Continued Creativity....

[To rid you disease]

some people seem to think that shredding equals to bad no matter what. the mid tempo solo in lotus eater is imo extremely boring and possibly opeths worst, while I on the other hand think the heir apparent solo is great.

 

[Nasty-Fire]

Well I think shredding can be very good but it is very rare to hear shredding that has as much "feeling" as a solo like the one in Windowpane, for instance.

 

[sotua]

That is not a blast beat, and hoepfully, while the riff itself is very basic (open E all along) I believe the lyrics balance it up. Seriously, the best lyrics on the album are located in these moments.

Exactly, that's not a blast beat, the riff is only a few seconds long, and I believe it builds tension beautifully to release with "Invisible King...". The drone (isn't that "palm-muted E drone" instead of "open E drone", btw?) simply sets up the next riff.

(I still can't believe people get so hung up with a couple of 8-second sections)

 

[Iki-ilkkuja]

Wasn't he planning to put out a solo record sometime in close future.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

Honestly I think there's two kinds of shredding, the really awesome intense kind that's wild and all over the place that you get with Morbid Angel or Slayer, and then the robotic, "hey man look how many notes per second I can do" kind that you get with Dream Theater and Symphony X. TBH none of Opeth's stuff is quite the same as Fred still puts some tasteful parts in his robotic shreds (i.e. the awesome palm muted parts) and Mike's/Peter's solo in White Cluster which was the only one even close to shredding, was just nothing on Trey Azagthoth or Kerry King.

I don't think most shredding sounds dreadful really (though the light speed shit w/ Yngwie or MAB is well...yea dreadful is the word), I just respected Opeth for having a different style that was more melodic and feeling and for producing some of my favorite guitar solos of all time (I.E. The Funeral Portrait's two solos are right up there with Shine On You Crazy Diamond and the gang for me).

Guess I just thought they were "above" shredding and generic metal riffs.

To be honest, while I love Symphony X and all, Romeo's guitar solos are my least favorite parts of many of their songs. Pinnella's keyboard solos have a much better choice of licks that don't drain the emotion of a song by traveling at 10,000 notes a second; the keyboard patches used are good, too, just like Per's in Opeth (and unlike Dream Theater's space-type shit as of recent).

But that's beside the point. As you stated in your second paragraph, I applaud Opeth on their solos ACTUALLY FITTING the song's atmosphere. The overall feel of a song is far more important to me than all the guitar virtuoso tricks you can shove onto the fretboard. Has Mikael ever sweep picked in a solo? Who gives a shit, I say! I used to care a lot about technicality, but the more I listen to Opeth the more I realize that music is simply just not about that.

That is not a blast beat, and hoepfully, while the riff itself is very basic (open E all along) I believe the lyrics balance it up. Seriously, the best lyrics on the album are located in these moments.

I don't care if its technically not a blast beat - I still think it is out of place and that Opeth can do WAY better. And as far as the lyrics go, I could care less. Truthfully, Mikael does write great lyrics, and Heir Apparent, even with those few tormenting sections, is a decent song. But to me a great song depends on the music (and vocal melody) alone; if you can write a song with great music that is great even WITHOUT lyrics, you've done a great job.