By the POLL I See In Others: the Opeth album poll

I've heard all those except Sorceress, and nothing earlier; and maybe my retro-prog judgement is impaired, but unlike a lot of listeners I don't hear a big difference in quality. Just a number of good songs on each and a number of less fully-digested compositional ideas.

I'm more or less in line with that; there are no Opeth stinkers, afaict, just different vibes, I guess. Definitely worth listening to the band's earlier stuff, especially when the metal started to make way for retro-prog, like on "Still Life," or "Blackwater Park" and "Deliverance"/"Damnation," the albums made with Steven Wilson.

THERE IS NO HELL! no, no no. the range of perfect guitar tones is a marvel. elements of "moon above, sun below" are 80s crimson, but with vocals less performatively zany than belew, giving way to serious epic zeppelin prog-blues, before iron maiden math moments that build to bridges of gentle giant harmonies: "voices of despair, a familiar friendship, society in your hair, what's the code of destruction?" dOPETHrone \m/