opeth C or D

See, I can't imagine any of that in Opeth's music. There is a lot of stuff going on in there as it is!

other albums i liked in high school:

http://www.icedearth.com/discography/c_burntofferings_400.jpg

http://fsmat.at/%7Eatrax/Florilegium/Paradise-Lost_Draconian-Times_cover.jpg

http://www.metal-rules.com/zine/images/stories/interviews/amorphis/amorphis-elegy.jpg

(lj this one has a silly techno break in one song)

Yeah, Roxy, there's a lot, but I dunno, a lot of the loud parts and a lot of the folky parts sound similar to one another, even if they're devilishly complex or immaculately juxtaposed or whatever.

Look, I'll shut up and listen to the yet-unheard albums, see if anything changes. :)

Haha, I only threw techno breaks in as an example of contrast, of surprise. I can't imagine many bands pulling it off *in actuality* without it sounding a teeny bit incongruent/silly.

JGO:

Perhaps you should start with the recent live album, The Roundhouse Tapes, which is a fairly career-spanning 2CD set.

...but I have all 8 studio albums right here on my computer!

*checks brother's collection*

Haha, he's got the Roundhouse Tapes AND Live in Toronto...

OK fuck I stick Blackwater Park (live) on and the idiot crowd are CLAPPING their way through the REALLY CREEPY, MOVING, BEAUTIFUL FOLKY BIT, aaaaargh

I agree that Still Life is their masterpiece.

Ghost Reveries is the only one I have, it leaned a bit too much toward the folky/soft for my taste. Love the first track!

So Still Life or Blackwater Park next?

so you agree with me, roxymuzak. yay!

big hoos, opt for 'still life' next, but really you can't go wrong with 'blackwater park' either, since it's fantastic as well, and perhaps the acknowledged fan favourite.

louis, i can imagine that slogging through their entire catalogue in one go is a pretty full-on task. there is just so much to take on board - the evolution of the band, the path that it has taken to get where it is today, is actually one of the more intriguing aspects of the band. also, there's so much to discover in opeth's music, a lot of which will only become apparent after several listens. 'the moor', as you identified somewhere, is one of the defining moments though.

nate, i really like the production on 'morningrise' :) often sounds like the tunes are hiding beneath layers of frost, but the music and sound does an impeccable job of encapsulating the atmosphere of the classic cover art.

I have listened a bit to "Blackwater Park" as they have been sort of recommended to me as the metal band I could like.

And, I mean, parts of it is really great. Some really nice atmospheric arrangements, great playing, great compositions. Some of the track I really like.

But then, in other parts of the record, they have to drag the entire thing down with that unbearable growling and way exaggerated über-heavy marshall riffs that make me scream "Why???" Why do they have to ruin an otherwise good record with those unlistenable elements?

Hey, Geir, you might like their acoustic album "Damnation".

Oops, sorry, not exactly acoustic - but from what I've read, it's minus the growling and heavy riffs.

Yeah, Geir, you would like Damnation a lot, and I think there are gonna be a lot of things you'll like about the upcoming album.

I definitely haven't written off the first 3... but at this point I own so much Opeth. It's hard to feel like I'm missing anything. Anticipating the new album though!

Well, the parts I liked sounded kind of like Porcupine Tree - a band that is obviously not metal but I know they still have several metal fans. And Opeth without the obvious metal elements would be really good. I checked out that album because it is sort of considered their "classic", but maybe I should have a listen to the others too. Except they will then be their answers to "The Elder" and "Their Majesties Satanic Request", I suspect: "Unrepresentative" albums that I like just because they sound atypical of the act's usual style.

'blackwater park', the record is largely phenomenal. 'bleak' is perhaps the best opeth track out there, and then you have undeniable classics like 'the drapery falls' (awesome live incidentally) and 'the leper affinity'. but i've never been sold as much on the second half of the record. the title track is an engaging riff-monster, but 'dirge for november' (one of the least inspired opeth tunes ever) and 'funeral portrait' are pretty unimpressive to me when weighed up against the band's best material.

anticipating 'watershed' along with everybody else!

just sat through 'black rose immortal'. it's majestic all the way through, but doesn't have much of a cohesive feel to it. sort of feels like a pastiche of a whole bunch of individual passages. that's sort of cool in a way - makes the experience of listening to it feel like an expression of distinctly different moods, kind of like the ballet.

i've actually been on a bit of a 'morningrise' kick recently. i used to play this one a few times a day back in around 1998. i haven't revisited it in a serious way in quite a while. pretty fantastic record.

yeah - other bands who on the surface seemed super-harsh turned out to be up to at least as much interesting stuff as Opeth. Especially Katatonia (who have also jumped the shark tho), the Brave Murder Days comp was kinda my "why would I listen to Opeth when this is sorta aiming for the same mood only hitting it so much harder and deeper" moment - Opeth starts to seem like the whitewashed version of something a lot more complex & interesting

If the "Brave Murder Days comp" is the same as the Brave Murder Day album (or overlaps it), then I have finally gotten around to listening to this. I ahve to say though, I don't find the Katatonia to be "a lot more complex & interesting" - in fact, the opposite. Not that the Katatonia is bad. I like it and will continue to listen to it, but it seems a bit apples & oranges to compare it to Opeth, despite having Akerfeldt's vocals on it. The Katatonia is a lot more goth, even a bit shoegazer - where Opeth is more prog & folk. Katatonia is a bit droney - not as much dynamic and structural varation - though perhaps more consistent in mood. I can see why some might prefer it, but I don't think it's quite the Opeth-killer it was made out to be.

yep, it's definitely very difficult to put opeth and katatonia in the same basket. the beauty of it is, you can have both bands in your world and they'll provide completely different listening experiences and take you to different places.

in terms of hitting a particular mood in a profound way, i'd agree that katatonia is more fitting. the premise of the songs often relates to melancholy and depression of a day-to-day nature. raw, candid emotions are channeled very explicitly and directly through both the lyrics and vocal deliveries. jonas renkse appears to be some sort of depressive.

opeth are undeniably sombre and melancholy at times, but listening to their songs is like hearing a story or narrative unfold. m. akerfeldt is all about developing and creating a sad scenario and musical backdrop for us. there is a fairly elaborate creative process to most opeth songs that stems from an imagined and often rather ethereal and otherwordly vision. the listener is therefore best advised to approach the music as a complete construction, rather than as an expression of sheer tangible emotion that naturally translates itself into song. that's not to suggest that opeth are wooden, soulless bores a la dream theater. for opeth, the emotive element is derived from an all-encomassing love for music and a desire to explore the possibilities of song and sound in innovative and touching ways. the fact that the crafting of music is such an honest and inspired process for opeth is one of the principle resons the music can be so affecting.

C

Blackwater Park is a great work soundtrack today.

Blackwater Park's alright, but I'm really not into the clean vocals, they're limp. And the cookie monster vocals sound a bit noncommittal too. My favourite parts are the intros to The Drapery Falls and the title track - great epic riffing. Are there any bands who do this kind of thing but better?

Honestly I feel like "Ghosts of Perdition" is their ultimate high point, everything they do well at top level within a mere 11 minutes!

crapeth

This means, of course, approaching them in a cape.

― roxymuzak, Thursday, January 3, 2008 9:16 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

the grand conjuration

I'd been following them for a while but Blackwater Park was where I really got on board. That's also when they started touring the states.

At this point though, I think the production has improved so much, that I strongly recommend the last two for the new listener.

If you're just looking for brutality though, Deliverance is their heaviest work through and through. That title track... wow.

Also want to add that I've seen them live six times now. I've seen them be good, and I've seen them totally suck (due to the drummer not showing up, and the drum tech attempting to fill in). But this year's tour, with Enslaved in support, was just epic. Opeth has finally become a world class stage act. I mean I felt like I was seeing Rush or Zeppelin. It was that powerful. Took them 20 years, but they've got it.

crapeth

― Spectrum, Sunday, October 4, 2009 11:07 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah, the last time i saw opeth they were unstoppable. they've always exuded confidence and know-how, but these days they're just so incredibly on-song when you catch them live. it's a shame that i rarely feel like listening to them these days (most of the records i've played to death and the others i've never quite been able to embrace unconditionally). i do find myself returning pretty consistently to my arms, your hearse though. it's kind of a singular release in the opeth canon - can't really find any discernible link to what came before or after it. 'april ethereal' is a bit of a show-stopper.

and the second half of 'when'. i mean, wow.

So I'm enjoying Ghost Reveries more than anything else I've heard by them. Highest placing Opeth in the metal poll iirc?

The guitar solos still stink of cheese though.

Ghost Reveries is easily the best of their post-Still Life material. I love how they reined in their noodling tendencies and tightened their songwriting, while still keeping the "metal" bits metal.

Lots of the melodies remind me of 70s prog rock. Really a high point in their catalog.

Its not my favorite--my love for the first four albums prevents that, but definitely a favorite in the catalog.

Hmm can't say I see much cheesy about the solos, never considered them real memorable but its not like they are Quiet Riot solos

I've only listened to post-BWP stuff in any detail, I'll check out their earlier stuff.

I think it's the guitar tones they use for the solos that bothers me, in some parts they sound like Chris Rea or something.

Xpost Ahh yea then - I didn't like BWP, was bored by Damnation and Deliverance...liked but didn't love Watershed.

Earlier stuff is more meandering and progressive, less clean vocals (though they're still there). Think Morningrise and Orchid are my favs.

BWP has three great tracks IMO (the first two and The Drapery Falls).

am really partial to the title-track, and yeah TDF

Baying Of The Hounds from Ghost Reveries is their best song. Every part kills it. This band often bores me but that song goddamn nails it.

The opening couple of minutes of TDF is prob my favourite passage of theirs.

OK now I have all the Opeth albums, but no real inclination to listen to them. I think Siegbran has a point when he says that they don't really stretch themselves towards dissonance or unusual sounds. It's generally either heavy-ish melodic metal or folkiness, with little in between. Their very best songs make this not matter, but there's no way I can love this stuff as much as the majority of new-era black metal I've heard so far.

"The Baying Of The Hounds", "The Moor" or "The Drapery Falls" are as good a place to start as any. Their best folky section IMO is the bit between about 2 and 5 minutes in "Blackwater Park". That bit actually chills me slightly.

― Just got offed, Friday, 4 January 2008 10:09 (3 years ago)

haven't really changed my mind about this band in 3 years haha

Watershed had its moments too, for sure. I've got every Opeth album on my computer, sometimes they come up on shuffle and satisfy me

I finally deleted Blackwater Park out of my iTunes after like 4 years of having it in there and telling myself I was going to listen to it all the way through someday.

nah, BWP is a great album. it just peters off for a bit after the drapery falls. but it comes back for a king hit with the title track. i still think bleak is the all round best opeth song out there. hard to go past still life as the best album though.

anyway, i get tired of posting about opeth on here. seems like a bit of a losing cause singing their praises, when there's so many people wanting to tear them down.

;_;

See, I don't think I ever made it to Drapery Falls.

it's a great song it's their shoegaze song

but I can't help listening to this stuff and sometimes really wishing they'd throw in a really awesome techno breakdown

The other day I went out to rake the leaves, and I felt like listening to Opeth, but not their early growly stuff or their more recent stuff, something in the mid-catalog Steven Wilson sweet spot. My instincts told me "Damnation," but for the life of me I couldn't remember where it fell on the Opeth spectrum (getting old). So I took a gamble, and yep, jazz/folk/prog/Radiohead Opeth hit the spot.