DELIVERANCE

Deliverance and Damnation were both produced by Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson and the idea was to create two albums that would be counterparts; meaning one mellow album and one heavy album. Deliverance would be the heavy one. Steven once said in an interview (on the Lamentations dvd) that he thought he could especially be of great help on the mellow album Damnation. I think he was right.

Deliverance isn't a bad album, but I personally miss the versatility in it that Opeth displays so well on their other albums and makes them a unique band. I love it when they blend various styles, tempo's and vocals in just one song. The idea of making one mellow and one heavy album seems nice, but in my case it kind of ruins the heavy album by a lack of variation, tempo changes, acoustic guitar parts and clean vocals. Mikael's grunting vocals I can stand now and then, because normally I know that I'm going to be pleasantly surprised by his clean vocals at some point of time, but on this production it looks like he's saving his clean vocals for the DAMNATION album, except for the song "A Fair Judgement", which probably is my favorite track from the DELIVERANCE album, together with the title track. Musically it's all great again though and typical Opeth.

Fortunately for me Opeth's next studio album Ghost Reveries (after Deliverance and Damnation) would be a perfect mix of the best of both of them! I also think Ghost Reveries is their most mature album till now and certainly would rate it a lot higher than this one. I think Still Life and Ghost Reveries are their true masterpieces.

Conclusion; if you're into Opeth from the beginning already you will most certainly like this one [DELIVERANCE], however: if you were introduced by the mellow DAMNATION album stay away from this one and go try Still Life, Blackwater Park or Ghost Reveries first!

3 stars: Good, but non-essential