BLACKWATER PARK

On Blackwater Park, Opeth is able to channel to production/engineering talents of Steven Wilson to unleash their full potential with unfathomable songwriting ability paired with pure sonic bliss. This album was really a game changer for me and it really opened the door to so much new music. Harsh vocals for one, but also more produced and brutal progressive metal. The album opens with The Leper Affinity which is one of my favorite Opeth songs. It just shows the band seamlessly going from one filthy headbanging riff to another with some sweet softer moments in the mix. Immediately it's clear that the atmosphere of this album is just unparalleled by any of Opeths previous efforts. The closing piano passage is very sorrowful yet hopeful and it's one of the few parts of this album where a glisten of light shines through the bleak cracks and I just love that. Speaking of Bleak, the next track! What a powerhouse of a song, it opens with another nasty riff before coming into a strangely melodic death-growl led verse. The star of the show here is the chorus. Whew, let me tell you about the chorus. It caught me off guard the first time because it opens with the (at the time to me) unfamiliar voice of Steven Wilson. However its these dueling vocals that really set it apart, this chorus section just keeps rising and rising before reaching such a palpable peak with Steven Wilson and Mikael Akerfeldt trading off vocals in mind bending fashion. I remember the exact moment this band clicked for me and it was when I was laying in bed with my eyes closed listening to this album for the first time. I wasn't sure how I felt, but by the time I finished that first chorus I was hooked and there was no turning back. There's some beautiful jazz tinged acoustic guitar playing working as a nice contrast to the brutal nature of much of this track as well as The Leper Affinity. Harvest was another track that really just sold me on the band with a great structure, chord progression, and transcending hook. It's the only fully clean vocal track on this album, however, the next track The Drapery Falls is primarily in the same ballpark. The intro and outro to this song is so sick, its like you're out in the forest as the world melts around you. This is another track with just a super strong chorus and contrast between soft and heavy. There's no death growls until the latter half of the song, and they really hit hard when they finally roll around. At 5:50 it kicks into this hypnotic passage that just repeatedly slaps me across the face every single time, a simply outstanding track. After this track, I find the following songs to be a bit more on the slow burner side. They don't have the infectious chorus's that immediately pull you in, but rather they wow you with their pure progressive density. Dirge For November just sounds like its from another planet. Opening with a very intimate and ethereal acoustic and vocal passage, it doesn't take long before it starts hurling pure Opeth riffage at you paired with some of the most evil sounding growls on this whole record. The outro of this track is just dripping in downcast beauty, a tear jerking moment closing out this song. Over time and with familiarity, The Funeral Portrait has become one of my favorites on the record because it just packs so much replay value. The main riff is incredibly heavy, but its the riff at 2:00 that makes my jaw absolutely hit the floor with just how damn cool it is. It's so high energy and intense throughout, it just gets me fired up. Patterns in the Ivy is a very pretty acoustic instrumental bridge providing the breathing room that we need between two very heavy hitting tracks on the latter half of this album. It's a little weird, but I love how it ends with the sustained piano fading into the title track. It has a subtly menacing and daunting feel to it, as if you can feel that something unsettling is coming, and believe me, it is. The title track is one haunting piece of music, it's very bipolar, but everything about it just works. There isn't a clean vocal in sight on this one as its just 100% straight guttural death coming at you straight out the gate. If you can listen from 1:47 and not uncontrollably head bang, you might have to call up the doctor, cause that riff is simply blinding. However, here brings my sole complaint of this album: I wish that this heavy intro section lasted just a little bit longer before easing into the beautiful soft acoustic section that follows. While I have nothing but good things to say about both of these parts of the song, the shift between the two feels just a little abrupt. Other than this though, there isn't a bum note played or sung (sung?) throughout. The conclusion is just so intense and heavy and it's really the ultimate payoff that this album needs after launching absolute banger after banger at you proceeding this. The sun sets forever over Blackwater Park.

9.5/10