OPETH

Ghost Reveries is an album I listened to for the first time at the start of this year and thought to myself, "Hmm...different." Different indeed. Having only heard Still Life and Blackwater Park a handful of times up to that point, I was still relatively new to Opeth, but the new sonic texture and atmosphere with the addition of the keyboard brought a highly unexpected difference. A difference I was very happy to embrace. This album is very dark, even suffocating at times, but its power and emotion is undeniable. This album is also incredibly dense, even more so than their previous others because of the additional musical elements, the atmosphere and variety of each track, and how unapologetically thick and heavy their most energetic passages are.

So why a masterpiece? Why is an album so heavy and dense worth consideration of a rating often given to the top works of the biggest, most influential prog acts? The music is just that masterfully crafted. Track for track, there is so much focus and conviction within each passage. Because there's so much going on within each song, it also rewards repeated listens, as with the other top rated albums in Opeth's discography. But the two features that were most striking to me about this album are just how incredibly balanced it is, both in terms of the form of each individual track and the organization of the album as a whole, and how many different styles and textures the group embraced. On first listen, I'll never forget the pleasant surprise that was "Beneath the Mire" and how far set apart it was from every song I've ever heard by any group, not just Opeth. Such an original track, and even as far back as the first time I heard it, I remember thinking, "This passage is cool. I hope it doesn't overstay its welcome. If I wrote this, I'd change to something else right...now." And each time, it ended right then and changed to another mood that's just as interesting and balanced as the last. Perfect!

I'm not going to dissect each track, but I do honestly believe each one is notable for their compositional strength, technical prowess, and just how hard they hit you. The hard passages hit you strong, and the soft moments and ballads really pull at your heartstrings. "Isolation Years" is literally the best ballad I've heard up to this point. I tear up every time I hear it, regardless of where I am. Especially funny considering I'm usually working out when I listen to this album. The emotional and musical contrasts are so pronounced that you can't help but run the gamut of every possible feeling you can experience.

Each track is simply wonderful and has so much to offer. I can't overstate how incredible a listening experience this is after you've given yourself time to digest it. It may take a few listens to appreciate all its nuances and sift through its dense textures to process everything that's going on, but your diligence will be rewarded to an incomparable degree. Never judge a book by its cover, and never question a death metal group's ability to produce music that can stand alongside the big name prog groups and even eclipse either some or all of their entire discographies. A true musical achievement through and through and at the moment a top 10 selection for sure. 5 stars well deserved.

Powerful is the principal adjective that comes to mind when I hear this album. Each track has an air of authority to it that gives the album a truly commendable level of focus and drive from start to finish. Musically cohesive, varied, and balanced, yet undeniably bombastic, it really packs a significant punch!

Every section of every song presents a melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic motive that is not only aggressive, but pleasantly tuneful and memorable. One of the the things I most appreciate about Opeth is their ability to take metal textures and moods and turn them into pleasantly singable motives. I love the amount of diligence that goes into the crafting of each thematic idea and the formal organization. To me, one of Mikael Akerfeldt's biggest strengths as a songwriter/composer is his deftness at measuring just how long each passage is supposed to go on for to get the point across and make it truly memorable without having it overstay its welcome. There is clear deliberation behind each section, and as dense as each one is, there are many opportunities for further discoveries on future listens, ensuring high replay value and bolstering my opinion of the listening experience as a whole.

Granted, in my opinion, not every moment is absolutely flawless, as some parts seem to dip a little from what are in my books the clear peaks of the album. But these dips are highly subjective, as they seem to be sections that other reviewers laud quite frequently. For example, I'm not entirely sold on Harvest, and Dirge for November isn't a 5-star song to me, but I can understand and appreciate where other reviewers are coming from in praising these songs as such, and I think that's one of the aspects of this album that does make it a true progressive landmark: the ability to connect with an audience in a wide variety of unique ways, yet still communicating a universal message of musical mastery and emotional depth.

As stated, some moments might not be perfect in my book, but the album as a whole does more than just balance them out when factoring the highlights because of its solid sense of cohesion, balance, emotion, and musicality. This is a terrific album with some truly phenomenal tracks, particularly The Leper Affinity, The Drapery Falls, and Blackwater Park, which is in my top 10 songs of all time. In my book, it's leaps-and-bounds better that a large number of tracks put out by even the most well-known and highly celebrated prog groups throughout all generations. It's just that good to me, and I like th think of myself as a very discerning listener. Yes, it is possible for a death metal group to deserve such accolades. If you still haven't heard any of Opeth's material and are unsure if the praise is deserved, I implore you to strip away your negative judgments and preconceived notions. There's pure, unadulterated artistry to be found within this forceful package, and it yields truly phenomenal rewards upon first hearing and innumerable returns with each subsequent listen.

Before beginning, I should preface this by saying that before stumbling upon this album in the top 100 list last year when I discovered this website, I had never heard of Opeth and was not a fan of death metal. I had a preconceived notion that screaming and growling scuttled musicality and would result in an inferior work. I was dead wrong. That was blind prejudice and I openly admit to my iniquity by making that assumption. What the growls do here is they punctuate and add high emotion and energy to each moment in which they are presented. The alternation between these passages and those with clean vocals also serves a double purpose of delineating the form and providing a wonderful sense of contrast that showcases the group's emotional depth and variety.

This album in particular is a strong narrative. I tend to favor albums like these because a strong story is a wonderful source of unification. It also can result in more emotional musical gestures as the instruments depict and recreate the action described by the vocals. This album is a wonderful example of music matching text, track for track. Each section of the album indicates a different scene, guiding the listener through each moment of determination, sorrow, and squalor while preserving, even augmenting the emotion within each moment with the music itself. The story is dark, multi-faceted, and brutal. The intense nature of the music mirrors these qualities perfectly. In order for this story to be told correctly, the growls are arguably indispensable for this reason. No other musical vehicle would do it justice.

This is in my top 5 albums of all time, no question. It sits most deservedly on this pedestal alongside releases by Genesis, King Crimson, and VDGG. Why? Because musically, conceptually, and emotionally, it's gripping and satisfying in a powerful and unique way. It is an irreplaceable part of my collection and only becomes more firmly cemented in my mind as a critical musical achievement with each listen. Do not judge an album harshly for its subgenre and brutality, I implore you. You will only be denying yourself an opportunity to hear a truly accomplished album and treat yourself to a positively enriching listening experience, as long as you're open to it of course.

"Heritage" is a 10 track album by the Swedish death metal band Opeth, that starts a new era for the band. Even though the album seemed a lot of times as a really bad one (at least for the criticizers) , it is still one of the best selling prog albums. The album starts with a beautiful melancholic yet very delighted piano piece, it has a very interesting style which we never heard before from Opeth or from any band at all.

The new album of Opeth is a new gate for a new world, The fantastic new Opeth. even though the band is considered as a Death Metal band, they have reached a decision to make a new album with the music that Mikael Akerfeldt , the band vocalist listened to as a teenager, 70's progressive rock, bands like King Crimson,Genesis and more have built the base of the musical taste of Mikael the young. The delicate, noble and the difficult to understand sound of the prog in the 1970's was exquisite, even though it was not suited for everybody, and because of that it was never really popular.

The album Heritage that was produced on 2011 is one of the most qualitative and best prog albums that I had the pleasure to listen to in my life. Even though the album had been criticized a lot, the new album of Opeth still was a great success in the prog world. I think that it was mentioned negatively a lot of times because of its mellow, soft yet complicated sound, a jazzy yet progressive sound that reminds me a lot of King Crimson.

I think that most of the people just cannot understand the emotion that Mikael Akerfeldt tried to express while writing the songs for this album. Even though there are some pieces in this album that tend more to the 70's hard rock like "Silther" with very simple riffs that are played again and again along with some clean and soft, yet hoarse and agressive vocal of Mikael the vocalist, that almost always expressed himself by brutal music with unique, high quality growling vocal, but, this time Mikael decided to try something different, what he always wanted and started writing an progressive jazz-rock album that includes some really complex, heavy and well though riffs and other melodies.

It is impossible to mention the album without noting the artwork which can be found on the album cover. The artwork wraps you in a 70's prog-like feeling, that is probably exactly what the designer of this artwork tried to express when he drew it. The artwork mentions, in my opinion at least, some kind of a runaway of the group from the hell ( the demon that is found underground ) to something more gentle that can express itself as The tree of knowledge too, something fantastic that can lead to some very bad situations, Opeth lost a lot of fans because of the album, they have also gained a few new fans (as myself ) but they tried a new more gentle sound, and I love it.

As one of the few albums that really made me excited, I started listening to it on the strength of the artwork and my first song was "Famine" I give the album an overall score of: 93/100

Sometimes, having a bad first taste with a band can have unexpectedly delightful consequences. Take the highly revered progressive metal band Opeth. I tried to get into them through the debut ORCHID, and haven't been exactly excited about them until try number 2, STILL LIFE. I actually did set my expectations higher due to the album's reputation, but didn't quite go full-blown excited seeing how ORCHID bombed for me.

The two major differences between point A and now are that first, the production is much better. I have said that ORCHID's production was ''decent'', but this album is better to the point where I notice. This is crystal clear progressive metal production that doesn't overbear on anything (especially since there are no keyboards anywhere). Second, Mikael Akerfeldt has vastly improved his songwriting and compositional skills. There's no plodding from death riff to death riff here.

The whole album feels seamless. Transitioning among the many different themes feels so natural that any change in direction doesn't feel forced or abrupt. The dynamic levels sound just right; the first few minutes of a song might be very metal, but halfway through the song, the pacing will breathe and allow gentle acoustic passages. Many of the heavier, meatier riffs actually have sort of a bright tone to them despite the dark content. The listener, in a sense, gets the most upliftingly morose album they've ever heard in their life.

As far as band comparisons go, the big one that comes to mind for me is Camel, believe it or not. Okay, Akerfeldt did irritatingly swipe the opening of "Never Let Go" for the opening of "Benighted", but that track eventually morphs into its own serene track (still, the swipe will always bother me). Even after the fact, listen to the opening of the album again and tell me that doesn't remind you of THE SNOW GOOSE if you've heard it.

As long as the tracks are, there's rarely this sense of checking the run time to figure out how much longer the song has to go. The transitions and dynamic levels really do help the flow. It helps "The Moor" and "White Cluster" become progressive metal classics in their own regard. "The Face of Melinda" might be my choice pick due to the constant inside progression of the piece and the fact that it's (nearly) absent of death growls. Akerfeldt is better of a singer than I had initially realised, and the softer, serene moments where the instrumentation is not much more than an acoustic guitar and Akerfeldt's voice are some of the album's better moments.

Other than a lack of instantaneously memorable quotes, STILL LIFE is indeed a classic of progressive metal.

"Still Life" by Opeth is the most widely aclaimed extreme prog metal album on this site. Released in 1999, Still Life tells the story of a man in the dark ages who was kicked out of his village due to religious reasons, and comes back to find his "babe" and ends up causing alot of trouble. Ive noticed that on this album, there are harsh and often jagged guitar riffs, joined by graceful melodies. "Still Life" is definitely Opeth's signature masterpiece!

"The Moor" opens the album with an acoustic guitar riff which then blasts into a fast and powerful death metal track. "Godheads Lament" starts abruptly with a jagged guitar riff and then gos into a much more gentle rock melody. "Benighted" is a soft acoustic guitar riff with beautiful vocals from Mikeal Akerfeldt. "Moonlapse Vertigo" is possibly one of my favorite songs off of this album, with both elements of death metal and soft acoustic moments. "Face of Melinda" is a ballad, definitely for the dislikers of death metal grunts. "Serenity Painted Death" has technical riffs and harsh death metal vocals. "White Cluster" is much more of a prog metal song than the majority of this album. This song has fast double-pedalling, plus dark and metrical patterns.

Overall, if you're a prog fan, you will regret having this in your collection. all the information i have left is please, buy this album!

I got this album after I already had Heritage, Watershed, Damnation and Ghost Reveries by Opeth. They all impressed me, but none as much as Blackwater Park. This is a truly monumental collection of songs that all work together to create an atmosphere that most musicians would die to be able to form. The production on this album is phenomenal, it sounds great. Let's get into the individual tracks! The Leper Affinity This song didn't really impress me on the first listen, but after about 5 more listens I started to appreciate it more. This track has it all: brutal growling from Mikael Akerfeldt, memorable riffs, beautiful acoustic breaks, even a nice piano ending. The musicianship of the band really shows on this track. The only problem I have is that there is a really nice part before the piano ending. The guitar plays a nice melody in this section, and it was cut way too short. We don't really have enough time to appreciate it. 8/10 Bleak This is one of my favourites from this album. It starts out with a killer riff, and the growling is introduced. This song has a memorable 'chorus' (if that's what you wish to call it), where a melody (and a nice melody at that) is sung with clean vocals, with the words 'Devious movement in your eyes''. This song has lots of nice instrumental breaks, with time signature changes and changes in texture, really making this song something special. 9/10 Harvest This is a nice song, softer than the last two. It doesn't contain any growling, and has a memorable chorus melody. It is a nice cool-down track from the madness of the last two, but by no means does that mean it is bad. This is in fact one of Opeth's most famous songs. 8/10 The Drapery Falls This is another of Opeth's most famous songs. This was my favourite off the album after my first listen. It opens with cold-sounding acoustic strumming, before segueing into another memorable, killer riff. The verses of this song are some of the best I've ever heard in an Opeth song, and the beautiful melody of the line 'Pull me down again, and guide me into pain' really shows how Opeth can combine brutality with melody, something which most bands struggle to do. Additional background vocals by Steven Wilson are also good. 9/10 Dirge for November I seem to be the only person in existence who loves this song. The introduction with the vocals and guitar is one of the most interesting and beautiful moments on this album. Then, when the heavy guitars and drumming come in, the song really turns special. It's a song which is quite hard to describe, have a listen yourself and see if you like it. 9/10 The Funeral Portrait This song starts with a chilling riff played on the acoustic guitar. This riff is then played by the electric guitars, with the growling coming in soon after. I feel like this track drags on a little, and is a little boring at times. However, I loved the bit where Mikael sings 'And you are just like them all, stained by the names of fathers'. This is a good song, but probably the weakest of the album. 7/10 Patterns in the Ivy This song is a nice calm breather, and acts as an intro to the final track. It would have been better if it was a bit longer (I felt like it was cut short a little). 8/10 Blackwater Park The final track of the album begins with a dark-sounding riff. I didn't really 'get' this song on my first listen, but I do now. After a short acoustic break, the song plunges into some of the best growling I've heard from Mikael Akerfeldt. After this, there is a longer soft break, which sounds a little like the beginning of Dirge For November (except without the vocals). The riff from the earlier growling section then comes in, and from there, the song just becomes more and more intense. 8/10

Overall, a very good album. 9 out of 10 stars.

The Dark Trilogy, Part I - Opeth's Heritage

Here it is, Opeth's most controversial release yet, excluding the anomalous Damnation which was hardly an Opeth record at all. Heritage is in one way an incredibly apt name and in another an awful choice. In the first way, this record is essentially a tribute to Mikael Akerfeldt's musical heritage - the music of acts like Camel, King Crimson, and Black Sabbath who formed his early musical tastes and, at least before he discovered a tasty little thing called death metal, dominated his listening experiences. However, in the 90s when death metal made its debut, he spent his time writing illicitly evil music of the far more extreme style. Seventeen years after the release of his new band Opeth's debut record Orchid, though, he changed his mind on the whole thing. While we could see a shift in his musical outlook on 2008's Watershed, the death-ness was still present, so at least most of the hardcore fans were pleased. But what made him drop the growls entirely?

This is no psychoanalysis of Akerfeldt's musical tastes, so I have no definitive answer to that. All I know is that in 2006 Ghost Reveries was released and hailed as one of the most critically acclaimed progressive death metal albums of the last decade, and five years later Opeth released a hard rock album. What happened? How are we supposed to react? Is this even Opeth? In short, Akerfeldt got tired of doing the same thing over nearly 20 years. Fans of the band should recognize that this is simple a progression of the band's style and we should go with it. And is it Opeth? Did you even listen to the damn album? It's got Akerfeldt written all over it! So yes, despite the fact that Opeth has dropped distortion and death growls for overdrive and Hammond, this album is textbook Opeth and should be evaluated as such.

So let's see here, ten tracks ranging from two to eight minutes. Not too bad, although right off the bat we're missing those killer ten-minute killers. We'll live, don't worry. Track one - self-titled - stars off with some nice acoustic piano work. Okay, now I'm getting worried. But wait, Watershed started with the acoustic ballad "Coil" and was kicked off an awesome album. Phew, we'll be fine. After two minutes, in comes the single "The Devils Orchard," and here it begins. Aggressive and classic overdriven riffs as opposed to ferocious distorted chugging, gritty Hammond lines to go along with it, and Mikael already excellent clean vocals with a bit of a, uh, "natural" tone from the lack of studio-fix ups or enhancements. Not a bad thing, although his vocal lines can seem like warbling from time to time. A nice mellow and dark interlude, some Opeth-y Mellotron flutes, eerie guitar lines, and a coda back to some nice overdriven riffs again. Hey, look! A pretty standard playing card for an Opeth song. We're off to a good start.

Fine, I won't go through every song on the album displaying how the music is still Opeth, not a rip off of Camel (whoever says that is just plain wrong), you get the picture. You have your obligatory acoustic lines, diminished-scale riffs, precision drums, quintessential keyboard parts, and Akerfeldt's gruff clean lines, which are quite different from Andrew Latimer's whispered vocal parts. Not a Camel right, right? Right??

Alright, I've drilled into your skull that Heritage is indeed an Opeth album, so I'll actually review it now. And here I'll contradict myself: while of course this is an Opeth album, this music is incredibly stylistically different from their previous material (obviously), so in no way can I evaluate this as if it were part of the tech/extreme genre. This album is an excellent example of modern heavy prog. All the aforementioned qualities of this album come together in an absolutely wonderful way, and with the Opeth stamp and sound in it, it's even better. Akerfeldt had incorporated blues elements in his older material, but it really shines on this album. Riffs are trilled, blues scales are favored over diminished most of the time, and lots of the arrangements are in a far more blues/jazz-fusion oriented way.

However, while the music is interesting and engaging throughout the first half of the album, I can't help but feel a sense of ennui as the tracks of the latter half of the album come. By the time the slow-starting but in-the-end-exciting "Famine" ends, the songs start to get 'samey.' Compositional distinguishability starts to blur, ambience sound the same, and those same tricks from older Opeth songs are used over and over again with a new guitar tone. While of course any Opeth is good Opeth, I can't help but feel that even with the new direction, Akerfeldt is still stuck in the same rut of songwriting. He has a new pallet of sound to paint with, but he only knows one style in which to paint. For a huge Opeth fan, I can enjoy the songs, but at the same time I crave some truly new.

In the end, I'll say it loud and clear: this is a different kind of Opeth album. You won't find any growls or evil riffing, but you'll still find Opeth, dressed in a new outfit. If you're looking for a crazy Swedish 70s prog-fest, look somewhere else, because while this is certainly influenced by that era, this album is not retro prog. Retro although it may sound stylistically, the music is still very modern. However, expect much of the same compositionally, as Akerfeldt has covered no new ground here, and expands on many of the same ideas quite a bit, leading to a bit of a stale sound by the end of the album. In the end, however, this is a solidly good Opeth album. 3+ stars.

Now I've covered the music, what's this whole "dark trilogy" business, you might ask? As most know, this album was mixed by Akerfeldt's best buddy and prog extraordinaire Steven Wilson. The two have been attached at the hip since Opeth's Blackwater Park, and in my opinion Wilson has helped Opeth create some of their absolute best material. In 2011, though they worked together more closely than they ever had before. Within a month of each other both Opeth and Steven Wilson had released albums, and immediately after that, they began collaborating directly on their own mysterious project, Storm Corrosion.

The three albums, the third of which was released half a year after the other two, are intrinsically connected in an interesting way. The three albums are all incredibly dark musically - dark riffs, dark lyrics, dark art, and a darker perspective on each musician's usual material (or at least in Akerfeldt's case a different kind of dark). Interestingly enough, this darkness is sopped up by the prog public, and I would not be surprised if Storm Corrosion tops most prog lists just like Heritage and Grace for Drowning did. An interesting trend, and one that I'm sure the dynamic prog duo will pursue further.

Here comes another calm and introspective progressive rock record by Opeth. "Heritage" is maybe a little bit more metal orientated than the weak acoustic sleeping pill "Damnation" but cites a lot of influences from famous progressive rock bands such as King Crimson, Deep Purple and Jethro Tull. There are no growls on the album, no fast paced tracks with a bleak atmosphere, no melodic metal guitar solos, pumping bass lines or energizing drum parts. This album really is quite down to earth, spiritual and also has a few folk vibes which adds a new element to the varied sound of this unique Swedish band.

One of the best and most essential songs on this album is the strong "Nepenthe" which truly kicks this album off after some weaker tracks in the beginning like the boring Dio tribute "Slither" and the not very well chosen single "The Devil's Orchard". "Nepenthe" has a great relaxed, floating, almost psychedelic lounge feeling with some progressive changes in style that keep a minimum of tension high. Opeth succeed for the first time to create a mysterious atmosphere without losing their dynamics and sounding too pointless.

Another highlight on the record is the folk anthem "Famine" that has some great tribal drum passages, flute tones, piano interludes and harmonious mellotron sounds. The spacey vocal effects and dominating keyboards make this track sound like a tribute to the legends of progressive rock of the seventies and this song has the special kind of magic and creativity that the others on this record don't have.

This track kicks off the strongest part of the record that continues with "The Lines In My Hand", easily the heaviest song on the album but still rather soft compared to the band's humble beginnings. Once again, progressive sounds and psychedelic vocals meet acoustic guitars but also for the first time some dynamical bass guitar licks. This song is short and sweet, gets to the point but still invites you to dream along while you listen to it.

"Folklore" is the last outstanding track on the record even though it is not as great as the previous songs that I just mentioned. The song is maybe a few minutes too long like many on this record but I like the song's spiritual atmosphere and the beautiful, inspiring and calm guitar solos in the tune. That's what the entire album should have sounded like but the track also creates some wrong expectations with its title as there are no dominating or convincing folk sounds at all in the song and I really expected more and something like a continuation of the amazing "Famine".

The problem I have with this album is that there are too many overlong and calm tracks that have nothing special that distinguishes them from stuff the band had already done on "Damnation" or in the calmer moments of "Blackwater Park" for example. The track "I Feel The Dark" is a good example for this lack of focus as it is divided into two parts that just don't fit to each other and still feel worn-out and come both back to the same tranquilizing melodies in the end. The opening and closing "Heritage" and "Marrow Of The Earth" are too long to be only considered some atmospheric introductions or outroductions and feel stretched and pointless after all. The bonus tracks have also a lack of unique edges and fail to truly convince me.

The most convincing tracks are those that have some guest musicians that play folk instruments and similar stuff or when the band experiments something new. Many things on the album are already good and convincing but some parts could also have been more elaborated, intense and focussed. That's why I would classify this record as a really good one but it's almost as far from being perfect as it is from being a failure. In the entire Opeth discography, I would put this album somewhere in the middle. One thing where this album is easily on the top and surpasses many of the other Opeth releases is the great cover artwork and booklet, though.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on September 18th of the year 2011.

Blackwater Park is special in that it was the first Opeth record that Steven Wilson produced, so it sounds absolutely fantastic. Some might say the rawness of the band lost a bit of edginess, especially when the band is at their most rocking, which is a fair point, but the overall sound is still a treat to crank up on a good stereo.

The best thing about this record is that it features four of the best songs Opeth has ever done: Bleak, Harvest, The Drapery Falls and Blackwater Park. Those four songs are, by any measure, among the best these Swedes have ever written. Patterns in the Ivy is an absolutely gorgeous piano/acoustic tune, and then the rest is a mixed bag in that they are all songs with great moments - the piano outro in The Leper Affinity; the gorgeous electric guitar outro in Dirge for November; the rad as hell acoustic intro in The Funeral Portrait - but overall those songs are all fairly run of the mill Opeth songs; not really standouts songs, and they prevent the album from being anything more than 4 stars for me.