Green Carnation are three decades deep and still operating at a level most prog acts never reach. “I Am Time” is the second advance single from Part II of their ambitious album trilogy, A Dark Poem, due via Season of Mist. It is the emotional peak of Sanguis, a record the Norwegian veterans describe as their most personal and grief-laden chapter yet.
The song hits with double bass, stormy tremolo picking, and a central melody that dissolves like sand through an hourglass. Vocalist Kjetil Nordhus delivers with gloomy, measured restraint, and the result is devastating in the best possible way. The track’s closing surge is one of the most powerful moments Green Carnation have committed to record in years.
The writing process took the band to a cottage in the woods of Norway, where Nordhus and bassist and lyricist Stein Roger Sordal found the connective tissue between two separate song ideas. “We tried letting the intro flow into the lead guitar part that takes over,” Nordhus explains. “It worked perfectly.” The song is built around time as a character, relentless and non-negotiable. “I can’t be tamed, I am not for sale.”
Sordal frames the lyrical core directly: “The lyrics are about how we should respect and cherish the time that we have.” Nordhus adds that Part II deals with personal loss and sadness, though the album is not without light. Sanguis pushes the emotional range of A Dark Poem considerably further than Part I, and “I Am Time” makes that case immediately.
Sanguis is available for pre-order and pre-save now, with vinyl formats including Black, Gold Splatters, Transparent Green and Purple Marbled, and several additional variants. If Green Carnation’s first installment signaled a powerful return, this one confirms they are nowhere near finished.