Interviews:
December 2004: With Georgi Darkest of Darkness Webzine
August 2004: With Christine Parastatidou of Behind The Veil Webzine
Reviews of the Winter 2004 Demo:
By Georges Laforet, from Pull The Chain. Jan 2005.
I had been under the impression for quite a while that the
doom metal scene has nothing really new or simply exciting to offer. Of course,
I’ve never been a massive ‘depressive music’ listener but
for what I heard in most of the productions received here, this kind of music
doesn’t really impose new names or new trademarks. Instead of being
incredibly slow, heavy and totally depressed, the four tracks recorded by
the american (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) The Green Evening Requiem have nothing
to do with the usual screams of pain and mournful laments. I even get the
feeling that their music must be labelled as aggressive dark metal or cool
death metal instead of real doom music. Vocals include a nice death metal
effort which nicely increase the violent facet of the band’ sound. Never
repetitive or boring, the pace delivered on «Winter 2004 Demo»
varies from the first to the last minute. An accomplished recording that shall
delight lotsa listeners.
By Dave Brenner, from Metal Maniacs. Jan. '05 issue
The Green Evening Requiem. Winter 2004 demo.
Like someone stripped Opeth's Morningrise album down to a 25-minute demo and
threw that re-conception into a Cuisinart with some mid-era Emperor riffs,
this band is all-around excellent! The Green Evening exemplify their abilities
here not only in quality musicianship, but in their precise execution of making
segments flow. Somewhat disharmonic overall, the delivery and production are
fairly below the aforementioned masters of the trade and the short guitar
leads can fall a bit out of sync but hey, this is a demo, right? They reiterate
much of what Opeth and Emperor have immortalized but still bring it all together
with seeming ease and prove they could be a reputable act that would fit well
with a number of known labels. Most of the tracks cut out way too abruptly,
but again, just a minor demo production flaw. Free demo via their website
or write: P.O. Box 13, Richboro, PA 18954. www.greenevening.com. greenevening@hotmail.com.
By Georgi Darkest, from Darkness webzine. 9/28/04
This Demo Cd got my attention from the first second I started to heard it, with that dense sound with they started their "Severance" (first track of the demo) giving it a very depressive and melancholic touch, that brings you the impression that The Green Evening Requiem is a Dark Doom band, but all this felling of sadness they know how to mix it with aggressiveness and force. The mixture of clean and harsh voices, the incursion of acustic guitars with some little celtic tones sometimes, and the good changes of rhythm makes this release a really pleasurable, melancholic, but restorative, meloic and aggressive as well travel.
In the 25 minutes that have this production formed by 4 tracks I could find influences of bands like Opeth, Trifixion, Katatonia, although makes me remain to Requiem Aeternam from Uruguay too, in some moment of this production.
Definitely this band from Pennsilvania - USA deserves our attention , overall the attention of all the people who likes the mistures, good rhythm changes and those games of voices. I think that the style of this band could be defined as a kind of Dark Doom Atmospheric Black Metal. This "Winter 2004 Demo" have a great musical structure, and is formed by: "Severance", "Dawn", "Tomorrow is just another Today" & "Desolation".
Good for The Green Evening Requiem, We'll gonna know about you...
By "Shadow," from Harm Magazine. 9/11/2004
The Green Evening Requiem is a young American band coming from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In their own words: “the members are dedicated to creative songwriting and strive to craft music without expectation beyond emotional truth”. This is their winter 2004 demo and what I’ve heard sounded very good and promising.
On great thing about this demo is that it doesn’t sound like one so
the guys are aware of what a professional recording should sounds like and
I appreciate it even if it is only a demo. Then the four compositions included
show that the guys are talented musicians that can come up with a certain
variety in their songwriting. The opener is rather in the doom genre while
the closer is more direct and in your face death metal. Then the middle ones
show perhaps a more eclectic side and the band is experimenting more with
the sounds, using on the other hand the acoustic guitar on a couple occasions
while at a certain point on track #3 we are facing a great progressive interlude.
The vocals are mostly harsh, kind of death but occasionally are more shrieking
black and also the clean ones are used but this version is somewhat weak and
not précised. Scarce and shy keyboard parts would emotionally benefit
the compositions if given a more proper room but the guitar work is great
and the rhythm section is kicking while not overwhelming.
The Green Evening Requiem should be able to grab the attention of a label
when the time will come for their debut album.
By Ali "the Metallian," from Metallian. 9/5/2004
It is easy to guess this bunch as a band with a slightly different bent; otherwise they probably wouldn't arm themselves with a name like The Green Evening Requiem. One supposes that Opeth is an obvious reference point for music like this. The music ebbs and flows, veers and meanders and falls in and out of favour depending on the particular point in time - or the song. Acoustic guitars intermingle with furious riffing, clean singing dukes it out with anguished screaming and the tempo varies not necessarily because convention depends on it, but because the band demands it. It is not a silly old exercise either. The proceedings can hit hard and hit hard they do. It's just that there is much else there too. The tracks are called Severance, Dawn, Tomorrow Is Just Another Day and Desolation with the second and fourth one being the better ones. The band is giving these away almost for free so either visit www.greenevening.com or e-mail the Pennsylvania boys at greenevening@hotmail.com. - Ali "The Metallian"
By Christine Parastatidou, from Behind The Veil. 8/25/2004
THE GREEN EVENING REQUIEM's music is the amalgam of controversial
elements. Well, elements and feelings if we want to be more precise. Their
compositions are melodic and mellow and yet carry rage and aggressiveness.
The sentiments that derive from these 4 compositions are melancholy and desolation,
but in the end there is always hope and warmth. As for the music... we wouldn't
be far from the truth if we said that The Green Evening Requiem play dark
atmospheric black metal and the use of clean and harsh vocals offer more depth
to their music. The production is quite good, but it is a bit dim. Well, I
think that this band from the U.S. deserves our attention.
By Aaron Mckay, from Chronicles of Chaos. 7/12/2004
Hints of Opeth dance with wild abandon on this self-titled demo from Philadelphia's own, The Green Evening Requiem. For starters, this outfit does place more of an emphasis on the harsher vocal style here than most of Mikael Akerfeldt's work, but the cleaner sung lyrics do infiltrate all four tracks in delicate form. This can be heard nowhere better than on the second cut off the demo, "Dawn". This track also has the distinction of offering an inspiring outlay of talent as well. Picking up the tempo around the three minute mark, "Dawn" definably lays waste to all serenity, but then regroups and manufactures a finely laced, mood-induced surreal soundscape.
Most of TGER's material is geared toward enhancing an overall atmosphere.
Emotionally speaking, this band is not understated or docile in their approach
to song writing in order to conceptualize their sonic vision; at times running
a Diabolical Masquerade feel through their material like a current. Maybe
it is the Katatonia connection that can be felt here. What is meant by that
is Blakkheim has an ability to coerce both stark and subtle qualities into
roles with bands embracing his versatility. At times, so does TGER.
Slightly over twenty-five minutes in length, this demo is deep with competence and mastery. The Green Evening Requiem, however, appear to prefer a more well-traversed path -- that path being one of forsaking a certain Byzantine boldness for the stability of their influences. It is prudent to lean on the support of those that inspire you, but to forge your own path is a reward unto itself. Given time, a firm line-up and proper motivation, The Green Evening Requiem has within itself the capacity to make brand their mark. Until then, "Tomorrow Is Just Another Day".