...Am i the ONLY one?

[Ermz]

So music isn't cool unless it's in some crazy ass time signature?



Damnation is an incredible album. But to try and compare it to the rest of Opeth's catalogue is just silly, apples and oranges.

That was the catch of the riff. It's all rhythmic and disharmonic. You'd expect it to be at least a little unpredictable with the timings. Check out the start of Nightwish - The Kinslayer for a cool example of this. Try to follow the 'bang' when the instruments kick in every now and then.

Also, nobody's comparing it to Opeth's catalogue. We're judging it on its own merit. Well, bar my Mordet i Grottan comparison, which I think is fair because Mikael did rip the whole chorus out and use it in To Rid the Disease.

Anyway I never really answered the question. I like Damnation.. its a pretty cool album to chill out with, just gets a little repetitive and boring.

 

[DreamingofUr]

Damnation is an awesome album but I can say it is my least favorite. It doesn't have the dynamics of the other Opeth albums and that is what made them so damn great in the first place. From Closure to Weakness its just fuckin stellar. Beautiful stuff.

 

[Protected Witness]

Have you noticed that To Rid the Disease is made up of only 4 riffs? And what is it? Over 6 minutes long? That means each riff in total loops over a minute. THIS is the trend that Damnation follows, and THIS is why alot of people don't think its their best album.

So any sort of repitition in a song equals bad, huh? That seems to be the trend of your opinions on any album past Morningrise, which you have written is "Orchid with less reverb and more repitition."

The Deliverance outro riff makes sense to me. The main phrase is repeated four times. The first to introduce it, the second with the cymbal swapping by Lopez during the first half to give it a different feel, the third to build up for the fourth (with more cymbal swapping) and then the final fourth repitition to hit you with the piano chords. Live they only do two and half reps, since it's pretty impossible to play a reverse piano chord that isn't sampled.

I don't know. One man's "more cohesive songwriting" is another man's "boring, repetitive, not as good as the first two albums, stupid sell-out crap" I guess...

 

[DreamingofUr]

I have to admit that I was turned off by the repitition but then again its just a different style. It doesn't mean its bad but its just not preferable for some. I still love those songs but can certainly see the reason in that way of thinking.

 

[Demoke]

I don't like Damnation as much as the other Opeth albums. Period. That doesn't mean I don't like Damnation. I actually think it's a superb album. The only but I find in that album is the chorus in Death Whispered a Lullaby and probably the song Ending Credits (I don't know why, but I'm just not too fond of it). To Rid the Disease may be made up of 4 riffs, ok, but that song just scares me. And so does the blank face in the Windowpane. Hope Leaves is touching me very much these days, and even Weakness, which sometime in this forum have I said it is my least personal favourite Opeth song, gives me a weird feeling in my stomach... What else to add? This music gives me chills and I do love and appreciate music that offers feelings! (I don't care that much if it's made up of just 4 riffs...)

 

[Ermz]

... or play a piano chord at all with guitars, haha. I actually tried playing those last chords on guitar and having the reversed 'fade in' effect. It works decently well if you just volume swell the first chord and then when the volume knob is full just hammer out the Em.

Neil you seem to think I only like the first 2 albums... to set the record straight, I don't. I'm not a Morningwood fanboy, I just really like Orchid, and I also like MAYH, SL and BWP, with Still Life being the 2nd fave. They brought in more standard playing in Still Life, with the rhythm guitars and whatnot, but I mean it was a good amount, they hit a good balance of feel, cohesiveness and variation. SL was a good blend of it all. I just think that by making Deliverance they took a giant shit on where they've been building up to getting.

Damnation is cool, and since Demoke brought it up, I'll say Weakness is a kickass song.... I mean its a song where the whole repetition deal works, because its so ambient, but in no way does this track even come close to matching 'In Mist She Was Standing' for me yknow. I mean I like ALL Opeth, I just don't like newer Opeth nearly as much as old.

 

[Hypnos]

I think you cannot compare 'Damnation' to other Opeth albums. For me it's not a regular Opeth-release, just an experiment. Yet I am somehow disappointed, because I expected a lot more of Opeth. Not a single 'Damnation'-track can reach f.e. 'To Bid You Farewell', 'Credence' or even 'Harvest'. Ok, 'Ending Credits' comes very close. By the way, did anyone also notice the similarity of this track to the style of Santana?

 

[Maq]

Only one song of that album makes me actually feel sth, and its "Ending Credits" (it seems to be very simple, but has some magic inside , I like "Windowpane" form 4:35 to 5:50, but I honestly think that the mellow parts of other albums are better.

 

[B Crouch]

Damnation is beautiful. I love listening to it, but i simply prefer their heavier stuff like BP and SL. And of course morningrise :hotjump:

 

[Nico]

Best Opeth album? No
While its not a bad album, its not realy anything terribly 'great' considering its from the ledgends who brought us My Arms, Your Hearse. Its comparable to other prog rock albums, but within the context of it being Opeth, it just doest have any of the dynamics in the music that Opeth are so damn good at.
Not saying its a bad album, I love prog rock, so its a damn great album... its just a question of context.

 

[wankerness]

I leave that privilege to Your Arms, My Hearse. Maybe I am alone on that one, but hearing that album for the first time, and even today just blows me away, especially when you look at it from a music theory or contrapuntal perspective.

Yes it's their best, as far as theory goes....I dunno what's so great about it. I played WHEN for one of my theory profs last year and he was highly unimpressed with the theory aspect of it What songs are impressive in that way?

 

[The Scourge]

Yes it's their best, as far as theory goes....I dunno what's so great about it. I played WHEN for one of my theory profs last year and he was highly unimpressed with the theory aspect of it What songs are impressive in that way?

When is a beautiful song, I just love it. But I agree with your professor that it is not so exotic. April Ethereal is a prime example however. The chord choices and progressions are so highly exotic that when I first heard it, I spent days trying to figure out what was exactly happening there tonally. The most obvious cool thing that materializes on that song is there use of free tonality. Although I am sure that it was unintentional on Ackerfeldt and Co.'s part, but the whole idea of that started with a German composer by the name of Ferrucio Busoni. It is the idea that the key is constantly shifting(take for example the always shifting pedal bass lines in that song or the heavier parts of Demon of The Fall). Not to mention that on almost every song on that album, you never know where the tonic note is going to be. Brilliant, brilliant stuff.

 

[Ermz]

Yes it's their best, as far as theory goes....I dunno what's so great about it. I played WHEN for one of my theory profs last year and he was highly unimpressed with the theory aspect of it What songs are impressive in that way?

Who cares? If you wanted theoretically impressive you wouldn't be looking at metal anyway. The most technically impressive stuff you'll find in Opeth's catalogue is in Still Life, where they've layered the music to a point where you don't even know what you're listening to at times.

 

[NOONE]

Damnation is like half of Opeth... which is still really, really good.

 

[warsofwinter]

hahahahahahhahhahahahahahaahhahhahah fucking idiot... But that's just my opinion

Opinions are like assholes .. we all have em
though way too many assholes have opinions

 

[Jock La Crotch]

It's not the best, it's not the worst, it's just different.

I think all of their albums kick insane loads of ass - there isn't a bad one in the bunch, so use of the word "worst" is out of the question. But some of them differ greatly and all should be appreciated as "insane assload-kicking" works of art.

I agree...well put "insane assload-kicking"...I like that.

 

[SculptedCold]

hahahahahahhahhahahahahahaahhahhahah fucking idiot... But that's just my opinion

Opinions are like assholes .. we all have em
though way too many assholes have opinions

that's just rubbish. one of the people in my dad's company doesn't have an asshole.

 

[Katatonic]

dont be knocking the deliverance riff... i went nuts when i first heard that riff. and remember, you can count a 4/4 to most of meshuggah's stuff too.

and damnation is great, but not the best.

 

[Ermz]

of course you can count a 4/4 to much of Meshuggah's stuff, you'll just never end up completing a bar j/k. Nah usually Meshuggah's stuff is arranged so that you'll have 4/4 after a certain amount of bars, but individually its all syncopated and the bars are all weirdo.