DELIVERANCE

Opeth just keep getting better! This album continues to grow on me with each listen, similarly with their "Still Life" album. It serves as a very powerful prelude to 2003's "Damnation", which can be seen as a sister to this album. "Deliverance" is also a great sequel to their masterpiece, "Blackwater Park". The only thing missing from this album is that it doesn't quite use their winning formula of balance that was present on "Still Life", and then perfected on "Blackwater Park". This album is quite similar to "My Arms, Your Hearse", and is definetly the heaviest thing since that album. This one has less acoustic breaks inbetweem the thundering heavy riffs, but fear not as there are some amazing mellow moments on this album.

These mellow moments lie in the tracks "A Fair Judgement" and "For Absent Friends". These are two of my favourite Opeth tracks, and standout tracks on this album, along with "Masters Apprentices" and the title track. This album is probably best seen as the heavy side of "Damnation", as this is almost like disc 1 of a double album, with "Damnation" being disc 2.

While most of the other Opeth albums like to draw you in with an impressive build up, (i think the best one was the creeping intro to "The Moor" that kicked off 1999's "Still Life" album) this album goes for a kick you in the teeth opening, as it gets going straight away. "Wreath" starts off with a drum fill intro and then explodes into some heavy riffage. Kudos to the drummer as his double bass peddling fury works wonders here. This is undeniably some of their heaviest work. This track is long but is kept appealing with some great vocals, both growling and singing, as well some impressive soloing.

The title track on here is one of my favourite Opeth songs, and a real wonder on this album. one flaw is the climax of this song definetly feels like a bit of filler, it drags on a little long but i never have the urge to skip or anything as it is a continuous blast of heavy riffage. There is an impressive change between mellow and angry vocals in this piece and it has some really bonecrunching and catchy riffs.

Once that continuous riffage is over at the end, the album is lead into track 3, probably the best track on this album, "A Fair Judgement" starts off with a quiet piano intro that leads into some powerful and emotional guitar work as well as Mikaels trademark mellow vocals. This track travels through heavier and softer guitar work and steadily climaxes with a thunderous fading riff that works its way into the superb "For Absent Friends". This is an interlude to this monsterous album and works similarly to "Patterns in the Ivy", "Madrigal" and "Requiem" off previous albums. This one is extra special as not only is it a blatent nod towards Genesis, but its soft acoustic and lead guitar work give the album such a warm atmosphere. This is a work of intense beauty.

Predictably, this track works its way into an intesnely heavy piece of work. "Masters Apprentices" is one of the best tracks on the album as it has amazing guitar riffs in it as well as strong drum, bass and vocal work. Truely the presence of evil, but the riffs really are impressive as well as energetic.This beast actually has an amazing soft singing part just passed the 6 minute mark.

The final track, "By the Pain I See in Others" is actually one of Opeths most experimental moments. Excellently produced, (by Steve Wilson, i believe) This track has a lot of contrast between extremely heavy moments and some softer moments. The very first riff finds its way into a dark acoustic backing with growling vocals above that, which is quite unexpected! This is a long piece with plenty of time signature changes. There is a really weird ending to this as it goes quiet for a little bit and ends with some weird vocal work. An odd ending to a great album, but what the hell, maybe it is not a definite end since there is "Damnation" to lead on from this.

Deliverance is one of the heaviest albums, probably second to "My Arms, Your Hearse". These is a great sense of production, experimenting, ferocious riffs and excellent softer work throughout to keep this album interesting. I wouldn't call this a step back from "Blackwater Park" but a begining to a new path, i am glad they didn't try to repeat BWP, but it would have been nice to see a bit more balance using the writing structures of that album. This is brilliant and goes really well with Damnation.