Green Carnation – Leaves of Yesteryear

Label: Seasons of Mist
Release date: 08-05-2020

Green Carnation is a Prog band from Norway that was formed exactly 30 years ago. Their genre can mostly be summed up as progressive although they dabbled between genres with their previous releases over the years. “Leaves of Yesteryear” is a full-length album released after a 14-year long hiatus.

Only by listening to the sound of this album I could tell Black Sabbath (see the riffs) and Opeth (see clean epic vocals) are the influences behind this fresh record. On this 5-track album, they included a cover of Sabbath’s folky acoustic Solitude. Their rendition is close to the original, however not so doomy but ended up being more soothing with the key work and all. They also covered one of their own classics called My Dark Reflections of Life and Death which lasts for 15 plus minutes. You’re in for an atmospheric and proggy journey with that one. It’s quite safe to say that it’s a masterpiece of the band. The title track which is also the opener of the album did not really hit me as much as either Sentinels or Hounds. Sentinels has the Opeth and Amorphis feels to it as Hounds has that Sabbath effect with those grave riffs.

I’m sure that even if you have not heard of the band before, you’ll be impressed with the musicianship and the instrumental dexterity with this record.

Line up:

Tchort – Guitars
Stein Roger Sordal – Bass, Vocals, Guitars, Harp
Bjørn “Berserk” Harstad – Guitars, Slide guitars, Ebow
Kjetil Nordhus – Vocals
Kenneth Silden – Keyboards, Piano, Rhodes, Strings, Mellotron
Jonathan A. Perez – Drums

Tracklist

1. Leaves of Yesteryear
2. Sentinels
3. My Dark Reflections of Life and Death
4. Hounds
5. Solitude

Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenCarnationNorway