AN NCS INTERVIEW: GREEN CARNATION

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  No Responses »
Mar 092026
 


photo by Lars Gunnar Liestøl

(On April 3rd Season of Mist will release a new album by Norway’s Green Carnation as the second installment in a three-album trilogy. Our Comrade Aleks discussed the first installment with vocalist Kjetil Nordhus last fall, and now we present a second more recent discussion between them which focuses on the new record — and includes lots more news, as well as a stream of a brand new second single from the new album, “I Am Time“, that’s premiering today.)

As you remember, the Norwegian veteran progressive band Green Carnation returned after a significant hiatus in autumn 2025 with an announcement of the trilogy A Dark Poem. As A Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia was discussed in our interview here with the band’s vocalist Kjetil Nordhus four months ago, we sequentially follow the plan and provide a new one focused on the trilogy’s second part, A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis.

The band’s initial plan was to create three different albums which would complement each other, and until now it seems like everything goes according the plan. At least Sanguis follows closely to The Shores of Melancholia and yet provides some new ideas and quite a refreshing experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GREEN CARNATION

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 302025
 


Photos by Lars Gunnar Liestøl

(In September Season of Mist released a new album by the Norwegian progressive metal band Green Carnation, the first album in a three-album trilogy. Below you’ll find Comrade Aleks’ interview with the band’s vocalist Kjetil Nordhus, a discussion that delves into both the new album and the status of the ones to come.)

Initially, the name of the Norwegian band Green Carnation was firmly associated with its founder, Terje Vik Skye, better known as Tchort. He already had a reputation for his work with Emperor, and his new project, at the intersection of doom metal and prog rock, broke the mold. A series of successful albums in the 2000s earned Green Carnation a reputation as an artistic, emotional band with a keen eye for good melodies and well-developed ideas, so their departure from the scene in 2007 was not taken lightly.

However, Green Carnation returned ten years ago, and after a long hiatus, they released not just a new album, but the first part of a trilogy—the progressive and melancholic A Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia. The band’s vocalist, Kjetil Nordhus, agreed to shed light on some details of this release, and the opportunity was unmissable. However, not everything is ideal in this world, and the interview could have appeared a few weeks earlier, but the situation was out of my hand. So here we go. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: HIDEOUS DIVINITY, CRYPTOPSY, GREEN CARNATION, DESASTER, BRÉVINE, THEURGION

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 112025
 

(written by Islander)

Consider this a head-start on the roundup I usually put together on Saturday. A hell of a lot of new songs and videos popped up this week, and even with this head-start I still won’t be able to make more than a dent in that big moving wall, but at least it will be a bigger dent this week.

I decided to focus today’s collection on the bigger names scrawled on that wall, but before finishing we’ll still turn our gaze to a few names not yet written in such large letters. I haven’t figured out what tomorrow’s column will include, but my aim will be to dig even deeper into obscurities (at least relatively speaking). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BENIGHTED, GREEN CARNATION, KHÔRA, GOLDEN BLOOD, EMBODIMENT

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 102020
 

 

Hurrying as usual, but managed to have enough time to do some listening over the last 24 hours and to pick out five tracks from forthcoming records to recommend on this Tuesday. Hopefully you’ll agree with me that variety is the spice of life, because there’s quite a bit of that in what follows. Enjoy the spices.

BENIGHTED

I thought the best way to begin today’s collection was with a really disgusting music video about a malformed child taking revenge on his truly awful family (or at least vividly imagining it). Don’t bother watching at work, but hey, in the days of the coronavirus who’s at work? Continue reading »

ROADBURN 2016: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY (DAY FOUR)

 Metal News  No Responses »
May 052016
 

Roadburn-2016-OfficalArtwork1

 

The 2016 edition of the Roadburn festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands, is now in the history books. It was the first edition of the festival to be presented at the newly renovated 013 venue, and it boasted a typically impressive and diverse line-up of bands. While none of the NCS scribes was on hand for this year’s event, we do have beautiful photos of many of the performances, thanks to Kris T. Therrian of 17 seconds photography.

We’ve divided these photo collections into four parts, one for each day of the festival, and we’re been rolling them out on successive days here at our site. You can see photos from Day One here, Day Two here, and Day Three here. Once again, many thanks to Kris for letting us share these memories with you. For more info about her artistically impressive work, visit these links: Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE . . . LONG SONGS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  31 Responses »
Mar 082013
 

(Here we have the latest installment of Andy Synn’s lists of favorite things that come in fives.)

One thing that metal does very well (compared at least to pop, hip-hop, and even most rock music) is the long-form song. Heck, I imagine if I were to calculate the “average” run time of a song from amongst my vast collection, it would definitely come out somewhere between 5-6 minutes. A “short” metal song is often one that goes up to about 4 minutes after all (in contrast to the fact that this would be considered longer than average in the other genres I’ve mentioned).

One reason for this is that metal often needs room to breathe, to develop its melodic (or dissonant) themes properly. Metal revels in space, stretching itself, filling up the space with noise and sound, light and vision. It’s also a genre often synonymous with story-telling, and one which – largely free from the external constraints enforced upon the 3-minute pop song – contends to offer a deeper and more rewarding (and as such, longer lasting) emotional experience for the listener.

Then of course there’s Napalm Death… so, ok, metal isn’t ALL about length and depth (short, sharp impact is certainly a common trade-mark too) but it DOES tend to do long songs very well.

So I’ve chosen five of my absolute favourites, presented in order from shortest to longest. And there’s not a single Opeth song among them. Continue reading »