Apparently Steven Wilson once said that the future of Prog Rock is in Metal. Whether Wilson said that or not - it's true.
But not just any metal. We'll have to invent a new genre description for the music we're talking about here. Progressive Metal would have been the perfect moniker but that term has already been adopted by the Dream Theaters of the world. Perhaps we could call it nu prog.
A number of metal artists are evolving way beyond metal, and acts like Orphaned Land, Kayo Dot and Green Carnation have moved us beyond metal into something that is a fascinating combination of heavy, death, doom, and black metal, combined with acoustic and folksy music, tinges of jazz, electronica, space and symphonic prog. The whole brew is masterfully blended and is rich in the traditional elements of progressive music - wonderful musicianship, complex structures with little evidence of the verse/chorus/verse structure, and long songs that move through interesting shifts in tempo time meters and keys. This stuff is really progressing - in the truest sense of the word - probably faster and in more interesting ways than any other genre.
And Opeth is at the forefront of this movement, and they have achieved something that has escaped almost every other prog-whatever band - they sell! They fill venues across the world, and are beginning to find acceptance in music's mainstream. On the one hand, any modern-day headbanger will appreciate their blend of death metal growls and heavy double-bass, and the bone-hard distorted riffs. On the other hand, there are long sections of elegant, mellow music that could have emanated from Camel - which was band-leader Mikael Ackerfeld's favorite 1970s prog band.
The staff at Sea Of Tranquility has taken the time to review Opeth's entire back catalog. Click on the link below for a full list of these reviews - which together - and at 16,000 words - constitute one of the most comprehensive retrospectives of Opeth's music anywhere, ever.
http://www.seaoftranquility.org/article.php?sid=679
But not just any metal. We'll have to invent a new genre description for the music we're talking about here. Progressive Metal would have been the perfect moniker but that term has already been adopted by the Dream Theaters of the world. Perhaps we could call it nu prog.
A number of metal artists are evolving way beyond metal, and acts like Orphaned Land, Kayo Dot and Green Carnation have moved us beyond metal into something that is a fascinating combination of heavy, death, doom, and black metal, combined with acoustic and folksy music, tinges of jazz, electronica, space and symphonic prog. The whole brew is masterfully blended and is rich in the traditional elements of progressive music - wonderful musicianship, complex structures with little evidence of the verse/chorus/verse structure, and long songs that move through interesting shifts in tempo time meters and keys. This stuff is really progressing - in the truest sense of the word - probably faster and in more interesting ways than any other genre.
And Opeth is at the forefront of this movement, and they have achieved something that has escaped almost every other prog-whatever band - they sell! They fill venues across the world, and are beginning to find acceptance in music's mainstream. On the one hand, any modern-day headbanger will appreciate their blend of death metal growls and heavy double-bass, and the bone-hard distorted riffs. On the other hand, there are long sections of elegant, mellow music that could have emanated from Camel - which was band-leader Mikael Ackerfeld's favorite 1970s prog band.
The staff at Sea Of Tranquility has taken the time to review Opeth's entire back catalog. Click on the link below for a full list of these reviews - which together - and at 16,000 words - constitute one of the most comprehensive retrospectives of Opeth's music anywhere, ever.
http://www.seaoftranquility.org/article.php?sid=679
tis Peter Lindgren 
