BLACKWATER PARK

First of all, I'm not a Death metal fan, but when i was introduced to opeth i felt that it was a unique perception of that genere, adding progressiveness to their content, and i said,-if it's in prog archives i'll give it a try-.

-We enter Winter once agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain-

What a great kick-off for a masterpiece. I'm gonna review this album by tracks, starting with: The Leper Affinity: a genuine and very unique song, with it's riffs, cookie monster-like vocals, and mellow parts, it gives the listener a certain feeling of FEAR. The wierd time signatures and complexity of the lyrics determine the progressiveness of the song. Here lies one of my favourite riffs. Great acoustic part. Bleak: Awesome track, never expected the clean vocals arriving that fast (3 minutes is fast according to prog rock fans, such as me and many others) and the acoustic part is awesome, very strong track. Harvest: A mellow track which could fit perfectly in Opeth's 2003 record: Damnation. Good bluesy song. It has a lot of folk elements and good guitar soloing. The Drapery Falls: The first opeth song i ever heard, it demonstrates how Opeth really is: clean and growling vocals, mellow and really heavy sections and lyrical complexity. At first I dindn't know opeth was a Growling band so I downloaded the song and felt very surprised because of what i had just heard, but i liked it anyways. Dirge for November: starts as a mellow track but then bursts into slow-tempoed death-metal which sounded very good throughout the song. Then the heavy part goes into a much softer outro. Good song. The Funeral Portrait: Cool acoustic guitar intro, amazing track with excesive growling and little clean vocals. In my opinion, the weakest point in the album, still a very good song. Patterns in the Ivy I: the first one in like a nice & short prelude of what's coming next (Blackwater park). Blackwater Park: the title track, which was named after a german prog rock band. Lenghty and dark track, although not from my top favourites, it is a really good closing for this masterpiece. Blackwater park is, and is diserved to be called a masterpiece. I think that -my rating is valid and accurate-(quoted from certif1ed), when i put 5 stars to this album.

P.D.: I've listened to the original release, but also listened to Paterns in the Ivy II, which is a mellow song not yet awesome, but relaxing and demonstrates Opeth's variety of styles, as other songs do. I didn't get to hear Still day beneath the sun.

Prog Rock rules. I, Blackwater Floyd, salute you.