DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED! let me start by saying that ghost reveries is probably my favorite album of all time. I agree with virtually nothing that you are saying. i am a long time opeth fan who got into them through Still Life, but besides the point, i DOES matter who listens to them. when i saw them on the GR tour, it was like seeing all my old friends who had also been to every show for like 5 years, but on the 2nd leg of the Watershed it was infested by little kids, and scene kids, but most of all.... kids. kids who are screaming "Hex Omega" and " Play "would?" cover!!" while we are calling out "TWILIGHT IS MY ROOOOOOBE!" and "BASTARD SON OF GOD!"
ya i have a major problem with newer opeth fans, especially the damnation obsessed ones who can stand anything else they do, yet always are looming around where ever Opeth are to be seen or talked about. I was at Progressive Nation 08 with a few friends one time and we were talking about MAYH in comparison to Still Life when some kid behind us randomly is like "I dont like anything Pre-Damnation, just cant stand the cookie moster vocals, he he." I about squashed im into a state of damnation after saying that but i merely told im to GTFO of hear then you little shit. all these "casual" fans and there wallets are what is making bands like Opeth stray farther and farther away from their roots in exchange for a more mainstream friendly sound in order to please many and piss of few. dont get me wrong, Damnation is legendary, but trying to compare Watershed with GR is laughable at best. GR is complition of everything they've ever done, it has a concept reflecting mid-old style, beautiful mellotronic passages brought by stephen wilson in new era opeth, and brutal chords and vox that made me think i was listening to Advent when i was actually listening to Beneath the Mire. Akerfeldt has turned into one of the biggist and most arrogant media whores ive ever seen, and the fact that he would let a song go on a gangster rap infested idiotic game like saints row is just proof that the "opeth excperience" will never be what it once was.