How and when did you get to know Opeth?

[squeegee your third eye]

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!

Crimson Floyd, cool to see you listening to Dylan--one of my favorites.

A year and a half ago or so I was checking out newer Euro metal bands on Amazon. I'm a late 80's thrash/classic metal guy myself, plus I listen to folk and singer/songwriter stuff. The descriptions of acoustic/metal intrigued me so I ordered Still Life. I was really impressed my the Moor, but it took a couple months to completely warm to their music as a whole. I appreciated it what didn't really connect with it. I wasn't quite getting my head around it. The songs tended to sound the same. I was impressed but not seduced.

When Deliverance came out I was really hungry for ambitious dark metal--my tastes were becoming open for something more extreme--and I saw it sitting in the shop and on a whim I grabbed it. Something about the dark cover and song titles fit my mood, and I'd been thinking recently that Opeth *could* click with me if I gave them a fresh chance, since I have a taste for the extremes of music: acoustic folk and metal. And something about that album hooked me--the riffs, clarity, the prog production touches--and I became obsessed, and here I am today, having seen them all three last tours... he he he...

Plus, getting into Opeth helped introduce me to all those Swedish metal bands and helped my tastes move towards the more extreme. While I was used to and enjoyed shrieking & screaming like Kreator, the more drawn-out, low register growl of death metal took a little getting used to. But not much getting used to, 'cause it's so well-done, unlike most death metal bands IMO.

BTW, can't wait for the new Dark Tranquillity DVD to arrive from the End.

 

[Hypnos]

When 'Orchid' was released I saw it in a CD-store, listened to it there and got the album. Very simple. Then I got 'Morningrise' soon after it came out, 'MAYH' followed. After that came 'Still Life' and in 2001 i got 'Blackwater Park'. The rest of the story is easy to figure out: I got 'Deliverance' as soon as it appeared in the stores and 'Deliverance' is the last member of my Opeth-journey.

 

[Servo]

(I don't remember exactly when) but sometime during late 1998 I began reading all about how wonderful My Arms Your Hearse was on different message boards and in mags. Without having heard it, I ordered it from Century Media. My life has been forever changed

 

[Nightfall Orchard]

I had unfortunately been listening to pop and rap for about six or seven years, and one of my friends listened to death metal—Opeth and Cradle Of Filth in particular. It took me about… three weeks, I’d say, before I had gotten to the point where I not only liked Cradle Of Filth’s vocals, but the guitar as well, so, I abandoned rap and stuck with death metal. I eventually went back over to my friend’s place and he started playing Blackwater Park on his computer—the first and only Opeth song I had heard and would hear for awhile. What I find odd about it all was that it was not the growls Mikael produced that I had trouble getting used to—it was the clean vocals. Only after calming an obsession with In Flames did I begin finding more time to listen to Opeth, and eventually, I bought Deliverance as my first album. Next followed Blackwater Park, My Arms, Your Hearse and Morningrise, which has remained my favorite album ever as of late.

 

[DeathChild]

A friend of mine introduced them to me a few years ago, first time i heard "Death Whispered A Lullaby" I was fucking blown away.

 

[Nico]

I cant realy recall... The Funeral Portrait was the first track I listened to through... death metal vocals were never a bother for me, as I'd listened to Cannibal Corpse and Deicide before hand.... death metal vox had always been of extreme interest for me, so when i first heard Opeth, I though 'what a bunch of softcocks' because of the inclusion of melodic vocals... how wrong can a person be? I borrowed a mates Morningrise and after one listen I was simply in love... I cant explain the feeling... simply knowing that this is the band I was destined to listen to for the rest of my days... I soon bought Still Life, Damnation, Deliverence and Orchid... and then My Arms, Your Hearse and Morningrise... Blackwater Park and onwards is obviously inferiour by many standards, but a band like this deserves all it gets.