About Orchid: Those clean vocals on Orchid are mixed very badly, maybe because Mike wasn't so comfort with his clean voice yet and in my opinion, that's the only problem with the vocals on Orchid, but donät actually bother me at all. I think Mike did his best vocal-work on Orchid, since then he used much higher screams than later albums. The songs on Orchid are very emotional and have this strange and sad feeling among the hate, that Mikes aggressive singing brings there. The playing on it is kind of sloppy in some parts and I liked it that way, not too polished and really have the feel instead of ultimate technical playing. I mean they're very good players here, but some very minor mistakes can be heard and that's the way it should be too. Great album overall, maybe the best, maybe the second after Morningrise.
About Morningrise: First I thought this album had very weird production and the bass was kind of dominating the whole soundcape, but then I started to really like it. The songs were very good and it was and still is a record without any filler. The twin-guitar-stuff is still here and the playing is tight, although sometimes it might not sound like that, because the sound. Vocals on this were very good, both clean and harsh. The bass and drums are tight together, I really liked the way Nordin used the snare and Johan used fingers, fretless bass and other stuff. At this point Opeth had this mysterious image surrounding them and I liked it. Great album, together with Orchid.
About MAYH: I think MAYH was boring and really badly produced album, also it's the first album, where these constant harmony guitars were changed into riffing and I hated the change. Clean vocals were much better than before and I liked the growls, but sadly the higher screams were nowhere to be found. Also Nordin and Johan was gone and I didn't like change, although the bass were played by Mike, but the magic Johan had in his playing was way ahead of anything Opeth has done with bass since Morningrise. There's a lot of spoke about Mike composing the bass lines for earlier records, but it still was Johans
great style that made them sound so wicked. Also this was the album, where Mike and Peter were not working together with the songs anymore and that might be the reason of the loss of twin-guitars and things getting more riff-oriented.
Still Life was way better than MAYH and The Moor is one of my favourite songs along with few other tracks on the album and hope about Opeth lifted up until the total crash among Blackwater Park. I
really dislike the Wilson-influense (altough Damnation is good album when not comparing it to first two Opeth-album). I believe it's great to work with your musical idol, but still, I really believe that this was the point where Opeth took the wrong step. The songs gives me nothing, I've tried to get into this record for ages, but it does nothing for me, just bores me. For me, this was the first Opeth-album that I didn't bought when it was released since I listened it first at my friends house. I later bought it, since it was released with the 2nd disc, that had the 2 acoustic songs I really liked. If I'd find those songs on 7" I'd be getting rid of this awfull album.
Damnation was interesting and good album, but Deliverance has very much filler on it. Few good songs, but I was very dissapointed, since it was said to be "very dark and metal" and I was expecting something in the vein of older albums. Well, should've guessed that would be not possible anymore. Boring playing and sadly I have to say, that in earlier state, you could never tell what comes next on Opeth-song, but nowdays they have this formula, that has been used too many times.
Orchid & Morningrise.
Maybe all this sounds harsh, but since I was introduced to Opeth after Orchid was released, this may sound a bit more logical.
