^Which is why I try to avoid using the term "Death metal" when I defy Opeth's genre.
Whenever this happens, the discussion goes basically like this:
Someone: "So what kind of music is Opeth?"
Me: "It varies."
Someone: "In general, I mean"
Me "sort of progressive stuff, sometimes metal... You know, it changes from that proggy kind of stuff to heavier parts... Acoustic passages, clean vocals and stuff... and then death metal and growling vocals... Progressive death metal.."
Someone: "WTF"
Perfect explanation.
Everytime I talk about Opeth, people are asking me about the genre, especially since I keep slobbering over the Opeth gig last Thursday and I tell them exactly what you've said. The reaction is allways the same...
*"Nah, Death Metal... growling and screaming, I don't like those music."
*"Progressive? Isn't it this ultra long music thing with complex rhythms and tempo changes? That's too stressful and boring for me, I like to relax when I listen to music."
*"Acoustic parts? Hmpf, do they sit around a campfire outside at the beach and sing hippy songs?"
*"Oh these guys come from Sweden? Do they have these strange corpse paint? I bet they are filming videos in the woods or burn churches and give hail to Satan and stuff like that. I think it's ridiculous!"
I think it's funny, how people sometimes react, if you give them some random facts to think about and what prejudices they have... Most of the time, I'm laughing my ass off. The fewest give Opeth a try, but if they do, then they really start to like Opeth because their music is so versatile and pretentious.
And I bet, some of you have had those conversations in the past, too
@topic
It's not just their mellow music that gives me chills, but the mellow parts are the ones that give me this special feeling deep inside... sort of fullfilment, happyness, joy. In combination with the heavy parts, the mellow ones,
in most cases, are the really moving parts on an emotional level, but don't get me wrong, I'm such a fanboy, I love every single note from Opeth/Mike.
The song Burden is a good example, I think
This song has a special feeling straight on from the first note. It sounds so fragile and beautiful at the same time... the lyrics, Mikaels singing, and musically p.e. the prog rockish dual "lead" guitar riff at the end, before the acoustic part... I could literally cry everytime I hear this song. But that is not just with Opeth's songs, especially the 70s have had some awesome bands, who knew how to write astonishing music
Since my dad died two years ago, Opeth's music became an important part of my life, I don't want to miss their music anymore and I guess there are not so many bands out there who will do it for me like Opeth does.
Opeth is more than just music.