Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Green Carnation - Leaves of Yesteryear (2020)

You might consider Green Carnation something like a progressive Paradise Lost. After making it big with their masterpiece album (for Green Carnation, Light of Day, Day of Darkness), they soften things up over the course of 3 albums. It's not until 14 years after the last of the 3 that they would finally return to their roots! For Green Carnation, they're back with new drummer Jonathan Perez (Sirenia, Trail of Tears), who had already performed with them at the 15 anniversary performance of Light of Day.

As you can hear, the band has taken on the melodic gothic-ish progressive sound of their first 3 albums, brushing aside the soft failures of the other two. Kjetil Nordhus continues to shine with his vocals that are never worn out. And within the catchy progressiveness is some heavy technicality to shake things up a bit.

The title opener starts with deep gloom that is almost like Dark Tranquillity's clean ballads, but when we get to the melodic riffs and leads, instead of the growls of Dark Tranquillity, we have the usual stunning vocals, especially the chorus that greatly balances darkness and light. There are also some sweet atmospheric keys. The many different twists and emotion in prog metal are all right here for a grand structure in this perfect gem. The chorus in "Sentinels" has nice clarity.

Now we get to the re-recording of an epic from their debut Journey to the End of the Night, the 15-minute centerpiece "My Dark Reflections of Life and Death". The melody fades in before the drumming starts to build up, going from doomy to mid-paced. And finally, the distorted guitar enters and we get some cool doomy riffing. Vocals don't start until just under the 4-minute mark (the over a minute intro of ambient noise is left out), and it has to be said, Kjetil Nordhus is a much better male vocalist than Rx Draumtanzer, the latter's singing being too stretched out in the original. It would still be nice if we could get some death growls in place of that. Never mind that, he's great with his deep drama. Soon the heavy distortion drops, having more of that acoustic clean guitar. It used to fade to practically silence, but the music can still be heard as everything rises back up, including more of Kjetil's drama. By the way, there's also none of the female chanting that occurs in the original. Still, different melodies in the music and vocals make that epic the true highlight of the album, like the original is for the debut.

Continuing those extensive progressive tendencies is another epic, the 10-minute "Hounds". The acoustic/bass intro is a little too long, and the chorus is a little repetitive, but everything else I enjoy enough to make it another highlight. The album ends with a cover of "Solitude" by Black Sabbath. It's a nice and delicate ballad, and they should've recorded it for their previous album Acoustic Verses to replace that album's lame 15-minute "epic".

Leaves of Yesteryear is filled with the wonders of Green Carnation in their return from the void. And it makes up for not continuing The Chronicles of Doom trilogy that was planned before their breakup. Here's to more of this band in later years!

Favorites: "Leaves of Yesteryear", "My Dark Reflections of Life and Death", "Hounds"