Discovering Opeth

[Darktran]

The brother of my best friend was and still is a big fan of swedish metal and "unknown" group. He's the one who finds the great among the infnity of bands.
As i remember, my friend and i were all hooked up on bands like King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Venom, Anathema, early In Flames, Tool, Dark tranquillity.

Then, in fall of 95, the postman brings us the holy gift. Directly from europe, we unpacked this strange looking cd from a metal band. A big pink flower ! Since that day, Opeth lives beside us...

 

[Jude]

This thread has probably been done before but I was too lazy to look through all of the old threads. Anway, I was wondering how all of you found out about Opeth, what was the first cd you heard and got, and which is your favorite cd?
I didn't learn about Opeth until about May of this year...so about 5 months ago. I kept hearing good things about the band and then heard TGC played on Sirius radio in June. I liked what I heard and decided to pick up one of their cds. I went to a local store and the only one they had was Orchid so I got that. I absolutely loved the cd and since then have picked up the rest of their catalogue. I love all of the cds but I have to say that Orchid is still my favorite one.

Since you're in Philly, do you know any good stores to get Opeth albums at? Rock and Roll Plus got shut down and Tower/FYE/etc have ripoff prices.

I got into Opeth partly because of Porcupine Tree, partly because everyone on musicianforums.com whores them. I started off with Damnation, then downloaded a leak of Ghost Reveries. I think Still Life came after that. Then I hastily downloaded the rest of their catalogue. I'm still working on buying it all.

 

[all_sins_undone]

eh, most of you where "instantly hooked" or immediately, most Opeth takes awhile and a few listens to settle in, i refuse to believe you heard them and where like "oh wow, thats great music" because at first, its not.

So true. The first time I heard Opeth is was almost disgusted. But there was something about the songs that made me stay listening. After a week or two, I got hooked.

 

[xXBraveMurderDay]

I had heard so much hype about Opeth about the time they had released Blackwater Park. I thought I would check em' out, so I bought their newest CD released at the time which was Blackwater Park. I loved it. I then picked up Orchid in Vinyl.

After that I lost touch with Opeth and never picked up Deliverance or Damnation. The time when Ghost Reveries was announced, was when I picked up their older releases, and soon Ghost Reveries. I now own all releases and I'm addicted. I don't go a day without listening to em' .

 

[m_sutin]

the first song i heard was black rose immortal cause i heard the hype on it, i liked it, but at first i wasnt AMAZED, but after repeated listens i really liked it , now opeth is a favourite band

 

[RamsesBringerOfWar]

One of my friends told me to check them out, I downloaded a couple of tracks - only one I can remember downloading was Circle of the Tyrant and I thought wow cool

I forgot about them then I heard Damnation - it blew me way. First album I bought was either Still Life or MAYH and Deliverance. I remember buying the last two together so I think they where the first Opeth albums I bought. Last album I bought was BWP - I had to order it from the US because I couldn't find it in the UK

 

[Jude]

I wasn't hooked on Opeth as soon as I heard them. I was hooked on Damnation once I heard it, but a while before that I downloaded a few other tracks, I think they were BRI, Demon of the Fall, Drapery, Blackwater Park and maybe a couple others. I did like the soft parts, but at the time I still wasn't used to death vocals and I couldn't get into it.

I became a fan of In Flames via their softer stuff and then moved up to the point where I could stand Anders' voice long enough to listen to their whole albums. After that, I did more or less the same thing with Opeth, starting with Damnation, then getting used to Ghost Reveries, and then right to Still Life.

 

[FullMetalCornflake]

Well, I used to live next door to a record shop and would haunt it when I was bored.
I noticed the "Blackwater Park" when it came out and have never even heard of Opeth before. I was a fan of cradle of filth at the time and noticed the Opeth CD has "Music for the Nations" labeled on the back of it. As many of you may know Cradle was under that same label and I thought if they were under the same label as Cradle then they must deserve a listen.

I bought the CD, I didn't have a chance to listen to it before purchase (the record store sucked and I didn't have internet back then, remember kids, years ago). I never blindly buy CDs but I knew I had to buy this one, I couldn't help myself (it was like an itch that needed to be scratched).

I bought it, I listened to it, and immediately fell in love and had to collect the Opeth's entire discography... The rest is history...

Just want to say that listening to Opeth has ruined listening to most metal bands out for me. I have been bored to tears with American Metal for the past few years and I cannot tolerate Cradle anymore. They just cant measure up, know what I mean jelly bean?

I'm happy to say that listening to Opeth has turned me on to a lot of other bands that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise (Porcupine Tree, Katatonia, Madder Mortem just to name a few) and I shudder to think what I would be listening to right now had it not been for that impulse to pick up Blackwater Park...

 

[BRI]

I heard a load of black metal fans say they were shit, and I thought black metal was shit, so I bought Opeth, and it turned out to be good shit.

 

[HazeM*]

I disagree that you don't get hooked instantly. I was sent The Moor and i haden't heard anything like it, i played it over and over again. I was facinated by the "Death vocals" and didnt stop playing it for about 3 days! then went out and bought "My arms, your hearse" then "BWP" and then eventually got the whole opeth series, i liked each one as i bought it. Depends on what your listening to before opeth i guess.

 

[paradoxile]

In 2001 I went to a local CD shop late at night just before they closed and Face of Melinda was playing...I asked to hear some other tracks.The guy in the register said the other tracks are pretty heavy...I listened a bit from each song and it kind of reminded of Camel only Metal oriented and heavier with growls.Anyway I bought Still life and kind of grew on it.later that year BWP came out I bought it even without listeneing...during 2003 and 2004 I bought the rest of the albums and the DVD.
and GR in 2005 of course.

 

[all_sins_undone]

Mike knocked on my door and said "ummm...hi, want to listen to my band?". True story.

 

[Bleak Harvest]

My buddy sent me the song Deliverence to me and I was really impressed. I went ahead and downloaded Demon of the Fall and that was it -- I was hooked.

 

[paradoxile]

Mike knocked on my door and said "ummm...hi, want to listen to my band?". True story.

Why was Mike in french Canada is more interesting

 

[xXBraveMurderDay]

I heard a shitload of hype about this band during the time when Blackwater Park was released, so I picked it up. Its still my favorite to this day..

 

[Sheepish]

I heard about them 5 years ago through a metalhead on a forum dedicated to magic mushrooms (mmmm), and he was always recommending Opeth to the metalheads on the site. After a while I figured I may as well check them out - download it and if you don't like it, can always delete.
So I downloaded Blackwater Park. Listened to it, and liked it, but had reservations about it. So I downloaded another one to see if it was all like Blackwater Park or different. Picked one at random, which happened to be Orchid. After hearing that, I was instantly hooked.
And to this day, that is hands down, my favourite album.

 

[Rocky Raccoon]

Got recommended Damnation on the "musician forums". went to real groovy & listened to it and thought WTF is this? I thought they were METAL. Went back and asked if they got any heavier? was told to try "Blackwater park" which I brought without listening to this time. I didn't like it straight away, it took a few weeks of busing to work with blackwater park on the headphones before I started to like it.
To cut a long story short, proceeded to get their entire catalogue even damnation which I now love. The thing that really made them my favourite band though was when I travelled overseas for the first time to sydney to see them live (im from auckland NZ) That was an incredible show!
Another awesome moment was when they released Ghost Reveries (the 1st new album to come out since I had been a fan) and it exceeded alll expectations!!! that was fucken awesome!!!!

 

[naboo]

I post on Musicianforums.com A LOT and made a thread about getting into a few new bands. Opeth came up as one of the suggestions and I checked them out using Windows Media Player search. I'd listen to Bleak and Harvest all the time. This was a few years ago.

EDIT: That's when I first started really getting into them. I just remembered, I discovered them when I encountered a thread on Musicianforums that was all about the most beautiful songs. Opeth - To Bid You Farewell came up and I downloaded it. I remember loving it but not checking them out for a while.

 

[naboo]

Got recommended Damnation on the "musician forums". went to real groovy & listened to it and thought WTF is this? I thought they were METAL. Went back and asked if they got any heavier? was told to try "Blackwater park" which I brought without listening to this time. I didn't like it straight away, it took a few weeks of busing to work with blackwater park on the headphones before I started to like it.
To cut a long story short, proceeded to get their entire catalogue even damnation which I now love. The thing that really made them my favourite band though was when I travelled overseas for the first time to sydney to see them live (im from auckland NZ) That was an incredible show!
Another awesome moment was when they released Ghost Reveries (the 1st new album to come out since I had been a fan) and it exceeded alll expectations!!! that was fucken awesome!!!!

Fuck yeah another Musicianforums guy. What's your screen name on it?

 

[Rocky Raccoon]

Fuck yeah another Musicianforums guy. What's your screen name on it?

OfSins&shred

How about yourself?