opeth C or D

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

dude, i sound like a broken record when i talk about them on here. always jumping to their defence and rehashing the same shit.

i got into opeth when i was 16 and back then i had the patience to listen intently to everything they released. i'd probably have a much harder time bothering these days. i mean i can barely listen to two maudlin of the well songs back to back.

oh dude did you hear the kayo dot ep, it was awes

that one that came out last year? yeah, i heard that. definitely the best thing i've heard from either of those bands with the exception of the first KD album.

yah it's awesome but dude you're sleeeeping on the second KD album, that was the stone classic imo, ___on limpid form is insanely good

stained glass ain't a bad place to start for the curious tho

opeth should release a 20-minute EP! actually all their albums should be shorter, then they'd be more approachable

i do think opeth need to do something drastically different with this next album. i mean all their albums are different from each other SOUNDWISE, but the basic approach towards songwriting, structures and dynamics has always been the same (MAYH and obviously damnation were a bit different though). i think their angle on progressive music has become a little narrow - things really don't need to be fleshed out for the sake of fleshing them out. and yes, they need to do something shorter. around 35 minutes would be perfect, provided there's not a wasted second of music.

maybe steven wilson will streamline them into a soft-prog outfit

lawlz

btw if yr reading steven yr a good dude rly and porcupine tree are sometimes very good indeed, also u have excellent taste

that vocal interplay between wilson and akerfeldt on bleak is the stuff of genius.

that vocal interplay between wilson and akerfeldt on bleak is the stuff of genius.

so awesome i had to post it twice. wtf

that vocal interplay between wilson and akerfeldt on bleak is the stuff of genius.

the STUFF

of GENIUS

should also mention while i'm on a roll that BWP is a brutal live track. i don't think they play it very often though.

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

― Just got offed, Friday, 4 January 2008 21:27 (3 years ago)

haaa

Still Life is the one I'll probably return to next, tbh

SL is the only album of theirs that i wouldn't change a second of (ok, maybe face of melinda drags slightly). but yeah, it's a really nicely paced album with some unstoppable highlights (the folky midsection on godhead's lament, that lofty drawn-out intro to moonlapse vertigo, the tension of white cluster etc. etc.)

I own several Opeth releases, saw them live on several ocassions and self-identify as a metalhead. But I have never been able to get into them at all. I used to think of this as a personal failing but now I blame them instead for boring me.

i'm quietly anticipating the next one. release date of september 20 apparently. meant to be a bit of a departure stylistically. could be pretty interesting.

new song starts just like "heart of the sunrise"

http://stereogum.com/766792/opeth-the-devils-orchard-stereogum-premiere/franchises/haunting-the-chapel/

not sure how i feel about the vocals. this worked on 'damnation,' but that was all mellow, folk-inflected stuff