Green Carnation

Green Carnation is a progressive metal band from Kristiansand, Norway formed in 1990. Green Carnation’s trend of music has continuously become less and less heavy after every release; from straight forward death metal, to a progressive doom metal sound, to an atmospheric gothic metal sound, to a melancholic hard rock sound and in 2006, went as far as to releasing an entirely acoustic album Acoustic Verses.

Green Carnation is the creation of former Emperor bass player Terje Vik Schei (a.k.a. Tchort), founded before Tchort joined Emperor in 1990. It eventually split, with the remaining members X-Botteri, Cm:Botteri and Anders Kobro creating avant-garde metal band In the Woods….

Green Carnation’s first album, Journey to the End of the Night, wasn’t recorded until 1998 and was released in October 2000 through German record company Prophecy Productions. The release was a folk inspired doom metal album. The Botteri brothers, Alf Tore Rasmussen and Geir Solli left the band after recording the debut album, and then Anders Kobro from In The Woods… joined up with Tchort and them two made the foundation and arrangements for the whole song that became Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness. (almost 2 years of working), they then did a pre-production in dub-studio with Endre Kirkesola helping out with the bassguitar, Tchort did the guitars and Anders Kobro the drums. This was enough to convince Bjørn Harstad (In The Woods… guitarist), Stein Roger Sordal (Soxpan ITW… live bassplayer), Kjetil Nordhus (vocals) and Bernt Andrè Moen (Shining) to join the band in time for the actual recording for the album Light of Day, Day of Darkness, a single track, 60-minute progressive metal epic again recorded in Dub-studio. The album was released in 2001 via Prophecy Productions in Europe, whereas the US release was handled by The End Records. The album is highly regarded, and is one of the longest single songs in metal.

Following this release, the band released their 2003 full-length album A Blessing in Disguise through French record label Season Of Mist. The album consisted of a blend of progressive metal/rock elements, slightly gothic tinges, and hard rock elements and brought the band into another musical terrain. Bjørn Harstad left the band after the recording of A Blessing In Disguise, a decision he made due to his other work commitments. Unfortunately Bernt Moen also decided to quit the band due to obligations with other artists and solo projects after the Blessing in Disguise tour of 2003.

Two years later the band followed up with the album The Quiet Offspring, introducing Kenneth Silden on keyboard and Michael Krumins on guitar. The album was released through Season Of Mist in Europe and The End Records in the US. This album brought the band into an even more hard-rock style of music and is seen by many to be their most commercial-sounding release. At this point, they made the decision to replace Anders Kobro with drummer Tommy Jackson (Jacksonville). Jacksonville was a natural choice since he had been a long-time friend and partner of Stein Sordal’s other projects, Soxpan, Sordal and Plutho ++). Later in 2005, the band released an EP entitled The Burden Is Mine… Alone. This EP marked the debut of bassist/guitarist Stein Roger Sordal as a lead vocalist in the band, with the song that shares the name of the EP and the song was written and performed entirely by him. Drummer Tommy Jacksonville also debuted as song writer and lyricist on the EP. He wrote the song Transparent Me for the album. This release also worked as a taste of what was to come with their following full-length album.

Early 2006 marked the release of their fifth full-length The Acoustic Verses. This album was yet another stylistic shift for the band. On the album, the band played all acoustic instruments, showing off a softer, warmer style for the band while retaining the progressive and darker feels they established since their debut.

According to Tchort’s writings in the booklet to The Acoustic Verses, Green Carnation’s next studio release is going to be the second part of “The Chronicles of Doom” trilogy, which began with Light of Day, Day of Darkness, and is going to be titled The Rise and Fall of Mankind.

In February 2007, Green Carnation recorded their second live DVD, A Night Under the Dam, where they played the entire ‘Acoustic Verses‘-album as well as a few other songs. The DVD was recorded under a 30-meter-tall dam in the Norwegian mountains and was the last release to be seen by the band’s current line-up.

On August 17, 2007, Terje Vik Schei announced that due to the poorly organized American tour and subsequent financial and motivational losses, the line up of Green Carnation had split up.  Tchort stated that he would

“continue writing music under the name Green Carnation, but probably will never play live again with the band.”

The expected album, The Rise and Fall of Mankind, has been postponed with no current release date, but Tchort has said that the album will be released sometime in the future. 

In February 2014, they announced they would be performing live again, starting with another “Night Under The Dam” on July 31st. In addition, they have been announced for ProgPower XVII 2016, performing on Saturday, September 10th.