Demonspell
cheating the polygraph
Those are two of the best songs on the album IMO. Damnation is a successful attempt at proving that they could do an all-mellow album and contains some great songs, but is not a masterpiece by any means.
Damnation a Masterpiece???
- Thread starter Shell Shock
- Start date
Alcapoth
S t a r E
Eh, people can laugh all they want...even Mike if he wants to. Seriously, whatever...I like Opeth better than Pink Floyd. What are ya going to do about it? Am I crazy because I like a band better than a band that is said by the magazine's or media that is one of the best bands out there, etc? I don't let anyone influence my tastes in music....I like what I like.
I would tell to Mikael himself that what he has done with Damnation (especially considering it was experimental) is truly something beautiful. He has really created a high emotive experience with the album. Though, I wish there were more "rocking" tunes like windowpane included. I really like that style.
I would tell to Mikael himself that what he has done with Damnation (especially considering it was experimental) is truly something beautiful. He has really created a high emotive experience with the album. Though, I wish there were more "rocking" tunes like windowpane included. I really like that style.
shivering corpse
Ty Cobbb
it's not a masterpiece because it doesn't have enough material, and it's paced strangely
but like everyone else has said, it's still a really good, solid album
but like everyone else has said, it's still a really good, solid album
The Evil Toucan
[NOTNO]Parrot
Alcapoth said:
Nah of course you aren't crazy, I like Opeth better than Pink Floyd too. They are far and away my favorite band ever. But Damnation doesn't come close to being as groundbreaking as say, Dark Side of the Moon. But that doesn't take away from my enjoyment of either band.
Stoner Sioux
Death Metal Princess
At first listen I didn't like Damnation. I gave it another listen and then another and suddenly it started to grow on me. I think it is one of the most beautiful recordings Opeth has ever done.
Damnation (and deliverance) are just too damn flat for me. You want to talk about masterpieces, mention BP, SL, MAYH, or Morningrise...
Besides, I think that each of the following songs is better than any of the Damnation songs:
To Bid you Farewell,
Epilogue
Benighted,
Face of Melinda,
Harvest
Patterns in the Ivy 2
I'm sure i missed 1
Besides, I think that each of the following songs is better than any of the Damnation songs:
To Bid you Farewell,
Epilogue
Benighted,
Face of Melinda,
Harvest
Patterns in the Ivy 2
I'm sure i missed 1
SculptedCold
-scented manbeef-
The main things I would fault Damnation on are;
- underdeveloped vocal melodies
- far too much chorus repetition
(combo of both above...)
- choruses and their vocals too short. some lengthy pre-chorus developments would have gone down well.
- just....bland....compared to the contemporaries that play more that style of music.
- underdeveloped vocal melodies
- far too much chorus repetition
(combo of both above...)
- choruses and their vocals too short. some lengthy pre-chorus developments would have gone down well.
- just....bland....compared to the contemporaries that play more that style of music.
Scourge of Malice
Member
It's almost a masterpiece... Opeth could have done a little better but come on guys, its a solid album, every song is great, no fillers, nice to listen to, good playing.. its great
the last song is just nothing....there should have been a song like 'requiem' from their 1st album i think...there wasnt enough acoustic stuff in damnation...its not their best work but i still love it!
![[KOTNO]Narrot](/data/avatars/l/1/1031.jpg?1052155060){kind=avatar}
[KOTNO]Narrot
Eats and spits corpses...
DreamingofUr
Desolate and Forsaken!!
I am a diehard fan of Opeth and would like to say every album is a masterpiece but if one is just good I'm not gonna lie and say its a must buy yadda yadda yadda...But! Damnation is a masterpeice. It sat on my shelf for 3 months. Yes 3. I listen to it when I bought it and then went back to the old Opeth like I always tend to do. Then I made the trip to the concert and was blown away! I hope they make a live album soon! I seriously loved the live versions of the songs. I've never awaited a live album from a band but I am dying for a live Damnation! The songs were just soooo much better there than on the album. Reminded me of a toned down Zepp improv frenzy! I couldn't live without Damnation. I reckon I like it more than Deliverance too. Opeth it seems shall never go wrong. Favorites are Closure,Hope Leaves,To Rid the Disease,Ending Credits(awesome jam!),and Weakness!
Lakestream
Member
It's great, yes.. but neither Deliverance nor Damnation have completely blown me away. Not catchy enough for my brain, hehe. (catchy as in stuff my brain gets stuck on and feeds off.. like Still Life, BWP or MAYH..)
Damnation presents Opeth's vision in a new but yet familiar light.
Acoustic based interludes with clean vocals....mmm what a suprise.
This is an album to play when you are in a reflective mood.
I think it is the best album I have heard in a long time.
As to Pink Floyd I generally regard them as a cure for insomnia.
I just don't get the comparison. Harmonically so different to Opeth.
A masterpiece undoubtedly yes.
If ever an Opeth album in metal history is worthy of a classic album video special I would argue that this would be the one.
Time will tell. And hey if its winter maybe "summer is miles and miles away".
And kilometres just has too many syllables and doesn't rhyme with anything.
Look the album is basically about lost love. I guess most of the hard men of metal out there can't relate to that...but it seems some of us do.
Acoustic based interludes with clean vocals....mmm what a suprise.
This is an album to play when you are in a reflective mood.
I think it is the best album I have heard in a long time.
As to Pink Floyd I generally regard them as a cure for insomnia.
I just don't get the comparison. Harmonically so different to Opeth.
A masterpiece undoubtedly yes.
If ever an Opeth album in metal history is worthy of a classic album video special I would argue that this would be the one.
Time will tell. And hey if its winter maybe "summer is miles and miles away".
And kilometres just has too many syllables and doesn't rhyme with anything.
Look the album is basically about lost love. I guess most of the hard men of metal out there can't relate to that...but it seems some of us do.
Damnation is nothing special except for Windowpane and maybe Closure. It's a great album and my favorite outta the 2003 ones I bought, but it's nothing special. Since it was from a death metal band -- yeah it's special outta their selection. But in the scheme of things Damnation isn't a *masterpiece*. I mean come on the song structure is basically uniform and the lyrics are fairly simple. IMO, more thought into the lyrics (which Mikael admitted he doesn't put much thought into) would make their albums much better.
NFU
I like pie.
So I can assume that no other Opeth release is a masterpiece because it may follow a formula. Which they so obviously do.
There always seems to be a formula for the Damnation critics yet another world that exists for other Opeth albums.
Every Opeth album has its formula. It is not some magical thing man. It is music and building on ideas that have come before.
They just happen to do it very well. They are not and I am sure they would admit it "totally" original.
They just happen to put the parts together better then many.
There always seems to be a formula for the Damnation critics yet another world that exists for other Opeth albums.
Every Opeth album has its formula. It is not some magical thing man. It is music and building on ideas that have come before.
They just happen to do it very well. They are not and I am sure they would admit it "totally" original.
They just happen to put the parts together better then many.
I don't know... I think that whenever your favorite band (and some of you - if not all - are die-hard Opeth fans) surprises you and does something different - not necessarily bad - but very mellow and very unexpected/unconventional, you kind of tend to overrate the very piece of work.. I mean, yes, most fans are obviously biased towards their favorite bands - but sometimes this bias is way too glaring, I guess.. I'm more of an outsider - while I love Opeth and their work - I'm not a diehard fan, so I see their work through this prism of no-nonsense-ness - and I really couldn't care less if they started rapping tomorrow - wouldn't really change a thing for me - but it's that I listened to Opeth's past stuff and some of it truly was a work of art - and this April's release was just.. well, mediocre.. Not as good as it was made out to be by the real fans, I guess (and it's all about the tastes, I know..). But my taste is very similar to yours (all of yours) - I like this stuff. And I like Opeth. Just not to such colossal extent..
When Metallica did their symphonic concert with SFS a lot of Metallica fans were running around saying stuff like: "oh, Metallica is a true musical band - look, they made a concert with the original symphonic background".. That's overrating the whole matter - S&M wasn't really as good and wasn't that special - (other bands have done that before) - and the same goes with Damnation.. I mean, it's a decent piece of work with some interesting experimentation - I definitely like it - but it's not THAT good.. Also, to a Metallica fan, this S&M was a masterpiece-type release. To a fan and an expert of classical music it wasn't anywhere close.
The Pink Floyd parallel is justifiable, IMO.. There are some similarities. It's just that everyone knows this band - and King Crimson, and ELP, and Genesis, all to an extent... Some of the bands that have more similarities with Damnation I have never heard of.. so, you know..
When Metallica did their symphonic concert with SFS a lot of Metallica fans were running around saying stuff like: "oh, Metallica is a true musical band - look, they made a concert with the original symphonic background".. That's overrating the whole matter - S&M wasn't really as good and wasn't that special - (other bands have done that before) - and the same goes with Damnation.. I mean, it's a decent piece of work with some interesting experimentation - I definitely like it - but it's not THAT good.. Also, to a Metallica fan, this S&M was a masterpiece-type release. To a fan and an expert of classical music it wasn't anywhere close.
The Pink Floyd parallel is justifiable, IMO.. There are some similarities. It's just that everyone knows this band - and King Crimson, and ELP, and Genesis, all to an extent... Some of the bands that have more similarities with Damnation I have never heard of.. so, you know..
Cynical Bastard
Member
I don't like throwing the term masterpiece around too often, and as someone said before, there really isn't even enough material here for it to stand as a "masterpiece." However, I think that if Mikael had spent, or had actually had more time to spend on writing and developing songs for this album, it easily could've been a masterpiece. If you read the studio diary for Deliverance/Damnation, he basically said he wrote most of this entire album while in the studio. It's incredible to me that it's even as good as it is, given the conditions of putting together and recording two albums worth of material at the same time - especially considering all the technical difficulties and pressure he was under during the hellish recording process for Deliverance/Damnation.
I don't know of any other band who could've pulled something like this off, and while I don't want it to seem like I'm making excuses, I really don't think it's fair to judge Damnation as an album completely by itself. It was originally intended to be released alongside Deliverance as a double-album, so I judge the two has one extremely diverse piece of work in two volumes. Given that, I still don't feel that either of them are stunning albums on their own and I think this experiment would've worked out better if they spent more time on each album, and not just recording ideas as they come and then seeing how they turn out.
There's certainly some weaker parts on both albums that don't really impress me as much as tracks on past albums, but there's still some mind blowing stuff here in my opinion. It's not quite as good overall as I would've liked, but certainly not below my expectations. Windowpane, Hope Leaves, Closure, To Rid the Disease, A Fair Judgement and Wreath are all consistently brilliant as far as I'm concerned and these releases are certainly not any indication of Mike losing his touch in the slightest. I just think he stretched himself a little thin with these recordings and maybe didn't have quite enough good material going into the process to make these albums really shine standing on their own.
I remember him making a post or comment or something in some interview about saving the stronger melodies for Damnation, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. He was probably coming up with loads of ideas in the studio, but making two different albums at the same time has got to be incredibly challenging if you don't have an abundance of material going into the studio. I just hope next time the whole process goes smoother and these guys get to relax a little and take their time making an epic, layered album like Still Life, but in whatever direction they want to take the music.
I don't know of any other band who could've pulled something like this off, and while I don't want it to seem like I'm making excuses, I really don't think it's fair to judge Damnation as an album completely by itself. It was originally intended to be released alongside Deliverance as a double-album, so I judge the two has one extremely diverse piece of work in two volumes. Given that, I still don't feel that either of them are stunning albums on their own and I think this experiment would've worked out better if they spent more time on each album, and not just recording ideas as they come and then seeing how they turn out.
There's certainly some weaker parts on both albums that don't really impress me as much as tracks on past albums, but there's still some mind blowing stuff here in my opinion. It's not quite as good overall as I would've liked, but certainly not below my expectations. Windowpane, Hope Leaves, Closure, To Rid the Disease, A Fair Judgement and Wreath are all consistently brilliant as far as I'm concerned and these releases are certainly not any indication of Mike losing his touch in the slightest. I just think he stretched himself a little thin with these recordings and maybe didn't have quite enough good material going into the process to make these albums really shine standing on their own.
I remember him making a post or comment or something in some interview about saving the stronger melodies for Damnation, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. He was probably coming up with loads of ideas in the studio, but making two different albums at the same time has got to be incredibly challenging if you don't have an abundance of material going into the studio. I just hope next time the whole process goes smoother and these guys get to relax a little and take their time making an epic, layered album like Still Life, but in whatever direction they want to take the music.
segaszivos
Member
I love Opeth for many reasons, but it seems that one thing that the band is good at is expanding their fanbase's musical horizon. I am sure that many people got into Death Metal after hearing Opeth, I know that I did. I am sure that some people got into Progressive rock after listening to Damnation. I am sure that some people will get into Black metal if Opeth releases a black metal album in the future. So to some, who haven't heard much Prog, you might think that it may be the best Prog album ever, and an insta-classic. To those who have always liked prog, you might think that it is an average album.
I find it strange for me. I have always listened to Prog-rock, yet I still find Damnation to be a masterpiece. I like it more than many albums and it seems to be one of my favorite prog albums.
I find it strange for me. I have always listened to Prog-rock, yet I still find Damnation to be a masterpiece. I like it more than many albums and it seems to be one of my favorite prog albums.
NFU
I like pie.
Ok, i dont find much about it to be prog-rock to be honest. It has some background mellotron...some acoustic guitars and clean vocals, and some off time signatures from time to time. Agreed...these elements are often found in prog rock...but this does not make damnation a PROG ROCK album. In fact, i dont really see it as progressive in any way other than the fact the band hasnt done something like this before. So ill give the label to it for that sense alone. But the album is quite structured and formulaic...and so i wont slap it with the progressive rock tag as quickly as most of you. A prog rock album should be unpredictable at least a bit...where as once i heard 45 seconds of 90% of the damnation material, i knew exactly what the songs were going to do, and where they were headed. i will not call this album a masterpiece. i will take calling prog rock under consideration. I will call it an experimental rock album influenced by many things, above all...by a songwriter who wanted to try something new, and has a liking for the sound of the 70s.
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