Customer Reviews

Light of Day Day of Darkness

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In a perfect world I'd have heard of this album months ago and bought it the day it was released, so I would not have missed having it for so long. In the vein of A Pleasant Shade of Gray (by Fates Warning), Light of Day, Day of Darkness is entirely _one_ song, filling the album up to about 60 minutes. This is a fantastic, seemingly unheralded album.

I don't know who this Tchort guy is or what he's done in the musical world, but I'm convinced he's a talented man. This CD is his baby. "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" plays out in ebbs and flows of aggressive, crunchy metal passages and gorgeous, placid soundscapes, with influences ranging from folk to gothic to ambient to opera. Instrumentation runs the gamut of a traditional metal lineup to a wealth of non-metal ingredients: strings, saxophone, sitar, opera choirs, children choirs. There is a lot of B3 organ which imbues a certain "classic" feel. Needless to say, this is not your run-of-the-mill CD.

Listening to this album is a dreamlike experience, even during the heavy moments (of which there are many). When you wake after a dream you try and recall details, and yet they elude memory. The first several listens of "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" are similar. When the album ends for the first time, you try to reassemble seemingly disparate musical threads in your mind, but they are fleeting. It takes many of listens to piece this album together entirely, for the cohesion is deeply hidden. Musical passages lead you on in a haze of multifaceted musical realms united through ingenious arrangements and creativity. Recurring motifs are very subtle, excepting the album's main theme which plays out several times. Often, unity is generated by reusing just a single bar, or reintegrating a 5-note melody on a different instrument. All the transitions are very smooth musically, and they seem more so because this is all happening on one track. (In contrast, the aforementioned A Pleasant Shade of Gray divides itself into 12 tracks to separate sections of the overall "suite" and so the listener can navigate to different parts easily. Dream Theater's recent "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" does the same thing.)

Naturally, it's much easier to describe a normal 5-minute -- or even 10-minute -- song than this 60-minute titan. It's just difficult to explain how it all comes together. You have your crunchy metal, and then there's myriad other elements looped around it. Some passages set grandiose string crescendos over pounding drums. Others have acoustic guitar with a delicate keyboard accompaniment. Some parts bring in weird, cosmic synthesizers. A big chunk of the 30-40 minute zone is taken up by misty sonics and a female vocalist singing wordless melodies (at one point she makes a weird fluttering effect with her voice). As the song goes through all these changes, Tchort orchestrates the movements with perfect build-up to heavier moments and skillful withdrawal into quiet passages. The "flow" of the song is just perfect.

The nondescript and deadpan vocals of Kjetil Nordhus work _perfectly_ with the overall sound. Outside of this album, I don't think I'd like them. One of those hyper-vibrato/falsetto power metal singers wouldn't have fit, that's for sure. When he sometimes gets drowned out by the metal sections, even this seems to fit within the album's dreamy context. He is not so much a _lead_ part of the music, but another thread in an elaborate tapestry. Some of the metal sections' rhythms come across a bit rigid because the drumming is sometimes amort (a few times I think I could predict the fills), but most of the riffs are heavy and memorable. At about the 16:00 mark, this killer riff comes in but it's only used briefly...too bad, because I liked it. Under this riff, the drumming continues to grow more intense until the heaviness retracts again.

Some night, jump in the car, throw Light of Day, Day of Darkness in the CD player, and drive around in the country for an hour. It will be a good experience.

By now you may have already run across the acclaim this album is getting and are already itching to get your hands on it. Allow me to give you the added incentive to hurry and do just that because the raving praise this album has garnered thus far from critics elsewhere is justly deserved. Now, here is my own breakdown.
GREEN CARNATION's inception into the Metal community was not a good one from my vantage point. Their first release reeked of directionless confusion and dulled me into the next dimension. Had I walked away and ignored the band after that first release I would have truly missed out on one of the most majestic Metal releases in, well, decades really. Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness is quite nearly this decade's answer to PINK FLOYD's The Wall of the1970's. Not surprisingly that comparison transcends not just the 25 or so years separating those two releases and the obvious genre difference but the atmosphere this album carries with it is at times not too far from that established by PINK FLOYD in their heyday.

The album is one track. That's right - one song. Well, truthfully its really several songs that have been amalgamated into one but there are several seamless transitions that create the illusion of one long and journeyed composition. The only problem I had with this is that I can't advance to sections of the song because all cd players will read this as one track at 60 minutes plus. Not a problem when you consider that you'll be absorbed for the majority of your listen anyway. This is what makes this release so incredibly good - the sheer captivation of your senses.

The album begins with haunting synthesization and the innocent ramblings of a playful child (band leader Tchort's son in fact). As the slow drumming steps in and the album begins its lengthy journey the mood is immediately set and the emotion begins flowing at once. Because there are so many differing elements to this album its too time consuming and cumbersome to cover every transition but suffice it to say that the fluidity of this album is startling. Waves and crests of emotive strings and keys and the backdrop of an enormous ensemble of guest musicians (numbering around 30 or more including a children's choir and opera choir) create an epic and majestic musical portrait of the deepest scope. While there is heavy emphasis on supportive elements on this album let one not forget that this is a Metal album above all things. Heavy guitars drive and steer this beast across its many landscapes of emotional depth with the listener riding the steady wave of triumph and tragedy, sorrow and consolation, that the album seems keenly geared toward building. Its a towering success. Deep into the album there are some bizarre experiments with female chants, which while adding a very odd and eclectic quality, are perhaps a bit too overbearing in length but they add a chill to your spine and alter the mood once again.

Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness is a dark album when you step away from it and view (or hear as it were) it from a perspective of totality. However, to call this simply Doom Metal is criminal. This is so much more and genre classification is completely defied. Allow me to call it Ambient/Doom/Epic/Orchestral Metal. Actually that doesn't do it justice and its likely you won't be able to label this with anything currently in the Metal subgenre arsenal. Its just too far out. GREEN CARNATION have created an album that rocks, that saddens, that nurtures, that gives hope then takes it away, that weeps and then dries the tears with breezes of melody. I picture this musical tapestry as a succession of hills and valleys with changing weather patterns and an endless horizon. So yes, its really good see?

A few notes. No death growls, just clean singing and well done too. If I had to name band's for comparison I couldn't do it save for the aforementioned PINK FLOYD mention and I think if PINK FLOYD were a Metal band this is probably the direction they'd pursue. I'm tempted to bring OPETH into the equation but not even OPETH have tried anything this bold and artistic to date. Truly this is just GREEN CARNATION. And that folks, is brilliant.

This is mandatory. That's all - mandatory. Its also one of the top 5 releases of 2001 and might just go down as one of the top 5 of the past two decades. Now go get it, bring it home, turn down the lights, listen and dream....

I must admit, I was a little skeptical of this when I first picked it up. This album comprises a single song that just passes the one-hour mark, and I wasn't sure what to think of that. I figured it might very well be a series of shorter songs, strung together by someone who wanted to write an hour-long song just for the sake of doing so, without the benefit of track breaks. I was wrong.

For all its length, "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" never gets boring, never makes you want to skip forward to a later part of the disc. It is clear that this was conceived as a unified whole, and it works very well. The song was composed entirely by Tchort, who used to play bass for Emperor back in the days of "In the Nightside Eclipse," but those looking for black metal will have to look elsewhere. This song is as emotional as it is atmospheric, and has a surprising level of diversity. It runs the gamut from crushing heavy metal riffs to operatic vocals that wouldn't be out of place in the score of an epic film. This is beautiful music, and something that requires you to pay attention through several listens to pick up on everything that's going on.

I'm not exactly sure how to categorize this. It's one of those albums that defies traditional genre boundaries, and that's part of what makes it so interesting. After about a dozen listens through this one, I think I can safely say that it's one of the best metal releases so far this year. Buy it without hesitation.

One track, one hour long! That's ambition. More than 40 musicians, 150 track recording
and 600 samples! Now that's excess. One man composed, arranged, mixed, co-produced
and conducted the effort. Now that's dexterity.

Yet, that is exactly what Green Carnation's latest offering is in its most simple form.
Though, the music itself is anything but "simple." The creative aspect entailed in "Light of
Day..." includes a wide ranging variety of textures and layers to paint a sonic portrait that
demands the listener's attention throughout the epic journey.

Meandering from one mood to the next nearly seamlessly while maintaining a thematic
quality throughout the piece, mastermind Tchort provides an emotional rollercoaster of
pastoral darkness that is as much in line with gothic atmosphere as it is progressive nature.
It is a unique balance of ethereal and doom which grows out of simply crafted melodies
which are then subtly embellished until they build into a near wall of sonic exuberance.

To pigeonhole this effort as mere artistic extravagance would diminish the genius in the
architecture utilized to create it. The entire endeavor top-to-bottom represents an venture
so grand in scale that to critique any single aspect outside of the whole would not do
justice to the beauty of the creation.

It can not be stated enough that "Light of Day..." transcends the traditional concept album
in that it flows as a single unified creation just water in a river would flow as opposed to
several individual ideas strung together as drops of water come together into a puddle.
Being absorbed in the composition is the goal, hence the reason why there are not even
sub-tracks on the recording. Not that fast-forward is necessary, but rewind might be
helpful to fully comprehend as the ambiance is akin to a fall breeze.

Experience all there is to experience between the light of day and the darkness of Green
Carnation.

I bought this album after reading all the rave reviews about it at amazon.com and progreviews.com. After listening to it for about a half-a-dozen times, I can say that I am satisfied overall, but I do have some minor quibbles. Let's take a look at the positives first.

First of all, I am an ardent fan of (old) Metallica, Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, and (the softer side of) Opeth, and I was delighted to see influences of all these bands (and then some) on this album. In fact, this album sucessfully fuses crunchy riffs typical of Metallica and Iron Maiden, the epic grandeur typical of Dream Theater, the melodic yet heavy sadness of Opeth, and the plain weirdness of Pink Floyd in their heyday, into something that flows transparently from one part into another. (Actually, I felt a little bit disturbed about a riff around 16:20 that sounded like it was lifted right off some Metallica song - I could be wrong, so pardon me if I am mistaken). There are also a few "deathy" vocals but they are very well executed and blend very well with the background.

The only negative aspect that I came across on this album (track ?) are a few *brief* sections in the middle that I could only classify as "cliched metal riffage". Also, I had mixed feelings about the female vocal section in the middle (there is something about it that feels a little "forced"). Anyways, most of my opinions are subjective (last time I heard, musical taste is subjective) and hence you might like this album more or less than I did. But when it comes to musicianship and songwriting alone, any open-minded music fan will feel satisfied with this ambitious effort. And Oh, I did get a kick out of seeing my CD track timer cross the 60:00 mark for the first time ever :-)

I first heard this album when I was driving home from a vacation. well about 5 minutes into the hour long song I was hooked and knew I had found one of the greatest bands.

Green Carnation light of day day of darkness is one of the best albums I have ever heard. The use of so many musicians really pays off into making this a musical epic. This album has pretty much everything that I enjoy in listening to in music. They have the traditional guitar, bass, drum, but add a symphony a choir and a nice opera solo in the middle. I would siggest everyone to buy this album for it is worth it

Imagine a dark forest full of creepy predators beyond imagination, a frightening nest of demons and goblins tucked away somewhere in the blackest depths of the human soul. In here, no one is safe and no fear can stay hidden - age, mortality, abandonment, buried memories, they all come out. Green Carnation's mammoth of an album-length song is a twisted journey through the dark corners of the mind - all hope abandon, ye who enter. Though there come some moments of calm and some glimpses of ultimate hope, this vision of the great beyond is a listening experience dark and frightening enough to induce serious nightmares. Not only that - it's one of the most well-produced, ambitiously constructed, stunningly performed albums I've had the privilege of hearing.

I suppose a description of the actual music might help too, although that's not easy. It's an atmospheric experience through its hour-long running time; though there are numerous times when the tone is cranked up to an overpowering crescendo, there are several passages of equally placid soundscapes to balance it out. The first several minutes build tension, ranging from an ambient intro, to a section carried by a soft children's choir, to the controlled slowburn of a building metallic verse, to the deranged gothic fury of the band in full thrash mode. The remainder is similar in its frighteningly vast scope, so integrated and complex that I probably haven't caught on to all its little tricks yet. Various themes appear and disappear (with different permutations) throughout. The usual trappings of a metal band are embellished at different points with strings, organ, sax, sitar, wordless vocals and an opera choir. The lyrics are largely vague metaphysical ramblings, presumably the meditations of someone on the verge of death (though who can say?). We speak of divinity, we dream of the past, we hide from our inner devils, we wonder about the universe, we wish for a perfect world in contrast to the sadly flawed one we know. The words (largely prose, not poetry) don't read too well on paper but form an essential ingredient to the whole mix. Kjetil Nordhus's singing is deliberately bland in such a way not to stand out from the rest of the group. I don't mean to say that he doesn't make a valuable contribution; I mean that the vocal lines are plain and understated, sometimes to the point where they're not even noticeable if you're not listening for them.

I don't listen to this disc nearly as much as it deserves, for the lone reason that I'm usually in too happy a mood. I have to be feeling just black and dreary enough for this album to have its full effect; when it does, it's a powerful experience like few others I can name. If you like a good dark metal release you hear it, this should be a good buy to look into.. but it's a far cry from anything else you're likely to have heard. Light of Day... is progressive ambient classical goth-metal opera with a vaguely Middle-Eastern element. It's in a league all its own. Whatever else mastermind Tchort may have done, this release alone should cement his place as a leader, arranger, producer, mixer and composer with few peers. After this mind-bending little brainchild of his, I shudder in terror of what he may do next.

There is not much i can add to all the points other people made except for maybe what I felt and how my friend felt when we played this. First thing we took some advice and listened to it with all the lights off and a few candles in the room for the mood. The song really ripped at me emotionally. I mean some parts are just so moving. Really the only part on the whole album that I wish would have gone away was about 32:44 through 36 or 37 something. That would be the part with the annoying chick singing. I'm all for female vovals and all, but really I couldn't stand this girl. That really annoyed me cuz I liked the saxaphone part. That guy can really play his low notes rich and smooth. Anyways when at the end the music box is going and then the lid shuts it was really a surprise that the song was over already. It seemed to have frozen time while listening to it. After the song we went for a walk down the canyon. It was a beautiful starfilled night with a cold breeze which wwas just so refreshing. I mean that's the kind of thing this song does. Everytime I listen to it I end up going for a walk in the middle of the night to just enjoy the peace and quiet. The only problem I have with this album is that I have to skip the 5 minutes the chick sings. I just can't stand her.

A few months ago, I posted on a few sites asking for the longest songs in the world. I got a lot of answers - from Dream Theater's "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" to Sleep's "Jerusalem", not forgetting contributions from Iron Maiden, Tool, Type O Negative, Devin Townsend etc etc. But someone mentioned a song that was just over an hour long by a band called Green Carnation. It was called "Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness". Not being able to find the CD I began downloading it. I got about 7 minutes of it before a trip to London chanced to reveal the CD to me. I immediately picked it up (last Friday) and it's been playing ever since.
Simply put, this has got to be one of the very best pieces of music ever written. Not simply a bunch of songs bundled into one, it's actually one solid piece of pure artistry. From the crashing guitar and even a brief guttural scream, to the neo-tribal tranquility of a woman's chant, this song can honestly be said to get to your very soul with its multi-levelled, multi-tracked vastness. Featuring two choirs, a live string arrangement, four vocal contributions, a total of about 50 musicians, and even a music box, the inventiveness and creativity put into LOD,DOD is mind-boggling. If you never hear another piece of music again, you must hear this.

THIS IS IT!

This is the CD I would take on a long trip if I was limited to one item. A fabulous kaleidoscope of sounds that captivate your senses for this marathon one hour(YES 60 MINUTES)song/album. The Gods surely whispered in Tchort's ear(band leader/composer)while he wrote this masterpiece, for it smacks of divine intervention. What is amazing is the fact that it manages to hold your interest (it really absorbs you) and keep you coming back for more. In fact when I first listened to it I was in my car and it mesmerized me. I wouldn't stop driving because I didn't want to stop the music. I keep driving for an hour even though I only went to the post office 2 miles away.

Now what about the music.This song/album is so hard to categorize I won't try but it's predominantly symphonic and dark melodic with many light and complementing heavy moments. It is symphonic in nature and has enormous presence. I can also sense a touch of Pink Floyd, Queensryche and Therion, similar but different. For me to continue to describe this treasure would be folly. There have been so many glowing reviews written on this masterpiece by people more eloquent than I, so I'm going t borrow some of the highlights from these reviews.

Lets start with what the record company (The End Records) has to say; "Immensely epic in scope, blasting through dark passages of swollen, over-distorted guitars to serene, idyllic moments of acoustic and choral enchantment, this release will surely go down in history as one of the most progressive, innovative albums to ever see the light of day.
More than 30 musicians were involved into this epic project, including full opera and children's choirs, classical composers, saxophonists, church organists and a lot more. This highly complex work of art was recorded using 150 tracks and almost 600 samplers".

One glowing review says; "I could review this album with a single word...EPIC! It's a huge album that draws from pretty much every genre of metal music to make one fantastic album."

Another reviewer says; There are so many textures and moods contained in this sixty minutes that it simply leaves you awestruck upon it's completion, as if ending some surreal journey."

This reviewer states; "It is a tapestry of atmospheric, spacey, dreamy, often melancholy Pink Floyd-ish passages that flow into long, driving, relentless, irresistible buildup, climaxing into explosive, triumphant passages." She further adds; "This is one of the best CDs in my collection, and my favorite purchase in at least the last year if not longer.

And finally this writer starts off his review as follows; "Welcome my friends, welcome to Green Carnation. you are about to have a close encounter with a symphonic doom metal opus. So please be seated comfortably, get a long cold drink and let yourself be overwhelmed by the wave. It starts with sunrise to warm you up and ends with sunset music." Do you get the picture?

Here is the AMG biography on Green Carnation; "Green Carnation was formed in 1990 in Norway by X-Botteri, Cristopher Botteri, Tchort, and Anders Kobro. They found singer Richart Olsen and began to play around their homeland. The band managed to release a demo before Tchort left to join black metal superstars Emperor; Olsen left soon after and the band decided to disband. The remaining members reformed as In the Woods... and went on to have a successful black metal career of their own, but by 1998 the original members decided to re-form the band with new drummer Alf T. Leangel. The debut release, mostly written by Tchort, finally made it to stores in late 2000. Although Tchort still managed to start the brutal thrash metal band Blood Red Throne between albums, by 2001 he was back in the studio recording Green Carnation's sophomore effort, Light of Day, Day of Darkness. A high concept project, the entire album was actually one song that lasted an hour, jumping between black metal, psychedelic rock, and goth metal. - Bradley Torreano."

Tchort himself writes inside the album literature; " Light of Day...is musically dedicated to my son, Damien Aleksander for bringing joy, inspiration and meaning to my life, and lyrically dedicated to Christian and Christopher Botteri - on an everlasting mental and emotional journey".

I coulld write a book about this phenomenal creation, but here's the bottom line. LIGHT OF DAY is a profoundly, serious composition that is a must for the symphonic and progressive rock collector! GET IT, TURN UP THE VOLUME, PUT ON YOUR HEADPHONES, FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT AND GET READY FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR MUSICAL LIFE!!! TEN STARS!