Green Carnation is a progressive rock or "art rock" band from Kristiansand, Norway. Formed in 1990 by former Emperor bass player Terje Vik Schei (a.k.a. Tchort), before Tchort joined Emperor. Green Carnation didn't record their first album, Journey to the End of the Night, a folk-inspired doom metal album, until 1999. Their music became less and less heavy as time went on, starting out as plain doom metal and death metal, and gradually becoming lighter and more like progressive rock. In 2006, they released Acoustic Verses, an entirely acoustic album.
Their song "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" is known as one of the longest songs in metal history. At the time of its release, it apparently was the longest, although several other bands have since since surpassed its length.
After 2007, the band ceased touring due to a poorly organised tour which lost the band a substantial amount of money, and Tchort claimed the band would probably never tour again. However, the band resumed playing live in 2014.
Current members:
- Terje Vik Schei (a.k.a. Tchort) − Guitar, Lyrics
- Stein Roger Sordal − Bass, Vocals, Guitar, Lyrics
- Kjetil Nordhus − Vocals, Lyrics
- Michael Krumins − Guitar , Theremin
- Tommy Jacksonville − Drums
- Kenneth Silden − Piano, Keyboards
Former members:
- Bjørn Harstad − Guitar
- Bernt A. Moen − Piano, Keyboards
- Christian "X" Botteri − Guitar
- Christofer "CM" Botteri − Bass
- Anders Kobro − Drums
- Alf Torre Rassmussen − Drums
Studio albums to date:
- Journey to the End of the Night - 2000
- Light of Day, Day of Darkness - 2001
- A Blessing in Disguise - 2003
- The Quiet Offspring - 2005
- The Burden Is Mine... Alone [EP] - 2005
- Acoustic Verses - 2006
They are currently working on a new album, The Rise and Fall of Mankind, which does not have an official release date yet. They have also produced a demo album in 1991 called Hallucinations of Despair, a box set The Trilogy in 2004, and two live DVDs, Alive and Well... In Krakow in 2004 and A Night Under the Dam (live in the Norwegian mountains) in 2007.
This band may exhibit the following tropes:
- Audio Adaptation: "Alone" takes its lyrics from the poem of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. (Incidentally, fellow Norwegians Arcturus used the same poem for an entirely different adaptation, and another Norwegian, Ihsahn, later recorded another adaptation in 2018.)
- Bilingual Bonus: "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" begins with a child speaking in Norwegian.
- Book Ends: Light of Day, Day of Darkness begins and ends with a child talking.
- Epic Rocking:
- Their song "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" is one of the best examples of this trope, clocking in at an impressive 60:06. Yes, it's a single track, and it makes up the entirety of the album from which it comes. What's even more impressive is that they sometimes perform the song in its entirety during live shows.
- Journey to the End of the Night: "In the Realm of the Midnight Sun" (13:42), "My Dark Reflections of Life and Death" (17:50), "Under Eternal Stars" (15:31), "Journey to the End of the Night (Part I)" (11:28)
- A Blessing in Disguise: "Lullaby in Winter" (7:49), "The Boy in the Attic" (7:13), "Rain" (8:06).
- The Quiet Offspring: "When I Was You" (7:22).
- The Acoustic Verses: "High Tide Waves" (7:50), "9-29-045" (15:30; contains three movements, in the best tradition of Progressive Rock).
- I Am the Band: Tchort was the only member of the band from 2007 to 2014.
- Last Note Nightmare: "Light of Day, Day of Darkness". You think the song is going to fade out on that cute little music box... then you hear a loud SLAM. Song over.
- New Sound Album: Every album.
- Their demo material was pure Death Metal.
- Journey to the End of the Night was folk-influenced Doom Metal.
- Light of Day, Day of Darkness was pure Progressive Metal, featuring one single sixty-minute song.
- A Blessing in Disguise contained shorter and more melodic songs, some gothic tinges, and was more hard rock oriented.
- The Quiet Offspring had a more traditional hard rock sound, leaving behind the atmospheric and progressive stylings of their previous two albums.
- The Acoustic Verses is a completely acoustic album.
- Progressive Metal: On most of their material.
- Progressive Rock: On The Acoustic Verses
- Shout-Out:
- "Light of Day, Day of Darkness," a 60 minute long progressive opus, contains a reference to "the edge of sanity." Edge of Sanity had previously released their own 40 minute long prog opus, Crimson.
- Journey to the End of the Night is named after a novel by Louis-Ferdinand Celine.
- Soprano and Gravel: There are both deep, growly voices and high, female soprano voices in "Light of Day, Day of Darkness", though they don't actually duet with each other.
