I wouldn't say Still Life. I think musically, yeah, it's their greatest. The production is adequate and suited to the music, but it's not as clean or large as the subsequent albums.
-to me, still life is really "glassy," especially the acoustic, clean electric, and vocals...and the bass is way too lose. but, i think it is a very majestic and warm sounding record. one thing that bothers me about that album is how much fucking reverb is on mike's voice in benighted...it kept me from liking that song for a while...and when he performed it on the damnation tour, i liked it way more.
Damnation has this hugeness about it that none of their other releases have. Everything sounds like its right in front of your face, yet miles away because of the verb they used. As an engineer, I can't even fathom how you'd go about creating a sound like that. That snare though... if you watch a spectrum analyzer whilst a track like windowpane is going, when that snare gets hit, the entire damn spectrum jumps up. It's almost like white noise. I think they mixed in slightly too much bottom mic.
-the snare is pretty loud sometimes, but its also nice and quite at times. lopez does awesome little dynamicly loaded rolling snare fills, and those are accented well on this album.
Blackwater Park is just way overcompressed. The elements aren't cut well, so they clash with each other and give you pumping everywhere. The midrange is way too busy on this record and tends to produce ear fatigue upon prolonged listens.
-i agree about the overcompressed thing...certain parts don't have enough umph, and likewise...but, out of all the albums, this album contains the deepest, most beautiful acoustic guitar sound...its very rich...to me, this is to acoustic guitars what damnation is to clean electrics. the bass stands out well on this album too. the guitars' distortion is somewhat screeching and doesn't have quite the low-mid punch...which allows the bass to come through well, and the upper-end blends in with the cymbals to make a nice and thick sound up there...but, what i really like about the guitars on this album, that opeth has had since mayh, is the very dark and rich guitar tone...the distortion may screech, but the voicing of the guitars still stands through...its especially noticeable on the drapery falls...the notes of the chords stand out well as there is a nice separation between the distortion and the voice of the guitar.