Green Carnation : "Leaves of Yesteryear"

Formed by Emperor bassist Tchort , this Norwegian band stays on the more progressive and melodic side of metal. Members of this band also play in In the Woods. Despite their collective black metal pasts , there is almost more of a power metal feel to what they do. Granted they did start off more like an early Opeth thing and their sound has matured over the years. This maturation process is still in effect. These guys are a band I have always liked for the past 20 years, but often forget about. This album starts off not as dark as what I have heard from them in the past , though by "Sentinels" leans more in that direction for the verses, while the chorus has more of an uplifting mood to it's epic nature which comes with the genre. I feel this just clicks with me mood wise more on the second song. It's gallop is pretty powerful in the most epic way.

I would say this kind of power metal leaning is more often not my thing , but Iron Maiden who invented this is one of my favorite bands. I also used to really be into Queensyrche. I think these guys do it with enough edge to them to keep my interest and the fact that really care about the songs helps. Without question they are great musicians. I think some of the shadow could have been added in post production. Less mid range, more reverb and bass, you are half way to Type O Negative. This might be a only five songs but two of those are over ten minutes, in fact " My Dark Reflections of Life and Death" is 15 minutes. .The vocals take on a Warrell Dane like croon. The song is very dynamic with out veering off course. If you want to keep your progressive metal heavy, these guys have a decent handle on that front.

They wander a bit until "Hounds" finds it's legs when the chorus kicks in just right. The drums help to get the song moving. The bass tone could have a little more balls to it, but over all  this song works and is catchy enough for me. I mean they do a pretty spot on cover "Solitude" with just a piano. I will give this album a 9, if you are like me and you play Dungeons & dragons so the concept of power or progressive metal is appealing , but is often not dark or heavy enough then these guys have got you covered.