Darn! Me love them growlings!!! Also speaking on Ghost Reveries. That instrumental outro on Atonement is otherworldly!!! One of my favorites.

May I start by saying I've never particularly liked very heavy, or deathy metal (particularly growling). And so, falling in my tastes, a friend showed me the softer side of Opeth with A Fair Judgement and Windowpane. To this day A Fair Judgement is still my favorite Opeth song.

Edited by Molitro - April 18 2014 at 09:37

ever wondered why i keep being called "opethpainter"? :)

Despite being a huge progressive/metal/progressive metal fan...this band just never clicked with me. I've given it try after try after try, and it just does...nothing for me.

King of Loss wrote: New album is quite good. All proggers should check their last two... not as good as the 70s, but still worth the while..

The Doctor wrote: dr wu23 wrote: Mirror Image wrote: I heard one Opeth album and that was enough for me. The only one I own is Watershed...but I've heard several of the higher rated ones. They are very good at what they do and I would prolly be more interested in their material if it weren't for the 'death growl vocals'. Heritage is more accessible if you want to give it a try. I've heard one as well, Heritage. I've also heard Akerfeldt sing one song on an OSI album and really like that song. I think their new direction is awesome and looking forward to a first listen to Pale Communion soon. Sadly, there won't be much going back into their back catalog as the death metal growling scares me. Never been into that. But I love the dark heavy prog sound on Heritage and looking forward to more of that.

I have been enjoying that new album well enough.... even though I still need some more listenings. I feel it's the Heritage experiment giving it's results... it's got a few similarities, but it sounds more focuses. Still, not much metal in there. As for the growling thing, I have never enjoyed that either, so I have been having trouble enjoying Opeth too, though I have given them a few tries. There's also the Damnation album, which is completley growlless, though I'm afraid that even though many people have enjoyed that one a lot, it just didn't do much for me, I found it rather boring. But at least there's the Watershed album, which has several cool songs without growls. So far, the only song with growls that I have really been able to enjoy, a lot, is "The Drapery Falls".

My copy of the CD turned up today too, does anyone else find the lyrics really hard to read? 

Yeah, it isn't soft un-metal album as Damnation. But I still would have liked it to be heavier... with a more metal sound. However, it's really great just as it is anyway, so I guess I shouldn't complain. The thing is, I would still like to hear a true metal album from Opeth, but without growls.

Edited by Dellinger - August 27 2014 at 21:48

javajeff wrote: The new album is solid and I gave it 4 stars.  While I gave Heritage 4 stars as well, I think it is more like 3.5 whereas Pale Communion is closer to 4.5.  It took me a while to get used to the grunting, but not I love it.  I think Still Life, Ghost Reveries, and Blackwater Park are masterpieces.   I just got Watershed, and it is also excellent.  I still need to get the first three, and there is a box set called Candlelight Years that I am thinking about.