Green Carnation Face Changing Tides on New Single

Had Green Carnation never returned from hiatus during the mid-2000s, the Norwegian band would’ve been remembered for completing one of the most ambitious individual epics in metal’s archives. But with their upcoming new album, the progressive metal auteurs are setting sail on a three-part journey that’s two decades in the making. A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia is the first in a trilogy of albums that promises to take new and lifelong fans to the highest tops and darkest of inner rooms.

“In naming their magnum opus, they are not simply describing a mood; they are staking a claim to a lineage, positioning their work not within the modern parlance of depression, but in the grand, romantic tradition of creative sorrow”, Atmosfear Entertainment wrote in an extensive preview. “The romantic poets despaired over the state of the world as they saw it; Green Carnation despairs over a world whose reality has become unstable, contested, and weaponized”.

Today, Green Carnation are premiering the title track from the opening chapter of A Dark Poem with Metal Injection. While glistening with timeless melodies, “The Shores of Melancholia” is clouded by sinking hopes for the present state of our world.

“Melancholia is a place that’s suited Green Carnation from the very beginning”, says the band’s vocalist Kjetil Nordhus. “But it’s especially fitting for the first part of A Dark Poem, because this album is about losing faith in what we’ve come to believe about the world”.

Watch the captivating video for “The Shores of Melancholia”.

https://metalinjection.net/video/green-carnation-streams-beautiful-new-single-the-shores-of-melancholia

A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia comes out September 5, 2025.

Pre-order
https://orcd.co/greencarnationadarkpoem1

Pre-save on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/prerelease/2o7sN7WqyIQDx96WvqtYUm?si=qoQVyW1ZR9e0cVH3FHPIIg

Green Carnation will premiere all of The Shores of Melancholia live for the first time later this year at ProgPower USA.

Can’t wait to hear Green Carnation’s grand and gloomy new opus? RSVP for the band’s upcoming Bandcamp Listening Party and hear all of their new album two weeks before it comes out!

A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia Bandcamp Listening Party

Wednesday, August 20 @ 1:30 pm Eastern Time

RSVP
https://greencarnationsom.bandcamp.com/live/a-dark-poem-part-i-the-shores-of-melancholia-listening-party

Whether blazing a trail through symphonic doom, hard rock or acoustic plucking, Green Carnation have always sought to climb the highest mountains. With its soaring-yet-somber chorus, “The Shores of Melancholia” reaches newfound peaks of sublime heaviness. Though the first inkling of A Dark Poem stems back to the band’s earliest yesteryears. It was founding member and Emperor’s former bassist Tchort who first set upon the idea for an album trilogy shortly after completing the masterful long-form storytelling that is Light of Day, Day of Darkness.

“Since getting back together in 2016, we like to pursue things that are extremely ambitious”, Nordhus says. “The trilogy felt like it might be just out of our reach, which made us want to see if we could do it”.

The opening chapter of A Dark Poem pulls a page from across Green Carnation’s storied 25-year discography. Of the six tales that sweep through The Shores of Melancholia, the darkest and stormiest track claws all the way back to the band’s budding days in extreme metal thanks to the blackened howls of Enslaved’s Grutle Kjellson. But the album’s title track directly references the trilogy’s main muse. “Ophelia / Too human, too soft for this life“, Nordhus cries with impassioned cleans for Shakespeare’s tragic heroine. Just as gentle keys wash over the delicate acoustic strumming beneath the song’s verses, the video cuts between a hopeful couple who are fighting to stay afloat amidst dark undercurrents.

“Losing faith in the world around you can lead to this feeling of inner dystopia”, Nordhus says. “You’re standing on a precipice and all that’s there is this vast cloud. It’s a melancholic feeling that can completely overwhelm you”.

Green Carnation’s view from The Shores of Melancholia is no palatial retreat. Majestic leads scale above the title track like a city skyline that’s engulfed in flames. “Come witness the death of a dream and the birth of the upper class“. With one last brace from shore, the title track pulls the band out to sea by a steady tide of double bass and crashing cymbals. “One final breath / Under scarlet clouds“, belts Nordhus as they come face-to-face with the great unknown.

“A Dark Poem was a challenge to ourselves”, the band reflects. “We think it will stand as a milestone in our career”.

The video for “In Your Paradise” was directed and edited by Rikard Amodei.

As Silence Took You (7:12) In Your Paradise (7:04) Me My Enemy (7:17) The Slave That You Are (Featuring Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved) (6:16) The Shores of Melancholia (5:38) Too Close to the Flame (9:16)