I don't believe quality is an issue regarding the Consolation era either, since their songs are very similar in tone to Red Moon, as opposed to the more lighthearted songs in FotW. And observing the switch in style between Red Moon to After Eden, and then stepping it up again for Consolation gives me hope that they can do this again after they've left Arslan Senki behind.
The problem is that each Kalafina album (sans far on the water) actually has some kind of recurring theme behind them. Kajiura and the girls have stated them before quite directly in their interviews.
seventh heaven is the root of Kalafina. even if it was made to match the KnK world, Kalafina themselves was actually very complimentary with the KnK world. dark, mysterious, ethereal and otherworldly. Kajiura herself said that Kalafina is where she delves into a more "dark" sounds of her works.
Red Moon is the album where Kajiura dug this root of Kalafina even deeper, that's why the album sounds very fantastical and even more otherworldly than Seventh Heaven. The songs took us to different part of the world with their sounds and even to a fantastical dreamworld.
After Eden was made with "more humane" intention. The lyrics are very humane and the songs were made to translate into live performances more easily, with almost all songs were composed with FBM sounds only. The only exception is magnolia, and that's why it's the best track of the album (at least to me) because it's the only song in the album (even according to them) that is very Kalafina. The other songs were "bright" and the overall style of the album was very far from Kalafina, even according to them.
Consolation was made with "back to their root" mindset. That's why all the new songs in this album were brilliant. Door, signal, Hanataba, obbligato, and even consolation (which I assumed was the original to the beginning before it got scrapped, just like
@Kowz said) were all great and have some kind of fantasy-otherworldly sound to it. Even Door, as bright as it sounded, was very dream-like and so was Kiichigo no Shigemi ni if you read the lyrics carefully.
Up until consolation, all Kalafina albums were made with some kind of meaning or intention behind it. There's a theme or mindset/intention behind the songs that tie the album together. They are there within BOTH the sounds and the lyrics. Not so much with far on the water, that's why I really really hated that album. Not only most of the songs are not original, the album doesn't have some kind of theme to tie the album together. They said in their fotw tour that they want the audiences to have a journey of colors with Kalafina (because the songs in that album have some specific colors embedded in the lyrics) which I assumed to be the theme of that album but I found this to be bullshit because almost ALL Kalafina songs have a specific color embedded within the lyrics. This trend continues up until blaze. The only consolation is that thank to god into the world and Marchen are actually quite nice even though not really "new" and "original". That's why it's actually better not to have so much hope in them and Kajiura. She doesn't even compose something new and original with new vocalist she worked with on SAO Ordinal Scale. She used to try with Haruna Luna and Sayuri and both that songs are good.
