LIGHT OF DAY, DAY OF DARKNESS

Whenever I listen to a Progressive Rock or a Progressive Metal album, it is practically impossible not to compare it with other popular progressive albums. Most progressive albums will have "Pink Floyd-ish" passages and/or some segments with certain "Opeth- esque" influences that will flow from soft and atmospheric to technical and melodic, culminating most of the times in explosive triumphant heavy passages with powerful riffs and driving double bass drums...yummy!

Green Carnation should be considered a melancholic progressive metal band. Light of Day, Day of Darkness is an overture with perhaps one very distinctive attribute which separates it from all other albums in this field, and that is that the album contains only one track. Mind you, the length of that track is one hour long! The song includes a male lead vocalist, some female vocals (soprano style), and some choirs.

To keep the listener cued in throughout the length of the song, the band mixes soft acoustic passages with more aggressive ones, moving from heavy more intense moments to soft atmospheric ones. The guitars are technically imaginative shifting from acoustic to electric with all the ease of a well-seasoned progressive metal band. The remarkably even mid-range vocals of "Nordus" are mostly clean and full with only a couple growling moments to speak of.

The band also obtained the contribution from an additional 10 musicians and a 21 member strong choir. In addition, to complete this studio album, they exploited more than 150 tracks and 600 separate samples. The results are as you would expect, the production is flawless, a truly phenomenal album from beginning to end.

The pace of the album is slow and leisurely so as to deliberately build the emotion "Tchort" is trying to invoke in the listener. At times the cadence is relentless, but always effective. The entire movement flows effortlessly alternating from soft progressive rhythms to varying patterns of aggressive double bass drum beats. I think I mentioned that already, didn't I?

The music will move you. You will experience moments of sadness, anger and happiness. The album's true power is derived from the dense, rich, and subtly textured music. Pay attention, this potent album will influence many progressive metal bands in the future, I'm sure of it.

Kudos to Tchort and his band, for releasing the most ambitious artistic album of 2001. Everything I love about progressive music is here; atmospheric passages, slow calming moments, aggressiveness and a good variety of vocals overall. The album radiates with confidence, style, originality and intensity. :)