Written By Chris Norris
Chris Norris of Metal Lair speaks with Green Carnation’s frontman Kjetil Nordhus about A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis (Season of Mist), exploring the emotional weight, creative risk, and deeper intent behind the band’s evolving trilogy.
Some bands write about darkness. Others build entire worlds inside it. Green Carnation have spent decades doing something stranger – sitting with it long enough to understand what it’s trying to say.
Metal Lair previously explored the opening chapter of the trilogy in both our A Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia album review and our first conversation with Kjetil Nordhus, tracing the emotional foundation that now deepens further with “Green Carnation A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis interview”
The Trilogy Arc
Metal Lair: When we last spoke about A Dark Poem, Part I: The Shores of Melancholia, you described the trilogy as three compositions that have expanded into a trilogy of albums. If Part I opened the door, Part II feels like stepping into something darker and more personal.
Was there ever a moment where you wondered if going this far emotionally might not land the way you intended?
Kjetil Nordhus: One example: As we started working with the music and lyrics for this trilogy, Stein Roger and me agreed not to do any compromises.
Of course, when Stein Roger’s father suddenly died in the summer of 2025, there was a need to go through some stuff again. Because some of the lyrics on Part II is discussing Stein Roger’s relation to his father when growing up.
Stein Roger came back to me and said he didn’t want to change or adjust anything. The lyrics tell stories like they were experienced, and it would make no sense to change them – which would be a compromise against the original idea.
And we believe that staying true to this, 100 percent, would help us land the way we intended.
Metal Lair: The first two chapters of A Dark Poem feel emotionally distinct – Part I looking outward toward the world, and Part II turning inward toward personal experience. Was that contrast something the band intentionally shaped while building the trilogy?
Kjetil Nordhus: Yes, we wanted the albums to fit together but also feel like three different albums.
So when deciding which songs to be on which album, it made sense for us to “group” them to a certain degree.
That helps the albums stay focused, and the songs “strengthen” each other, in a way.
Lyrics & Emotional Territory
Metal Lair: When you’re singing Stein’s lyrics, especially on something this exposed, do you ever have to protect yourself from them, or do you let them hit you fully every time?
Kjetil Nordhus: I try to let them hit me fully every time. We have been talking a lot about the lyrics along the way, so there are no surprises to me in there.
And he is also writing about struggles that I know well from before. With us being so close for so many years, they have somewhat become my struggles as well.
Metal Lair: Stein’s lyrics on this record feel unusually raw – almost like pages torn from a private journal. How do you balance honoring that vulnerability while still making the songs emotionally your own as a vocalist?
Kjetil Nordhus: That is quite hard to explain, really. But we have been doing this for quite a while, so I think I have found a good balance in this as a result of my understanding with Stein Roger.
Metal Lair: “Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfold” feels especially exposed emotionally. When a track like that comes together, do you sense immediately that it might resonate deeply with listeners?
Kjetil Nordhus: That’s not really something we think too much about in the creative process. But from experience we know that issues that are important for us has the potential to be important for other people too.
Of course, we are not the only people who are dealing with loss and grief and thinking that the world might be a better place with us not in it. But I think the directness of the lyrics, especially on Part II, make them more hard hitting.
Composition & Craft
Metal Lair: Are there moments in Part II that only fully make sense once someone hears Part I and eventually Part III? Like hidden threads that don’t reveal themselves right away?
Kjetil Nordhus: There will be musical themes from Part I and Part II coming back in Part III.
I think it is after hearing Part III that people will understand fully the idea behind the concept. We can talk more about that in a few months.
Metal Lair: Green Carnation have always juxtaposed styles fearlessly – extreme metal, prog rock, acoustic passages, and psychedelic textures. When arranging a song, how do you know when contrast adds depth rather than distraction?
Kjetil Nordhus: That’s a good question. I think it happens in the process. For example, we work a lot on the demos. Sometimes we can have up to 30 different versions of each song only for the songs to be stripped down in the studio, because of issues like distraction, and to make the more important sounds come forward more clearly in the mix.
After the thorough work on the demos, I think the layers and depth become the DNA in the songs, and when the DNA is there you can still change stuff on the top without losing the essence.
Metal Lair: This album feels more volatile than Part I – emotional peaks and valleys arriving suddenly rather than unfolding slowly. After everything the band has been through, do you feel that reflects a change in how Green Carnation communicates emotionally compared to the early years?
Kjetil Nordhus: I guess it is only natural to develop how we communicate as we are developing in age and as human beings.
What is certain, is that we have always been dwelling with issues like the ones we are discussing throughout the trilogy.
But after doing this for many years, I guess you also learn how to highlight what you want to say even more efficiently, and I do think you can hear (and read) that, not least on Part II.
In Metal Lair’s review of Green Carnation A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis, through Season of Mist we described the album as “a map” through grief, vulnerability, and emotional fracture – themes that continue surfacing throughout this conversation with Kjetil Nordhus.
Reflection & Legacy
Metal Lair: When listeners eventually experience the full trilogy from beginning to end, what do you hope they might notice that could be invisible when hearing each album individually?
Kjetil Nordhus: I was touching into it in a previous question, but I do think the trilogy feeling will be much clearer after hearing the entire thing.
At least that has been our plan since putting together the three different albums.
Metal Lair: Green Carnation has survived evolution, hiatus, and rebirth. When you stand inside a project as ambitious as A Dark Poem, do you ever step back and think about how unlikely it is that this band still exists?
Kjetil Nordhus: Haha, well, of course I have been thinking about that from time to time. But this is a project Stein Roger and me agreed to give an enormous amount of effort, and the rest of the guys are fully in on the project too, so right now if feels very natural that we exist. For the time being, at least.
Metal Lair: Are there songs in the Green Carnation catalogue that you personally wish more listeners would rediscover?
Kjetil Nordhus: I have a feeling that The Quiet Offspring (2005) might be our most underrated album.
For me we do have some real highlights on that one too, A Place For Me and Pile of Doubt, for example.
I think the latter was a very early hint of the direction our writing has taken since then.
Metal Lair: You’ve mentioned that the trilogy will eventually conclude with an epilogue piece recorded separately. Without revealing too much, what role does that epilogue play in the architecture of A Dark Poem? Is it meant to resolve the emotional arc, or open another door entirely?
Kjetil Nordhus: Without revealing too much, I can say that the epilogue piece is the one that connects all three albums. It is definitely closing the entire thing.
Metal Lair: Finish this sentence: Part II of A Dark Poem is the moment when…
Kjetil Nordhus: … Green Carnation and their fans melt together in vulnerability
A sincere thank you to Kjetil Nordhus for taking the time to speak with Metal Lair. Conversations like this are a reminder of why Green Carnation have earned such lasting respect – their music doesn’t just evolve, it lingers, challenges, and stays with you long after the final note.
“Hope to talk to you again in a few months,”
All the best,
Kjetil
Call it a record if you need a word for it. It’s really a map. Precise. Personal. Merciless.
It shows you exactly where the pain and anguish live inside the mind of Stein Roger, with Kjetil Nordhus guiding listeners through every shadowed corridor.
It takes you there whether you’re ready or not. That kind of cartography deserves recognition without borders.
A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis is available now at Season of Mist
Tracklist:
1. Sanguis
2. Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfold
3. Sweet to the Point of Bitter
4. I Am Time
5. Fire in Ice
6. Lunar Tale
Recording Lineup:
Kjetil Nordhus – Vocals
Stein Roger Sordal – Bass, Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Keyboards, Lead Vocals on “Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfold”
Bjørn Harstad – Lead Guitars, Effects
Endre Kirkesola – Keyboards, Synthesizers, Organs, Effects, Backing Vocals on “Lunar Tale”
Jonathan Alejandro Perez – Drums
Guest Musicians:
Ingrid Ose – Flute on “Lunar Tale”
GREEN CARNATION ONLINE
About The Author:
Chris Norris writes for Metal Lair covering progressive metal, underground music culture, immersive album reviews, longform artist interviews, and the recurring feature World Metal Weekly. The work explores the emotional depth, atmosphere, and evolving language of heavy music across both legendary and emerging artists.
Read more from this author:
Stoned Jesus Songs To Sun Interview: Igor Sydorenko on Creative Tension, and Reinvention.
CARACH ANGREN – Interview: The Cult of Kariba
No algorithms. No fluff. No watered-down corporate metal coverage.
Subscribe to Metal Lair and get weekly underground features, Seven Deadly Songs, Deep Cuts, interviews, and original metal journalism sent directly to your inbox
If you enjoy what we do here at Metal Lair and want to support independent metal journalism, you can do so here: