THE CANDLELIGHT YEARS

An excellent depiction into where it all began, this is actually my favourite era of Opeth for many reasons. First of all, it is the least progressive and the most pure sounding Opeth you will ever hear. Secondly, Morningrise and MAYH are superb albums and probably two of my all time favourites. Thirdly, I find that because of their absence in pomposity, that they are a lot easier to listen to here, and create a lot of really original melodic moment as they are RAW. It also shows off their folk influences a hell of a lot, which i adore. Finally, you get to hear all sides of this great band. On one side, you have their melodic, acoustic and mellow side with Morningrise augmented very effectively with heavier sections. On t'other, you have the brutal Opeth with MAYH where they turn to technical arrangements and their prog influences. In the middle is Orchid, where they are developing their sound still. This is very nostalgic, as you can really see its historical sygnificance and that in a way makes it an enjoyable listen.

Overall, this is a fantastic idea for a compilation. As mentioned before, i do prefer this era, but it's a shame they didn't include the great Still Life as that is also from their earlier era I believe. As it's a compilation, it is never going to be a masterpiece. So the maximum i can give it is four stars, to honour the amazing 90s period they went through.