Alright fellow opeth fans, thought i'd introduce myself as this is my first post on the board - been reading a few posts in the last few weeks, seems like a lot of cool people on here. Been an Opeth fan for about 4 years - from the first time I heard morningrise I was hooked.
Anyways, I'll cut to the chase - saw Opeth in Birmingham last night supported by Madder Mortem - was a fantastic show, Mikael and the boys really pulled out all the stops. The support band Madder Mortem weren't too bad - a lot of their songs were kinda derivative - nu-metal 'one finger' style riffs in the first few songs (I did have visions of a bad nu-metal band when I saw the Ibanez seven strings brought out by the road crew). Their performance got better throughout the evening - one song that was in 5/4 was particularly good. I liked their use of harmonies and the female singer was pretty strong melody wise (although I didn't warm to her death metal vocals - certainly not a patch on Angela Gossow out of Arch Enemy). They also had a number of technical difficulties to deal with - both one of the guitarists and the bass player had to switch to different instruments during the set - it was admirable the way in which they managed to cope. They also got a good response from the crowd - it was a good to see a support band clapped off stage rather than booed by an impatient crowd only wanting to see one band........ but that's enough about the Norweigans - onto the Swedes who everyone was there to see......and they did not disappoint. The setlist was:
The Leper Affinity
Advent
Deliverance
The Drapery Falls
Harvest
Godhead's Lament
Serenity Painted Death
A Fair Judgement
----------------------
encore
Demon of the Fall (what else?)
It truly was an amazing experience - I had been reading the reports of recent shows and it had said they had played Credence as the 'mellow' song in the set, so to hear them play Harvest was a completely unexpected. Really made my night - there's one little sweep picked thing in the solo that Mikael does - that made my entire evening. Throughout the entire hour and three quarters they were so solid, so tight - especially the two Martins - Mikael even remarked at one point (after the two of them had started randomly jamming a riff) that the 'two Martins are on drugs!' From the minute they had strode on stage with what can only described as 'aural brutality' in the form of The Leper Affinity, I knew it was going to be a fantastic night. It was great to hear Serenity Painted Death as well, really love that song, and I don't think there was a single person in that room that wasn't singing along to Godhead's Lament or The Drapery Falls. Mikael remarked at one point that this was the second time they had played Birmingham, so they were going to play Harvest instead of Credence - it was good to hear some different songs for a change. For the encore, I don't think there was much surprise when Mikael announced that they were going to play Demon of the Fall - the crowd went 'fucking insane'.
The banter between crowd and band was pretty good - a friend of mind who had seen them earlier on the tour said that Mikael had been quite quiet - but tonight he was on top form in this department, playing to the crowd a helluva lot - at one point he announced that they were going to play a cover version of the scorpions, playing the first few bars, then saying 'just kidding!'. When this brought a laugh from the audience, he said 'What? I love the scorpions!' When someone else requested he play some Camel, he responded by playing the first few bars of a Camel song - which also got a few laughs.
Soundwise, it was pretty good - although I sometimes struggled to hear some of Peter's lines on top of Mikael's, but this might have been something to do with my position in the room. The bass and drums were always quite clear - after the technical problems Madder Mortem had had, Opeth had relatively few, although Peter gestured to the sound engineers a few times to turn his monitors up it seemed.
Vocally, Mikael has got to be the best out there - it still amazes me how he can seamlessly switch from Death metal growls to beautiful vocals - seeing it live also adds another dimension I feel, that you don't hear on the records. The tone that Mikael gets out of his guitar and his GT-3 effects unit is something else - the live clean sound in particular has a kind of eerie lingering, haunting sound to it - emphasised most in the clean passages of A Fair Judgement and The Drapery Falls.
The only thing that perhaps spoilt the show a little bit for me was the incessant calls throughout the set for particular songs ......the first few times people requested Maiden songs were funny, but after the 10th it was getting a little tiresome - although Mikael was gracious as ever, simply saying 'calm down' in an amusing fashion at one point. The only other thing about the gig was that the band did seem to take a (perhaps) overly long amount of time tuning up between each song - although i felt this added to the gig somewhat in that it made it a little bit more intimate - it was like going to see some old friends (although some tossers in the audience kept shouting 'play some fucking music' during these brief interludes). At the end of the gig, Mikael also made a point of saying that Damnation was out next month, which got a huge cheer, and he asked the sound engineers to play a few of the songs - I think they played Closure or Windowpane but I couldn't be sure.
After the show, the band were fantastic as always, staying on for a good five minutes at the front of the barriers shaking hands and signing things for people. When I asked Mikael if they were going to tour Damnation, he replied 'yes, definitely', so I await that with much anticipation. He had also said to me that they would come out after the gig, 'so stick around', but after half an hour of waiting for them to come out, I asked a security guard if they were coming out, and he replied 'nah, fuck off, they're getting pissed'. Really determined to meet them though on the next Damnation tour!
Anyways, gotta go, got loads of work to do.......but can't wait to until the next tour - especially if it will be as the rumours have it, with acoustic guitars and some different songs - would be interesting to say the least. Roll on Damnation!
Anyways, I'll cut to the chase - saw Opeth in Birmingham last night supported by Madder Mortem - was a fantastic show, Mikael and the boys really pulled out all the stops. The support band Madder Mortem weren't too bad - a lot of their songs were kinda derivative - nu-metal 'one finger' style riffs in the first few songs (I did have visions of a bad nu-metal band when I saw the Ibanez seven strings brought out by the road crew). Their performance got better throughout the evening - one song that was in 5/4 was particularly good. I liked their use of harmonies and the female singer was pretty strong melody wise (although I didn't warm to her death metal vocals - certainly not a patch on Angela Gossow out of Arch Enemy). They also had a number of technical difficulties to deal with - both one of the guitarists and the bass player had to switch to different instruments during the set - it was admirable the way in which they managed to cope. They also got a good response from the crowd - it was a good to see a support band clapped off stage rather than booed by an impatient crowd only wanting to see one band........ but that's enough about the Norweigans - onto the Swedes who everyone was there to see......and they did not disappoint. The setlist was:
The Leper Affinity
Advent
Deliverance
The Drapery Falls
Harvest
Godhead's Lament
Serenity Painted Death
A Fair Judgement
----------------------
encore
Demon of the Fall (what else?)
It truly was an amazing experience - I had been reading the reports of recent shows and it had said they had played Credence as the 'mellow' song in the set, so to hear them play Harvest was a completely unexpected. Really made my night - there's one little sweep picked thing in the solo that Mikael does - that made my entire evening. Throughout the entire hour and three quarters they were so solid, so tight - especially the two Martins - Mikael even remarked at one point (after the two of them had started randomly jamming a riff) that the 'two Martins are on drugs!' From the minute they had strode on stage with what can only described as 'aural brutality' in the form of The Leper Affinity, I knew it was going to be a fantastic night. It was great to hear Serenity Painted Death as well, really love that song, and I don't think there was a single person in that room that wasn't singing along to Godhead's Lament or The Drapery Falls. Mikael remarked at one point that this was the second time they had played Birmingham, so they were going to play Harvest instead of Credence - it was good to hear some different songs for a change. For the encore, I don't think there was much surprise when Mikael announced that they were going to play Demon of the Fall - the crowd went 'fucking insane'.
The banter between crowd and band was pretty good - a friend of mind who had seen them earlier on the tour said that Mikael had been quite quiet - but tonight he was on top form in this department, playing to the crowd a helluva lot - at one point he announced that they were going to play a cover version of the scorpions, playing the first few bars, then saying 'just kidding!'. When this brought a laugh from the audience, he said 'What? I love the scorpions!' When someone else requested he play some Camel, he responded by playing the first few bars of a Camel song - which also got a few laughs.
Soundwise, it was pretty good - although I sometimes struggled to hear some of Peter's lines on top of Mikael's, but this might have been something to do with my position in the room. The bass and drums were always quite clear - after the technical problems Madder Mortem had had, Opeth had relatively few, although Peter gestured to the sound engineers a few times to turn his monitors up it seemed.
Vocally, Mikael has got to be the best out there - it still amazes me how he can seamlessly switch from Death metal growls to beautiful vocals - seeing it live also adds another dimension I feel, that you don't hear on the records. The tone that Mikael gets out of his guitar and his GT-3 effects unit is something else - the live clean sound in particular has a kind of eerie lingering, haunting sound to it - emphasised most in the clean passages of A Fair Judgement and The Drapery Falls.
The only thing that perhaps spoilt the show a little bit for me was the incessant calls throughout the set for particular songs ......the first few times people requested Maiden songs were funny, but after the 10th it was getting a little tiresome - although Mikael was gracious as ever, simply saying 'calm down' in an amusing fashion at one point. The only other thing about the gig was that the band did seem to take a (perhaps) overly long amount of time tuning up between each song - although i felt this added to the gig somewhat in that it made it a little bit more intimate - it was like going to see some old friends (although some tossers in the audience kept shouting 'play some fucking music' during these brief interludes). At the end of the gig, Mikael also made a point of saying that Damnation was out next month, which got a huge cheer, and he asked the sound engineers to play a few of the songs - I think they played Closure or Windowpane but I couldn't be sure.
After the show, the band were fantastic as always, staying on for a good five minutes at the front of the barriers shaking hands and signing things for people. When I asked Mikael if they were going to tour Damnation, he replied 'yes, definitely', so I await that with much anticipation. He had also said to me that they would come out after the gig, 'so stick around', but after half an hour of waiting for them to come out, I asked a security guard if they were coming out, and he replied 'nah, fuck off, they're getting pissed'. Really determined to meet them though on the next Damnation tour!
Anyways, gotta go, got loads of work to do.......but can't wait to until the next tour - especially if it will be as the rumours have it, with acoustic guitars and some different songs - would be interesting to say the least. Roll on Damnation!
