Opeth (Watershed) - Sack the HM vocalist??

Ditch Åkerfeldt that and the band goes down. Stupid. Seriously, it will come to you. Most people feel aversion towards the growling at first, but then they get used to them. For me, they are now one of the main draws of Opeth. And i would never have thought that for the life of me a year ago.
 
Give them a chance : ) And try Blackwater park instead.

This topic has come up multiple times.

It comes down to this- without the 'harsh' vocals, it wouldn't be Opeth. The mix of heavy and light vocals makes them who they are.

For some, the growls grow on them.  For me, I don't suspect they ever will.  I would suggest giving their album Damnation a listen though.  It is their mellowest album and there are absolutely no death metal vocals to be found.  For fans of Opeth, Damnation is usually their least favorite album, but it is my favorite from them and I wish they did more like it. 

they wouldn't gain a lot more fans if they compromised their style. the growling isn't bad

The growling is just an essential part of Opeth, supporting the overall dark mood. I can not imagine Opeth completely without those vocals. They came from the realm of (Melodic) Death Metal, and did not abbandon their roots when turning to a more progressive direction.

Starless wrote: Having read how good Opeth's Watershed is, I borrowed a copy from a mate, which I an listening to as I write.   Now, I have always had a deep aversion to any band that features unintelligible guttural growling HM vocals (I'm an old fart), and this occassionally features the very same. The suprise is I haven't turned it off, as musically it is very inventive, time & key changes a-plenty, and with completely schizophrenic style changes, sometimes in the same song, "Hessian Peel" being a case in point.   I won't be buying it though simply because of the annoying mock horror vox that creep in now and again. Here's my point - would they not be better off ditching the growling and thereby guaranteeing a much bigger audience? i would have thought they were too prog for a metal audience anyway.

Judging from your user name I'm guessing you're a fan of King Crimson. Now, I think they would have had many more fans if they had left out the Avant-Garde parts ... wouldn't you agree?

The death growls are the Catch-22 of this band.  It is these death growls that make them stand out from the rest of the modern prog bands that are out there, but it is also these death growls that cause many of us not to like them.  (Unfortunately, at least for me, is that it is also these death growls that other modern bands are now trying to emulate because of this Opeth influence).  I have discussed my opinion on this ad nauseum in other threads so I won't bore y'all yet again.

I take Mike's point about Opeth without those vocals wouldnt be Opeth but I have little doubt whatsoever that they would be far, far bigger if they ditched them. I dont mean going commercial, heck the music is quite demanding enough to keep the tourists away, but I feel that the vocal style holds them back.

I believe that with Watershed Akerlfeldt is starting to move away from those stylings...

MikeEnRegalia wrote: rushfan4 wrote: The death growls are the Catch-22 of this band.  It is these death growls that make them stand out from the rest of the modern prog bands that are out there, but it is also these death growls that cause many of us not to like them.  (Unfortunately, at least for me, is that it is also these death growls that other modern bands are now trying to emulate because of this Opeth influence).  I have discussed my opinion on this ad nauseum in other threads so I won't bore y'all yet again. There's much more to Opeth than these growls, but unfortunately they're all some people seem to register.

SO TRUE!

^ thanks!

in fact on the new album Mikael's appreciation for Camel shows more than ever - he's giving the keyboards much more space, and the growls have actually been reduced very much. Additionally, Opeth have gone all the way and included with the limited edition an audiophile mix of their album (high quality stereo + 5.1 dts), the album will also be available on heavyweight vinyl.

If you don't like the growls - fine, but give them some credit where credit is due.