MY ARMS, YOUR HEARSE

My Arms, Your Hearse displays a great change of pace from the previous two albums that Opeth had to offer. The songs this time around have become much more concise than those of the previous two, in fact this is one of the very few Opeth albums to have no songs breach the ten minute mark, and with the the other two albums being "Heritage" and "Damnation" , where Mikael displays only his soft, melodic vocals, this is the only Opeth album with only songs less than ten minutes to have harsh, death metal growls present (which have deepened considerably and increased in strength with this release). An interesting thing to note is that the last lyrics of every song if you look in the liner notes are actually the title for the next song. Even the instrumentals have lyrics present in the liner note so that those will lead into the next track of that same name. This is a sign that this may be considered a concept album regarding a man who is haunted by the ghost of his dead wife. The performances are tight and the songwriting is well-written. Overall, it's a favorite of mine (the first I bought from the band) and a highly recommended slab of prog death metal.