opeth C or D

A Fair Judgement is massive.

the new one sounds awesome, straight up complex and intricate, unabashedly progged out, way more what i was expecting from 'heritage', which i think half-stepped it a bit. just a few listens and already this is edging into motorpsycho 'death-defying unicorn' decade highlight territory

Ghost Reveries was the last one I loved, but i didn't hear Heritage.

New one's fantastic.

"goblin" lives up to such a tall name. the versatility of these guys is really kind of staggering

where are you hearing this? it's not out yet is it?

It's not out until August 26, but it leaked yesterday.

it is available. sound quality is no good though. this is gonna sound enormous legit

The problem is that Opeth are both brilliant and shit, usually in the same song, since Mikael Akerfelt's way of writing a prog 'epic' is to sling disparate and unconnected riffs/parts together until he has 10 minutes worth of music. Or at least that's what it sounds like to me a lot of the time.

I love a lot of prog but Heritage was not a good example, it was just bloated and disjointed in all the bad ways. I'll still give this new one a listen, but my hope aren't high.

lol my favourite opeth song is 'the baying of the hounds' but that's basically because of its 7 only vaguely connected parts about 5 or 6 are absolutely brilliant, their best strike-rate imo

Akerfelt's way of writing a prog 'epic' is to sling disparate and unconnected riffs/parts together until he has 10 minutes worth of music. Or at least that's what it sounds like to me a lot of the time.

to be fair, this is pretty much what constitutes 95% of current "prog"

depends what you mean by ""prog"", mayne

I'm not even sure I know what I mean by """prog""", I just know that digging into the current bands that get hyped in places like the progarchives, a huge percentage of the bands are really bad at composing "epics" for the very reasons you suggest. I was just trying to say it isn't a trap that only Akerfelt falls into. The good thing about him is that his highs are so fucking high that it covers for the lackluster bits, for the most part.

that's fair

Album with the most highs per song = Blackwater Park, for me

And jon/via/chi I'm sure I'd be in agreement if I listened to more modern *prog* prog, as it is I prefer the more avant/RIO-leaning stuff that's bloated and disjointed in GOOD ways, y'know? (OK not all the time)

blackwater park title-track and the drapery falls are up there yeah

ultros otm, the best 'prog' usually chooses to not define as such

I think "Lotus Eater" is a brilliant assemblage of different segments, one of their best songs.

yeah Watershed's a good record. I quite like Opeth!

I've always thought the "omg Opeth is nothing but Frankenstein-ish melding of parts that don't go together for ten minutes" accusation was greatly overstated. Not that I'm saying there's zero truth to it, but it isn't as if they sounded like a bunch of dorks in a guitar shop dicking around for a half hour.

They managed to write compelling songs and over time, streamlined their sound and honed their songwriting skills considerably (hell, "Still Life" and ongoing often have traditional song structures!).

I still love old Opeth too though - even when it's all over the place at times.

My Arms, Your Hearse through Blackwater Park is a pretty astonishing run. always thought they dropped off significantly after that, perhaps even getting progressively worse with each album. this new one seems a step up from Heritage though.

and not all of their stuff has been particularly disjointed. take a listen to Moonlapse Vertigo, for instance. that thing's a 10-minute opus and it flows gorgeously.

"April Ethereal" is one of my fav songs by them as well

she faced me in AWWWWEEEE

When could be my favourite Opeth song. the second half of that song is incredible.

The second song on the new album starts in one mode and stays there for the entire run. In fact, their guitarist Fredrik Åkesson joked about it in a recent interview - he said it was the first of their songs not to have a "forest-y part" in the middle.

people who were disappointed by the last one might be more into this new one

Saw them the other night on tour, fuck they are great live. I love their albums but I have to say that live it all kind of washes past me; he's doing much more growl-voice live than I expected. Anyway Sorceress is very good, I like it more than Pale Communion and maybe more than Heritage. That is all.

Massive C. Every decade has its bad metal, but all this gentrified middlebrow "smart" "artistic" metal for Hillary voters makes me kinda nostalgic for the bad metal of the 90s.

I mean D.

..............

Anyway, I tried to give Sorceress a go the other day but only got like three songs in. They just make me want to go and listen to some actual good prog, you know? Even their buddies Anekdoten do the retro-prog thing much more convincingly.

It's fun to imagine Iron Mike saying it:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153966086531299&set=p.10153966086531299&type=3&theater

lol punksishippies you wasteman even phil fr33man thinks opeth are real metal

punksishippies doesn't like anything the imaginary square living in his head wouldn't hate.

"the wilde flowers" rules. opeth going full prog is still totally mindboggling, like motorpsycho-, decemberists-, his name is alive-, and enslaved-level amazing imho

Nah I keep frustratedly waiting for the shouty bits. D since Ghost Reveries pretty much.

That's not entirely fair of me, there have been some decent tracks.

But it's the tension between the pretty sections and the punishing sections that made them interesting to me. The pretty sections are pretty on their own, but somewhat inert.

No you're absolutely right. I wouldn't mind that Opeth went straight prog if they were any good at it, and they're not particularly "pretty" anymore anyway

To clarify, I meant they went off after Ghost Reveries. GR is excellent.

An important Facebook page:

"The Same Picture of Mikael Åkerfeldt Every Day"

https://www.facebook.com/SamepictureMikael

I don't know much about these guys, as people, but Mikael seems pretty cool. And to be honest, more than most rock guys I kinda feel like learning he was an asshole would totally bum me out. Anyway, this is entertaining:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPRCNGE9H9Y

Like the last few, the new one is unapologetically prog, pomp and cheese and all, modestly heavy at times but kind of awesome at all times.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed the new one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xedYz1vZWsA

That's awesome.

The addition of keyboard to Opeth really underscores the Van der Graaf influence. I've never heard of Univers Zero, where to begin? Also reminds me that I've never really listened to Jethro Tull, but it might be too late, because there are too many Jethro Tull albums.

I'm liking this so far. Maybe a little more focused than the last couple ones. Sorceress was pretty good though.

I've never heard of Univers Zero, where to begin? Also reminds me that I've never really listened to Jethro Tull, but it might be too late, because there are too many Jethro Tull albums.

Univers Zero - 1313 or Heresie
Jethro Tull - Aqualung or Thick as a Brick I guess?

lol at Mikael on Opeth covering Gershwin: "I think it might be a good idea if we don't"

The new one is the heaviest of the prog-era albums, but it's also really beautiful. "Ingen Sanning är Allas" is one of the most Floyd-ish things they've ever done (with some OK Computer thrown in, weirdly enough) and it's fantastic.

Have all the albums been released in English and Swedish? I've only heard the new one in English, I should listen to the Swedish version, might (er) cut the cheese a little. (Which of course is a joke, this album is awesome.)