio TVP Krzemionki in Krakow, Poland.