GR has made me rediscover the true opeth

[the opeth affinity]

GR isnt a bad album, some great riffs, stuning solos, acoustic breaks and beautiful/heavy vocals, BUT, it has made me 'rediscover' the older opeth albums orchid, MAYH, and especially still life, along with morning rise what i concider their greatest acheivement.
its obvious mike had two choices when preparing for GR,
1) go down the death/black metal road which he was concidering as we saw on the lamentations DVD, or
2) take the route which is now evident, the prog rock sound which is even more present than ever, opeths could always combine these two sound to fuse, err, well, opeth but in my opinion its influence has become more of a hinderence than anything else or it could have something to do with the RR signing, i dont know anymore, basically the older stuff rules!

 

[:Wreath:]

Great... But next time if you want to shift the blame for Opeth's new sound on RR, find the older threads cause this is getting retarded...

 

[April Etheral]

yeah...i was a bit dissapointed with that, i was expecting an evil death/ black metal album but we got a good album nonetheless...just not a real death metal one

To me they are like two different bands.... theres Pre-Wilson Opeth which rules in a totally brutal and raw way...
Then theres Wilson-era Opeth which rules in a refined yet still Brutal way....

I'm not sure which i prefer...though Blackwater Park is the album which got me into Opeth and i'm a huge Pine Tree fan ^^

 

[BrandonS]

*chops down the porcupine tree, and defecates in the blackfield*

 

[BurningSky]

Why are so many people on this board so terribly retarded? Roadrunner has absolutely nothing to do with the Opeth sound. Roadrunner should be sucking Opeth's collective Swedish dick for giving that label some credibility. Mike already explained why they signed to roadrunner, so to think that the music has anything to do with it, you must hate to read or something.

In any event, yes their older albums are awesome, but the musicianship has come so far since those albums, along with the songwriting. Appreciate Still life for being still life, mayh for being mayh, etc. Don't try to make it seem like Still life is incredible because compared to ghost reveries, its more musically pure and untainted by the band's success. I hear so many elements in Ghost Reveries that Opeth have used since their MAYH days. There are many songs like they could have been still life-era Opeth, like Harlequin Forest, some of Ghost of perdition, and such. The difference is that since still life, Mikael has gained even more influences and confidence, allowing him to take the songs even further. My favorite song on Still Life is Godhead's lament, just for the flow and scope of genres it covers, but you take a song like Ghost of Perdition and you're stepping it up.

Again, if you start a sentence with "roadrunner negatively affected opeth's music because..." then you might as well just stop right there and step into on-coming traffic.

 

[Manbient]

he didn't though. You fucks. That was a tiny footnote on the end of his thread. Good job on fucking it up assholes.

 

[halfdeadhippo]

yeah...i was a bit dissapointed with that, i was expecting an evil death/ black metal album but we got a good album nonetheless...just not a real death metal one

To me they are like two different bands.... theres Pre-Wilson Opeth which rules in a totally brutal and raw way...
Then theres Wilson-era Opeth which rules in a refined yet still Brutal way....

I'm not sure which i prefer...though Blackwater Park is the album which got me into Opeth and i'm a huge Pine Tree fan ^^

Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't say that Wilson jumping on board marked the change in styles between "old Opeth" and "new Opeth". The change came after Morningrise, when the band's sound went from the guitars playing a melody and a countermelody almost strictly to My Arms, Your Hearse, where the guitars began playing more chord based parts with lots of octave intervals and layer upon layer on the recordings. Does anybody else hear this or is it just me?

 

[Manbient]

no, i hear that too, i think it's obvious that was the biggest jump in terms of changes to their sound.

 

[Jon Snow]

Wtf is the 'true' Opeth? This is getting rigoddamndiculous.

 

[king_chicken]

Wtf is the 'true' Opeth? This is getting rigoddamndiculous.

yeah i know.
its normal for a band to change over time
sometimes for the good
sometimes for the bad
it has happened and its not like opeths gonna be like
"sorry i didnt know you guys liked our old stuff beter"
cos they

 

[MetalAges]

This board has been pretty decent lately guys, let's not get into the "I'm right" "No I'm right" crap again.

I highly doubt Mikael would let any label or person force him to compose a certain way or release something he is not 100% behind. Some artists would rather go back to being unsigned before they would stoop into that territory. I think Mikael would fall into that category.

P.S. I friggin love the new album

 

[atropos_project]

The irony here is that if GR sounded like any of thier old material, you'd have an equal amount of people complaining that the band is stagnating, need a new direction, bla bla bla.

Bands have to evolve, unless you're in AC/DC or King Diamond

 

[:Wreath:]

^ I'd definitly add Iron Maiden to that set

 

[the opeth affinity]

Again, if you start a sentence with "roadrunner negatively affected opeth's music because..." then you might as well just stop right there and step into on-coming traffic.[/QUOTE]

As i said before, i dont dislike GR, but iIN MY OPINION the opeth sound has changed in quite a big way, forget about about the whole RR having an influence, i didnt say they had a direct influence on the music, the album was probably well under way before the signing, but its hard to ignore all this MTV music video stuff and editing TGC to 3 or 4mins or whatever, and might i add that in my opinion TGC IS the weakest opeth song i have ever heard, that start/stop riff sounds terrible and it sounds completly alien to the opeth sound, im just voicing my opinion/concern the addition of per wiberg is also unnecessary, the band has evolved their sound over the years at a steady and constant pace, probably like most bands, THAT may have been the difference we see in the GR album, what do you think?

 

[CAIRATH]

How can you listen to GR and say that Per is unnecessary? Yeah the band was awesome before he was there but if you paid attention to the last 3 albums you would notice a lot of piano/keyboard parts so it makes perfect sense for them to get an actual keyboard player in the band. It's not like they can drag Steven Wilson out on tour or something. And having keyboards all over your last 4 albums but not having a keyboard player in the band and just calling him your "touring player" whenever you go on tour would be ridiculous. Keyboards are part of Opeth's sound now so they needed a keyboard player in the band.

And Per had a tremendous influence on GR's sound so it's not like he's a 5th wheel or something.

 

[Ben_Bids_You_Farewell]

GR isnt a bad album, some great riffs, stuning solos, acoustic breaks and beautiful/heavy vocals, BUT, it has made me 'rediscover' the older opeth albums orchid, MAYH, and especially still life, along with morning rise what i concider their greatest acheivement.
its obvious mike had two choices when preparing for GR,
1) go down the death/black metal road which he was concidering as we saw on the lamentations DVD, or
2) take the route which is now evident, the prog rock sound which is even more present than ever, opeths could always combine these two sound to fuse, err, well, opeth but in my opinion its influence has become more of a hinderence than anything else or it could have something to do with the RR signing, i dont know anymore, basically the older stuff rules!

You're a dickhead.

 

[BurningSky]

At this point, calling Per unnecessary is like calling Peter unnecessary. They're both as instrumental in the band's direction (since it mostly hinges on mike) and i would say that Per's contribution is more direct, noticeable, and more important to the songs. Cutting 5 minutes out of TGC shouldn't piss you off because wake up, thats how the record industry works. You can't be on roadrunner and not have a credible single. It's like youre ever gonna hear that song on a regular basis anyhow, so who cares really? Calling it the weakest track is just opinion, so i wont touch that. Opeth are progressing as much as they always have. This album sounds nearly nothing like the last, as is the trend for them. It seems like alot of people are pissed that the album is not what they expected, not some black metal masterpiece. I can't stand that mentality because one thing i love about opeth is they never do what I expect and they're one of the few bands i listen to that i don't lose faith in.

 

[the opeth affinity]

yeah...i was a bit dissapointed with that, i was expecting an evil death/ black metal album but we got a good album nonetheless...just not a real death metal one

To me they are like two different bands.... theres Pre-Wilson Opeth which rules in a totally brutal and raw way...
Then theres Wilson-era Opeth which rules in a refined yet still Brutal way....

I'm not sure which i prefer...though Blackwater Park is the album which got me into Opeth and i'm a huge Pine Tree fan ^^

ahh, someone who hasnt got their fingers in their ears. a agree totally with what your saying, ive tried to discuss the new GR record and its different sound but for some reason people on this forum take great offence to any criticism of opeth, eve if its constructive