GREEN CARNATION — The Quiet Offspring (review)

GREEN CARNATION — The Quiet Offspring album cover

Album · 2005 · Progressive Metal

3/5 · 2011-12-08
Conor Fynes

'The Quiet Offspring' - Green Carnation (6/10)

Green Carnation was a project first incarnated by its members in order to explore sounds other than black metal, so it should not come as a surprise that this band has been constantly changing. Featuring members of the Norwegian black metal band Carpathian Forest, Green Carnation first began with an artistic doom sound; their album 'Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness' is a classic for its style, and considered by many of this band's fans to be a masterpiece. The bottom line is that Green Carnation had a great thing going on, but if this project had become stuck in one sound like Carpathian Forest, it would defeat the point. 'The Quiet Offspring' sees a big change of Green Carnation's sound, and while many listeners may be put off by the simplified approach that they take here, the band does do an admirable job of taking on this new sound, although I cannot say it is an improvement over anything they had done before this.

While I would not quite say that Green Carnation has traversed into the realm of 'mainstream rock', there are some big moves that the band has taken towards tighter song structures, and an overall more to-the-point attitude when it comes to their music. Considering that this is the same band who churned out an hour-long epic, hearing Green Carnation now adhering to the much more common four minute formula is a little jarring at first, although I will say that it is not quite as bad as it sounds; the band hasn't totally turned its back on its fans. We still have a metal edge, and proggy sound in the songwriting, although these are much less integral to what the band is about on 'The Quiet Offspring'. The songs have a progressive metal sound to them, but the familiar textures are transposed onto a more accessible style. It's certainly not a preferable move in terms of enduring musical enjoyment, but there are some damned good songs here.

The production and performance is edgy (albeit in a 'hard rock' sort of way), but there are also sounds here that emphasize atmosphere in Green Carnation's sound; much of 'The Quiet Offspring' is led by groovy guitar licks and riffs, but Green Carnation gives the listener an alternative here as well. 'Childsplay' parts one and two are leaning towards mellow ambiance over any rock orchestration, and the standout track 'Pile Of Doubt' has a very atmospheric intro that harkens back to the sounds of Green Carnation when I really liked them. Here, I am not feeling their music nearly as much, although the band manages to pull off this hard rock sound very well, and even throw in some added layers. The album- from by understanding- is a loose concept piece about childhood, but there is not so much depth in it as to give it much attention. Green Carnation may have simplified (some might say 'dumbed down') their sound here, but 'The Quiet Offspring' is still worth checking out.