A moment of silence...
My deepest sympathies for the poor souls who never saw them live, and also to those who saw them but they (cuz of the sound) sucked. I saw them twice on this tour, the first time was very very bad, the second blew me away (and I'm a bit of a perfectionist who is hard to move). Opeth are nothing short of incredible live. They are so well timed and polished and somehow they duplicate the sounds from the albums perfectly, even bwp, which I'm sure everyone would agree is the most produced and cleanest sounding album. M&P's playing is great, so relaxed and perfectly in synch, true professionals. The drums and bass were absolutely solid. Mikael is the best metal singer ever. He makes the sweetest and nastiest sounds with his voice without straining or pushing, he's always perfectly relaxed, never out of breath, with perfectly consistent volume and pitch. His voice never got tired at all, it was as perfect at the end as at the beginning. It's absolutely effortless for him, that's not talent, that's a gift from the anti-gods. It still freaks me out that a human can produce such sounds so effortlessly and naturally. I can see why some people would think that it's just an effect of studio magic, but it's not, he uses very very little effects on his voice on the albums and he can reproduce it live *exactly*. I'm still shocked at how he did the opening part of demon of the fall "silent dance with death, everything is lost", I thought this was an effect on the album, but it's not! He did this live and it sounded very similar, and he did it even lower and fatter, which is something I was sure wasn't possible. How the hell does he do that? He's not human. Some times when I'm walking down the street or in a mall or something I wish I could do a RAAAA! like him just to get a reaction from people, it would be funny. haha They would probably think there was a huge wild beast afoot or something, hehe.
We are fortunate that all these attributes came together in one man, his voice, playing skills, writing skills, lyrical slants, and his affectation for the dark and evil as well as the beautiful and serene. All this and an all around nice guy and perfect gentelman too boot. What a combo. I hope he realizes how much we appreciate his efforts and admire his contributions. I'm sure he does. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that opeth has enabled me to understand myself better and go deeper into those auto-sadist pain/pleasure emotions which at once caress and tear my soul. I know you know what I mean.
keep it real,
Evil Satori