How and when did you get to know Opeth?

[Demoke]

I suppose nobody from here has first heard about Opeth on the radio and so I`m curious to know some personal experiences. In my case, I was around two winters ago in England and went for a stroll to Stockport city centre. There was this HMV store and just had a look at the metal section. Saw the Still Life cover (gorgeous!) and had a look at the back (long songs!). I definitely got it, at random, went back home, pushed play, listened to the first song (first part in The Moor), fucking disappointed (I didn`t want all the songs to sound like the first couple of minutes, of course), but soon the first riffs came on and I just got hooked, read in the booklet it was the fifth album, Blackwater Park was released,too. Got one CD after another... Today they're my total favourite band! What about you?

 

[crimsonfloyd]

First time I heard Opeth was on Amazon.com. I was randomly searching for different metal bands and I came across Opeth. From the reviews it sure sounded like something I would like, so I listened to the samples and loved them... until the death vox came in (as strange as this is to say today, the first time I heard Mikeal's voice I thought he was horrible, even compared to other growlers). So I abandoned Opeth. Later I decided to give them a shot, when I read about the concept to Still Life. I downloaded the Moor, and realy liked it, despite the vox. The more I listened to it, the more I liked it. I overcame my fear of death vox and picked up Still Life and My Dying Bride's Turn Loose the Swans about a week later. The more I listened the more I loved it and the more I got into the vocals. Now a healthy percentage of the music I listen to contains growls, and Mikeal is easily my favorite growler. Anyways back to the original question, Amazon.com samples...

 

[Vehemens]

I first heard of them when I got an issue of Metal Maniacs mag with an Opeth poster in it. Even though I had no idea who they were I put the poster up and when my mates saw it they asked me who they were. I said I didn't know other than that they were some obscure metal band (mainstream music scene here in NZ...it doesn't take much to be 'obscure'!) and so I decided to get some of their songs of the net. I downloaded a few songs from their later albums that'd been recomended by people and now they're my favourite band.

The death vocals did take a bit of getting used to though, even more so since I've never really been that much into death metal.

It's a bit of a mission actually finding their CDs though. I've only ever found one album (Damnation) in a store so I'll have to get them off the net specially and that's not too convenient since I haven't got a credit card!

 

[synergy]

I thnk I heard some samples on Amazon. Then I downloaded some songs on kazaa and was blown away. They are now my favotire band.

 

[osse87]

I first heard their name on another norwegian PC-related forum. There was a link to a Credence MP3-file. I downloaded, fell in love, visited their site and was a bit confused.

Later I heard DOTF and like, WOW! It was disgusting (exept the "mellow" part, i found it internesting to hear stuff like that in such a song). The weeks went by, I realised i liked the music but not the voice. So i downloaded MAYH.

It's been almost a year now. But i've only got Deliverance so far. Opeth is the best band I heard all my life.

 

[Mournful Death]

In the fall of 2002, my taste in metal was becoming darker and extreme metal bands were becoming my favorite bands... I had heard a lot about Opeth so I decided to check 'em out. Downloaded Bleak and I was fuckin' blown away.

Mournful

 

[Leper_/-\ffinity]

Hehe....all these people were ranting about em at this guitar forum, and then I downloaded deliverance, and benighted, and loved all of benighted, hated vocals of deliverance, but kept playing it because I just fell in live with that first clean part in deliverance, I just really felt very connected to that portion of the music for some reason, and that was like 3 days before they were comin thru town on the damnation tour, so I went to catch that, which was perfect because I wasn't into the growls yet, but needless to say, now they are BY FAR my favorite band overall, and Im pissin my pants waiiting for them to come back and play The Moor(I fucking love that song!!!).

 

[Snyper]

i think it was back when audiogalaxy was still around that i stumbled across them, really cant remember

 

[ElectricWiz]

I kept hearing about them from a distance...then one day I read some reviews online of various albums...all of which absolutely raved about 'em. I like all kinds of stuff....Tool, Bjork...Sigur Ros....and am an old Death Metal fan from the Possessed/Slayer/Bathory early days. I went and got Blackwater Park....and, honestly, could hardly believe what I was hearing. Really though, they are so esoteric that I didn't know who to tell about them. You know, one always likes to share that kind of thing. To this day I've only turned one friend onto them...who REALLY appreciates them. Man, I really really remember hearing Blackwater Park for the first time....I was soooooo hooked. I don't often say such things, but I really did sit back and think, "This is the best fucking metal record I've heard since Number of the Beast, at least in the groundbreaking, doesn't sound like anything else, gives me goosebumps way.

 

[Yonder]

I first heard their name from a friend who at that time - about '95 - ran a metal radio show in Hannover, Germany. He gave me some tunes of Orchid to hear and praised the band as 'Metal gods'. But I wasn't too happy with either the sound nor the vocals, so I forgot the band...

... for many years..

But 6 months ago I read in an Diablo2 off topic forum (Computer gamers love metal ) about 'Blackwater Park'. The poster mentioned "The drapery falls". So I downloaded it, then read about the band on www.allmusic.com. Then I downloaded 'Blackwater Park', then 'The moor'. Then I bought 'Blackwater Park' & 'Still Life', then 'Deliverance' & 'MAYH', then 'Damnation' and right at the moment I'm listening to 'Black rose immortal' and I am wondering if and where I should buy 'Morningrise'. That's the story.

 

[liquidtension]

Back in 98, while reading some reviews of the past year's albums, I ran into a MAYH review. It made second place in that particular year (OMC - The Pagan Prosperity won - not fair!!).

The review said some awesome stuff about the album and I wasn't into death metal grows at that time, basically mainstream and power/prog metal.

There was a metal page with full Morningrise album to download and when I heard "To Bid You Farewell" was love at first sight. Beautifull. Then I got into death grows listening and enjoying the rest.

Then I went into other classics of the genre like Edge Of Sanity, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames.. But it all started with Opeth ! Today it is my favorite band, ever. No doubt about it!

 

[ViCyniC]

Believe it or not, in a Linkin Park forum. I was bored as hell with their music, so I ventured into the 'Barracks' section to find other good music recommendations, and I stumbled into Opeth and heard 'Harvest' as my introduction song. After that, there was no stopping me. This was in early 2002.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Amazing that for a very high percentage of the people here, Opeth was their introduction to death vocals, and its funny that almost all of us have said the same thing, we hated the vox at first, now we love them!

 

[rhdrums]

was asking a friend of mine about where I could find some more metal and he sent me an assorted bunch of songs...two of those being april ethereal and moonlapse vertigo

and history was made

 

[DreamingofUr]

I was searching for bands from Sweden because I had recently been impressed with Meshuggah, Dark Tranquility, etc. and I stumbled on to some of their reviews. I hated them at first for some mysterious reason I cant even remember. I thought they were overrated and a whole bunch of other bullshit. But over time I went on and kept hearing about them and reading reviews from prog rock fans. Then one day I downloaded Forest of October and I was completely floored. It reminded me of my first metal song, and it was Orion. You know because of that awesome second part of the song. Well anyway, I then saw all the song names and lengths and thought they had to be worth buying. So I bought Blackwater Park and Orchid. After hearing all of Orchid as a whole I was convinced they were without a doubt my new all-time favorite band. They had it all and continued to amaze me from album to album.

 

[suislidE]

One of my friends on a chat program I use sent me this metal song, I cant remember why. Anyways he said they were this really awesome band, so I thought what the hell. It was Demon of the Fall. I liked the song as a whole, but since Ive never heard of the growls before, it really turned me off. It actually scared me at first, especially the opening lol. I didnt listen to it for a while, but when I got bored with what I was listening to I would listen to it on occassion, then more, then more, and more. Finally another friend told me he liked Opeth also, so he sent me Bleak and Blackwater Park. I was hooked... at that time those three songs were the only ones on my playlist for quite some time rofl. That was shortly after BWP was released btw.

 

[hej]

People had been raving about them for months at the Metallica boards, so I finally decided to check them out, and here I am 1 year later

 

[golbez]

i did a search for progressive metal on kazaa and came up with a bunch of results for bleak and dirge. I didnt pay much attention to them but one day I was just sitting there and dirge came up on winamp randomly and once the heavy part came in I was like "woah". I didnt even mind the voice for some reason.

 

[warsofwinter]

Played music in a band with one of my good friends. He gave me a mix tape of a bunch of "Real" metal. At the Gates, In Flames, Opeth, Arch Enemy, Emperor, Dissection, Children of Bodom, and Iced Earth. I loved pretty much every song he gave me.... it was such an awesome time in my life because it was exactly the music I was waiting to hear.... I bought 3 cd's MAYH, Cradle of Filth, and The sound by Death..... I hated MAYH but I knew that something was there that just needed time to be understood..... About 3 or 4 month's later I decided to give it another shot and i've never been the same person since. The music had the biggest impact on my life of all things i've ever experienced and I definately give eternal fucking gratitude to my friend who showed me this music......

 

[Super Mahrio]

I was in a metal chat room about 4 years ago when i first heard OF Opeth...however awhile later right after BWP came out, someone told me on that chat room to check em out so i downloaded BWP the song..i heard it and was completely blown away! it was awesome..i downloaded more of their stuff and then i became a fan...