Hello everyone I'm new and would like to tell you of my journey...

[The Dude]

Well I think it's a beautiful story, and well told too.

 

[Demoke]

I would call it "folk" rather than "medieval." Don't ask me why!

 

[Nico]

Medieval usualy refers to cheesy power metal... and also, in my opinion, Children of Bodom. Talk about trying to sound epic!

 

[KielbasaSausage]

no he means midieval in the sense of knights, and minstrels, and the such, and i definately felt the same way listening to still life.

 

[Reign in Acai]

Still Life brings me back to the days where witches were hung and black cats were taboo. 1700's style. \m/

 

[[KOTNO]Narrot]

Ich nicht verstehe Sie durchaus mein Freund?

I actually never heard that sentence before and i am living in germany for 19 years now!

 

[Reign in Acai]

I actually never heard that sentence before and i am living in germany for 19 years now!

Well only the "in crowd" uses it.

j.k bro

 

[MoonRaven]

Lets not go by "what you've heard so far". Buy the damn album, make up your mind. Since you obviously know quite well of Opeth's dynamics, why do you assume that an album isnt good just because you downloaded a track or you heard a sample?

i have deliverance, damnation, and my arms your hearse, i said of opeths music that i have heard so far, i like damnation the most.

 

[Nico]

i have deliverance, damnation, and my arms your hearse, i said of opeths music that i have heard so far, i like damnation the most.

My post was in reference to the thread creator.

 

[MoonRaven]

My post was in reference to the thread creator.

roger.

 

[Hubster]

i have deliverance, damnation, and my arms your hearse, i said of opeths music that i have heard so far, i like damnation the most.

Hi MoonRaven, and welcome!

I got into Opeth some ago, and made myself go and buy each album in chronological order, thrashing each one out for a few weeks at a time before buying the next one.

Before that, I had heard a couple of tracks here and there, but the one that stuck out the most to me before buying any albums was The Lepper Affinity (Blackwater Park)... The reason this song stuck out so much at the time was because some of the riffs in the first half of the song reminded me of Maiden, but then Mike's clean voice combined with acoustic guitars (namely in the first acoustic break of that track) blew me away.

It was then that I decided to check them out more, and they are now the band I benchmark everything from.

I find that concentrating on their albums in chronological order helps, and also doing some reading up. Try not to read into the forum posts too much, I found reading old interviews helped a bit...

Opeth imho are not an easy band to get into because each album marks a very obvious point in their growth. No doubt, their next album will be something marking yet another step.

Here are my opinions, if you care to read them, and these are what I formed because of the way I went about the band.

The first two records see Opeth firmly entrenched into the Swedish twin guitar style, holding stronger hints of more classical and power metal. At this point as well, we see Mike's vocals more reminiscent to that of other European death metal...

Orchid:
Pure Swedish death metal, but with some startling acoustic and percussion sections here and there to make people sit up and take notice, while scratching their heads at the same time. Not many had attempted this around this time, with the exception of people like Dan Swano (notice, he did engineer the first two records as we know). While the album is great (and my personal favourite of the two), it doesn't deviate much (which for today's Opeth, is strange). Lyrically, it's a bit more typical of death metal, but still more emotional than what was around at the time.

Morningrise:
I know I could get flamed for this, but I found this record to be VERY messy. The structure of the songs sometimes seems held together, and changes of style within the tracks don't seem to flow well from one section to another, and as a result, I just didn't find the album to be cohesive enough. Great riffs and harmonies throughout, along with acoustic sections, but they all seem thrown together. However, the album is warmer than Orchid, and does have a more emotional feel, which provides a decent prelude for what came next...

What came next was My Arms Your Hearse:
(A watershed in the history of the bands music in my opinion), and things change in a BIG way. The use of twin harmonies fades back, and acoustic arrangements begin to take on a more complex form (first truly realised with the Still Life record). Imo, MAYH marks a darker point in the feel of their music, and to date, I'm sure many would agree it stands as one of their more powerful and darker albums, and certainly very emotional lyrically. The guitars on this record have the best sound if you ask me, it's thick, like an old mossy brick wall, and compliments Mike's "new" deeper growling style just beautifully. The epic Demon of the Fall makes itself the standout track, but overall, every song on this record is simply amazing. Fantastic piece of work.

With Still Life,
We see the move towards the current day Opeth sound, just not as well produced and clean. The acoustic arrangements have now become FAR more complex and take on a new priority in their music. Mike's death vocals also take on a greater range, while his clean vocals do the same. Imo, Still Life marks a massive leap forward for Mike's vocals, and also for the current line up's first complete recording together. The Moor is this album's epic, providing an amazing story, with amazing levels of emotion to go with it. The record is Opeth's first concept album, and the story has fans asking questions to this very day. We also see the introduction of more "almost entirely" acoustic tracks (Face of Melinda), which almost sounds as though Lopez using brushes instead of drumsticks. We also see a higher level of experimentation with riffing on this record, to a level of complexity not seen since Megadeth brought us Rust in Peace (see Serenity Painted Death). A great record, and imo, one of their best. Amazing work.

Next up we have Blackwater Park:
A record which marks Opeth's mastery of their newly created style, and moving into more experimental waters with the ideas of Steve Wilson. The "classical" twin harmonies now are quite dead in the water, and we also see more complex arrangements from the two Martins as well. Personally I find the sound of Lopez's snare on this album to be the best, especially on The Lepper Affinity. Lyrically, I think we see some weakness in Blackwater Park, as the emphasis does seem to be on experimentation of soundscapes. However, we do see something great on this record - Harvest, a continuation of the experiments carried out with Face of Melinda on the previous record, Still Life. Harvest is now a live favourite, causing fans to sing their guts out (if they still can after all the growling they've been doing!)

Deliverance:
here we see more of a realisation of the experimentation, each track holds an effect of some sort, and the album, while cleanly produced, holds a more crunchier sound. Again, we see Mike's death vocals take on a new skill level again, and it's also clearly obvious that he has turned death growling into a real artform. Not only that, but we see Wilson experiment more with Mike's death vocals (see By The Pain I See In Others). Deliverance, while a great album takes quite a few listens to fully realise. Wreath in my opinion, was a very empty track when I first heard it, but now, quite some after I bought Deliverance, I love the track in a big way. The title track shows a lot of aggression (for the first time since ditching the twin style imo) with the opening few minutes of the track coming at you like a speeding train. The acoustic closing section of the track provides a beautiful extreme to it's opening, and then with the final closure of the track, we see a nice long "bridge" focussed around Lopez's drumming.

Damnation:
well, we all know about this one. A totally new direction in some ways, but according to Mike, it's a one off (something I am glad about, despite this record being a really good one). A form of more self-indulgence for the guys, as Lopez says himself, they loved being able to play with complete feeling on a record, with no aggression for a change. A good experience for the guys, and a good experience for us because it's an educational record, taking us back to the more progressive areas of rock in the 70's.

So, I hope this all helps somehow, these opinions of mine. I know many may disagree, but hey, we all have our interpretations. I hope you dig the rest of the records when you get them, otherwise, welcome to the growing legion of fans!

 

[Demoke]

Thank you very much for this marvellous post -the best in a while-. It was a pleasure to read after what the new threads seem to be up to. Although for some points you are subjective -with some I agree, with others I disagree-, Still Life is not the first but the second concept album, the first one being My Arms, Your Hearse. It strikes me though, that people ask about Melinda very often, but not about the dead guy in MAYH. that's probably because he wasn't given a name at all. Both albums are the best ones in my opinion.

 

[Nico]

Interesting post, considering it'll probably go unoticed by a majority of users.

Regardless, nice to hear such an in-depth opinion.

 

[Hubster]

Interesting post, considering it'll probably go unoticed by a majority of users.

Regardless, nice to hear such an in-depth opinion.

Thanks & cheers guys: I did actually feel like writing more, but my fingers are freezing (it's a whole 9 degrees here in Bondi, Sydney).

I have noticed many times with some newer fans (note - I am no elite Opeth fan or something, I've just been listening to music critically & seriously across many genres since 1986) that, they don't seem to grasp the scope of each album, and I do find that knowing the musical progression over Opeth's career helps to appreciate each record more.

For example, while I wrote that post, I was listening to Morningrise for the first time in a while, and I actually found myself appreciating it in an entirely new way... this is considering that my copy of the record hasn't felt a fingerprint in months. After I wrote the post, I went back to the original site, and re-read the session diaries for this record. Makes you think, as the album ticks through the motions, and given the musical state of the band through each record made, you can feel them branching out as you listen to each album... Does that make sense(?)

<insert screwed up "have I just confused myself" look here>

I stand corrected as well - just after I wrote the post, I did a quick check and realised that MAYH was the first concept album. However, I have heard many people refer to Still Life as their first "true" concept subjectively.

Any comments on this? is MAYH a looser concept as opposed to Still Life? Discuss if you may.

 

[Nico]

No chance that MAYH is looser as far as concept story goes. Personaly, I beleive the story delves deeper into the personal thoughts of the character.

Still Life wins over as the obvious question holder since it has names for reference. It's a lot easier to pick up on the references of Melinda than it is to pick up on "the mysterious ghostly figure"

 

[Hubster]

I did have a feeling that My Arms Your Hearse had some kind of concept to it, but it just felt like a looser concept, to me, perhaps about breaking up with a loved one, and the pain which follows the return to loneliness... I definately find Demon of the Fall to fit this description in my eyes?

MAYH definately is the most darkest for emotion out of all the records imo. It really delves deep into the darker beauty inside depression and emotional pain, and dare I say it, provides some positivity in a paradoxically inclined way!

Still Life, as you said, makes more reference to the characters, and while told in places as first person, seems much more as a third person story.

MAYH seems first person to me... I especially love the brute force of Mike's lyrics on the record, his voice is so thick, and on some lines you can imagine that line itself taking place, as the thickness almost provides devotion to the scene described (eg "Trees bend their boughs towards the Earth" - Karma)...

God there are too many parts to that record I love. It simply has to be one of the most brilliant records I have ever heard, regardless of genre. It's not "complete" by any means, because it resides in such a transient phase of their musical progression, but that's what makes it so brilliant (especially now, in hindsight)...

 

[theguitargod]

I've always thought MAYH must have quite a strong concept to it because of the way the lyrics are arranged in the booklet, and how the lyrics from each song cleary overlap and merge together... much moreso than Still Life

 

[Nico]

Yeah, that too.

 

[dorian gray]

hubster: very nice post. well thought out and interesting. thanks for sharing. i agree with shroud on both points: that MAYH is much more the concept album than SL and also that very few users will see your post. too bad.....

 

[Vlad the Impaler]

I've been told that My Arms, Your Hearse is about a ghost watching his mourning lover slowly die of grief. It also has a sort of residual haunting theme with the emphasis on the cycle of the four seasons.