If Green Carnation had never returned from their mid-2000s hiatus, they’d still hold a place in metal history for delivering one of the genre’s most ambitious single-epic releases, Light of Day, Day of Darkness. But that’s not the way Green Carnation‘s story ended. Instead, the Norwegian progressive metal visionaries are back with their boldest creative gamble yet — a three-album saga two decades in the making. The journey begins September 5, 2025, with A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia.
The title track, which premieres today via Metal Injection, blends timeless melody with heavy, aching reflection on the state of the modern world. It’s a natural fit for Green Carnation‘s sound, and as vocalist Kjetil Nordhus explains, “Melancholia is a place that’s suited Green Carnation from the very beginning… this album is about losing faith in what we’ve come to believe about the world.”
The song’s video paints that vision in vivid colors, juxtaposing hopeful imagery with undercurrents of dread. Nordhus sings with raw intensity: “Ophelia / Too human, too soft for this life” — a nod to Shakespeare’s tragic heroine. Keys and delicate acoustic guitars swirl beneath his voice, before the track swells into crashing waves of double bass and guitar leads, like a vessel being carried into the unknown. The closing refrain, “One final breath / Under scarlet clouds”, lands like both an elegy and a rallying cry.
From a creative standpoint, The Shores of Melancholia is a culmination of threads running throughout the band’s 25-year history. Founding member Tchort, once the bassist for Emperor, first conceived the idea of a trilogy shortly after Light of Day, Day of Darkness. That vision lingered for years, surviving hiatus and lineup shifts. Since reuniting in 2016, the band has deliberately pursued “extremely ambitious” projects, Nordhus said, noting that this trilogy felt “just out of our reach, which made us want to see if we could do it.”
Musically, The Shores of Melancholia draws from across Green Carnation‘s stylistic palette. Opener “As Silence Took You” and “In Your Paradise” echo the melodic rock sensibilities of their Blessing in Disguise era, with big choruses and rich hooks. “Me My Enemy” offers a slow, bass-driven groove wrapped in spacey textures, while “The Slave That You Are” plunges into the band’s extreme metal roots with harsh guest vocals from Enslaved‘s Grutle Kjellson. The title track carries the album’s conceptual weight, while closer “Too Close to the Flame” stretches nearly 10 minutes, marrying progressive ambition with emotional immediacy.
Green Carnation bassist and songwriter Stein Roger Sordal explains the trilogy’s central focus: “A Dark Poem is a collection of songs that explore feelings of alienation… The first part throws the listener into these questions from the start. If we keep them trapped within each album, we’ll keep them trapped for the whole trilogy.”
Thematically, A Dark Poem isn’t merely personal melancholy — it’s existential. In an early preview, Atmosfear Entertainment described the work as aligning with “the grand, romantic tradition of creative sorrow,” connecting the band’s approach to the despair of the Romantic poets, who mourned a fractured and unstable world.
Green Carnation‘s path to this point has been anything but straightforward. After disbanding in 2007 following a troubled U.S. tour for Acoustic Verses, the band lay dormant for nearly a decade. Their return at ProgPower USA 2016 was triumphant, and subsequent releases — including 2020’s Leaves of Yesteryear — rekindled their reputation for blending emotional depth with progressive complexity. Signing an ambitious multi-album deal with Season of Mist in 2017 gave them the platform to bring the trilogy to life.
Nordhus promises that ambition will carry over to the live stage. Green Carnation will premiere The Shores of Melancholia in full at ProgPower USA later this year and has a Bandcamp Listening Party scheduled for August 20, giving fans an early taste of the record. “We are already working extremely hard on The Shores of Melancholia live set, so we will be ready,” Nordhus said.
Pre-orders for A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia are available here.
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