Title track from prog auteurs upcoming
opus paints a grand and gloomy opening scene
Hear the band’s new album two weeks early during their upcoming Bandcamp listening party
“Green Carnation have striven to wring hope from the bleakest of circumstances and to dig deep within themselves to nurture the most fertile of music shoots” – PROG Magazine
Had GREEN CARNATION never returned from hiatus during the mid-2000s, the Norwegian band would’ve been remembered for completing one of the most ambitious individual epics in metal’s archives. But with their upcoming new album, the progressive metal auteurs are setting sail on a three-part journey that’s two decades in the making. A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia is the first in a trilogy of albums that promises to take new and lifelong fans to the highest tops and darkest of inner rooms.
“In naming their magnum opus, they are not simply describing a mood; they are staking a claim to a lineage, positioning their work not within the modern parlance of depression, but in the grand, romantic tradition of creative sorrow”, Atmosfear Entertainment wrote in an extensive preview. “The romantic poets despaired over the state of the world as they saw it; Green Carnation despairs over a world whose reality has become unstable, contested, and weaponized”.
Today, Green Carnation are premiering the title track from the opening chapter of A Dark Poem with Metal Injection. While glistening with timeless melodies, “The Shores of Melancholia” is clouded by sinking hopes for the present state of our world.
“Melancholia is a place that’s suited Green Carnation from the very beginning“, says the band’s vocalist Kjetil Nordhus. “But it’s especially fitting for the first part of A Dark Poem, because this album is about losing faith in what we’ve come to believe about the world“.
Watch the captivating video for The Shores of Melancholia:
A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia comes out September 5, 2025.
Pre-order & Pre-save:
https://orcd.co/greencarnationadarkpoem1
Pre-save on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/prerelease/2o7sN7WqyIQDx96WvqtYUm
Can’t wait to hear Green Carnation’s grand and gloomy new opus? RSVP for the band’s upcoming Bandcamp Listening Party and hear all of their new album two weeks before it comes out!
A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia Bandcamp Listening Party
Wednesday, August 20 @ 1:30 pm Eastern Time
RSVP:
Whether blazing a trail through symphonic doom, hard rock or acoustic plucking, Green Carnation have always sought to climb the highest mountains. With its soaring-yet-somber chorus, “The Shores of Melancholia” reaches newfound peaks of sublime heaviness. Though the first inkling of A Dark Poem stems back to the band’s earliest yesteryears. It was founding member and Emperor’s former bassist Tchort who first set upon the idea for an album trilogy shortly after completing the masterful long-form storytelling that is Light of Day, Day of Darkness.
“Since getting back together in 2016, we like to pursue things that are extremely ambitious”, Nordhus says. “The trilogy felt like it might be just out of our reach, which made us want to see if we could do it”.
The opening chapter of A Dark Poem pulls a page from across Green Carnation’s storied 25-year discography. Of the six tales that sweep through The Shores of Melancholia, the darkest and stormiest track claws all the way back to the band’s budding days in extreme metal thanks to the blackened howls of Enslaved’s Grutle Kjellson. But the album’s title track directly references the trilogy’s main muse. “Ophelia / Too human, too soft for this life”, Nordhus cries with impassioned cleans for Shakespeare’s tragic heroine. Just as gentle keys wash over the delicate acoustic strumming beneath the song’s verses, the video cuts between a hopeful couple who are fighting to stay afloat amidst dark undercurrents.
“Losing faith in the world around you can lead to this feeling of inner dystopia”, Nordhus says. “You’re standing on a precipice and all that’s there is this vast cloud. It’s a melancholic feeling that can completely overwhelm you”.
Green Carnation’s view from The Shores of Melancholia is no palatial retreat. Majestic leads scale above the title track like a city skyline that’s engulfed in flames. “Come witness the death of a dream and the birth of the upper class”. With one last brace from shore, the title track pulls the band out to sea by a steady tide of double bass and crashing cymbals. “One final breath / Under scarlet clouds”, belts Nordhus as they come face-to-face with the great unknown.
“A Dark Poem was a challenge to ourselves”, the band reflects. “We think it will stand as a milestone in our career”.
The video for “In Your Paradise” was directed and edited by Rikard Amodei.
Additional Video Credits:
Tor Sellevold Solbakken – Camera and color grading
Stian Foss – Editing
Spencer Frost – Underwater Camera
Walter Cortes – Camera
Alexander De Senger – Grip
Stian Urdalen Jonson – Grip
Devin Michael Jonson – Grip
Bjornar Eidet Skutlaberg – Lights
Joakim Stien – Lights
Ruben Lervåg – Set sound
Lars Gunnar Liestøl – Still photos
Green Carnation would like to especially thank Cultiva and Kilden Performing Arts Centre, along with Mike Moen and the crew at LX Design.
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)
3. Me My Enemy (7:17)
4. The Slave That You Are (Ft. Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved) (6:16)
5. The Shores of Melancholia (5:38)
6. Too Close to the Flame (9:16)
Full runtime: 42:44
Country: Norway (NO)
Genre: Progressive Metal
FFO: Opeth, Paradise Lost, Pain of Salvation
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 Lineup:
Kjetil Nordhus – Vocals
Tchort – Guitar
Bjørn Harstad – Guitar
Stein Roger Sordal – Bass
Endre Kirkesola – Keyboards
Jonathan Alejandro Perez – Drums
Recording Lineup:
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”.
Production Credits:
Recorded at DUB Studio in Kristiansand, Norway
Produced by Endre Kirkesola, Stein Roger Sordal & Kjetil Nordhus.
Sound Engineering by Endre Kirkesola.
Mixed by Endre Kirkesola
Mastered by Lawrence Mackrory
Follow Green Carnation:
Bandcamp: https://greencarnationsom.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenCarnationNorway
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/green2carnation/
Twitter (X): https://x.com/Green2Carnation
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2vfEaTADayEniT7xbG-XCA
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1ZaJhNBAhJ3HjPsWiB9sDc
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/artist/green-carnation/72866964
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/artist/8192
Tidal: https://tidal.com/browse/artist/23079
