STILL LIFE

This is the turning point in Opeth's career. Every album after "Still Life" will keep the musicality and vocal performance that can be found on this album. Songs will be divided in two parts: the 10+ minute epics with a mix of extreme metal/growling vocals and mellow parts, and the shorter songs (mostly ballads or ballad-like songs) with only clean vocals. This is the first album where Mikael Akerfeldt found his voice: the extreme voice has become his trademark, as it has a quality hardly found in other extreme metal bands; the clean voice is beautiful, and you always wonder why he doesn't use it a lot more. Everyone that wants to discover Opeth should start with this album.

The album starts softly as the intro to "The Moor" is acoustic, then it grows as the distorted guitars enter the scene. The growling vocals are bearable and the frequent mellow interludes really help to build a great song. "Godhead's Lament" is even more powerful, very nice heavy song (I really like the contrast between the main heavy verses and the mellow acoustic central part). The tranquil "Benighted" is really a beautiful acoustic ballad (very frail, emotional vocals on this song). "Moonlapse Vertigo" is awesome: the intro is really long, very much in the early Opeth style ("In the mist..."), and then clean vocals mixed with extreme vocals (but here the two styles complete each other perfectly) on a really catchy heavy melody. "Face Of Melinda" is a really jazzy ballad-like song, in the vein of "To bid you farewell", with a first acoustic part and some distorted guitar to finish (but still no growls). "Serenity Painted Death" is the most brutal song on this album, though it has a mellow acoustic center part too (very nice, much like on "Godhead's Lament"). "White Cluster" is heavy the first minute with some growling vocals but then it's nine minutes of great music and clean voice.

Rating: 89/100