How and when did you get to know Opeth?

[Vehemens]

Noticed how the first songs everyone's heard have been Blackwater Park, Deliverance, and Demon Of The Fall...? And most people have hated My Arms... at first.

Hmm.

 

[OpethNZ]

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!

I first heard Opeth through a TAPE that had Blackwater Park on one side of it, that a mate of mine got off a guy he works with at a petrol station, at first i thought it was pretty "meh", and to be honest i was put off by the death vocals, and i didnt listen to it more than once, but then my mate bought the cd and i got a copy of it, listened to it heaps and got into it so much, couldnt stop listening, evntually went out and bought Blackwater Park, followed by Still Life, then MAYH, and the rest when im not so poor ....and from above i know what you mean about 'obscure' in New Zealand, everyone is like "who the fuck is opeth!?" and as soon as they hear it or see the genre they think youre weird for listening to it, well fuck them they dont know what theyre missing out on....as for getting cds, ive found that echo and sounds are about the only places that have Opeth cds...echo has everyone of theirs now...good luck finding them man

 

[The Sound Gardener]

Right at the beginning of freshman year of high school my friend and I (along with the rest of the freshman class) went to a crappy assembly, and instead of paying attention to that my friend let me listen to BWP, and needless to say, I was hooked.

 

[Pita Bread]

I first heard Opeth on 89.5 WSOU (NJ College Radio Station) when I used to live in NJ. The rest is history.

 

[Demoke]

Well, I wasn't scared of the vocals or the music... A friend of mine was introducing me to progressive metal (Symphony X and Dream Theater), then another one to growls (Moonspell -Irreligious, a great album-) and one of my teachers at university, too. We used to comment on songs, lyrics and music from bands like Within Temptation (album: "Enter", another great one) and Anathema (Eternity), while he had a project band called "Beyond the Forest" (in reference to Dracula and the Carpathian forest), now called "Chamber of Nymphs" (none of them was really good). Somehow all this stuff seemed to me rather mellow. I needed something else, much heavier, and that's why I started exploring other bands like Cathedral, Eternal Mourning, just at random. The promised land came after advise from some friends of mine. They had just been to the "Scandinavian tour party", with In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, To Die For and Sentenced. That stuff was much more appealing to me... but the 100% combining a bit of all, growls, clean voice, progressive and extreme music plus cool lyrics... that was Opeth. How lucky I was to come across them!

 

[Vehemens]

I saw Damnation in Sounds in Hamilton but it's not there anymore (since I bought it!) and I remember them saying something about sometimes having Blackwater Park. Meh I'll just get them off Real Groovy even if it is a bit more expensive.

But yeah most people who have heard Opeth (as a result of my constant blabbering about them) have probably either loved it or been scared by it hahahahaha!

 

[ViCyniC]

I was initially and immediately turned off by the growling. That was to be the natural reaction after years of hearing happy, fun, peaceful vocals from various artists. So after like, say 3 seconds of growling from Opeth, I turned it off. Then a week later, I decided to give it another try, this time bringing myself to endure the growls to see where the music would lead me. I couldn't have comprehended the level of beauty and etheralness that came right after the monstrous growls. From that point on, I needed the dynamics of both brute and beauty to appreciate Opeth in their fullest form.

 

[Maq]

I had the same experiences as Apprentice's Master... Now I do think that you either love or hate Opeth, and that some people are just created to listening to it... WE ARE THE CHOSEN ONES!

 

[The Serpent King]

A couple of years age, I was in a messageboard and someone was talking about Opeth. I never heard of them and I took a chance. The first Opeth CD I bought was Blackwater Park.

 

[KennonKun]

Well, I might as well start by saying I've always been and always will be obsessed with album cover art. That's actually how I bought my first album, Tool's Lateralus, and I'm aware that it has nothing to do with Opeth. So, as my obsession with Tool grew, I figured that there had to be other really creative, beautiful music out there like it, that crossed boundaries. So, that was the kind of music I decided to dedicate myself to. Sure, I'll find a catchy song on the radio by some hard rock band, but those people sell themselves short. I want music by a group of people who were inspired, and together produced an awesome result that would really take me by surprise. Not the kind of surprise like loud noise all of a sudden, but something that flowed, and would just keep doing great stuff. I got into Opeth in December 2002, when a friend of mine was posting about his recently discovered bands, and he said something like "Despite what most people's initial reaction would be, Opeth really is a great band." So I pieced together before listening to them that they must do something really different. So, I took a listen to some songs he had uploaded, my first being The Twilight Is My Robe. I found out what "despite what many people's initial reaction may be" meant, but I never really had a problem with the growling. I won't ditch a band because of one thing, but I will probably be annoyed with something about a band and never get over it. Opeth's death vocals never bothered me to begin with. The only real problem is that because Mikael Akerfeldt can sing death metal and does, for me it almost ruins the fact that he can sing beautifully in a regular voice. I doubt anyone would ever picture someone who sings death metal having a great clean voice, and because he sings death metal, I feel odd saying that he's one of my favorite vocalists ever, because the death vocals are the first things that come to mind when they think of a death metal singer. My second Opeth song was To Bid You Farewell, and at the time, I probably liked it even more than The Twilight Is My Robe. I kind of lost some of my appreciation for TBYF, but not all of it. I begged my friend to upload more songs, and after having heard enough on the computer, I bought Blackwater Park. I remember how surprised I was when The Leper Affinity faded in. I then bought D1, Still Life, MAYH, and Morning Rise on Amazon. Here I am, completely obsessed, collecting as many bootleg concerts and press clippings as I can.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Hi everyone I'm new on this board!

I heard of Opeth just through various message boards. I was already a fan of melodic death metal so growling was not a problem for me (actually a turn on). So I just randomly decided to order Orchid from the Century Media site and when I got it I liked it so I bought Blackwater Park next. That's when I really, really started to appreciate Opeth. I went back and listened to Orchid some more and decided "holy shit this is one kick ass band!" Plus I think some of the best music is the kind that has to grow on you first.

So I bought My Arms, Your Hearse and I put it on my car stereo and was blown away. Honestly, when that song When was over this was my expression: I could not stop listening to that CD. It's so freaking SAD I love it! It's one of my all time favorite albums now. I have everything else now except Still Life, they never have that one in the stores. I need to order it next.

 

[the alumnus]

a friend sent me an mp3 of "the night and the silent water". i thought it was pretty good, and then i caught the identity 5 sampler, which had when on it. after i heard that i bought all three opeth cds, and have been buying their releases as soon as they are available (until the last one).

 

[MajestikMøøse]

There was this quaint little album called "Blackwater Park" that a bunch of people on the offical Iced Earth boards were raving about, so I got it. I won't go any further into detail about this as you could already guess the rest of the story.

 

[cityofthemoon666]

I was working a shitty job in december last year at a fast food restaraunt, and we were on clean up which went till bout 12:30am. I was working with this metal head there who had just got opeth fever and raved about them so he put on blackwater park, i wasnt into death vocals back then, but when the clean parts in bleak, harvest and drapery came in i had a listen. I Downloaded blackwater Park, within a month i had all albums and they have been my favorite band ever since

 

[The Silent Water.]

well, there has been a time when i downloaded pretty much music because i had no other chance to discover new bands (no stores near by and my friends don't like my music :Smug: ). so i randomly leeched full albums, listened to them, bought them when i liked 'em or just deleted the downloads.
however, little time after BP has been released i leeched it but it wasn't love at the first sight (i wasn't into growling cause pure thrash was my fav by then) ... i kept the downloads but (please hit me VERY hard!) forgot them! a few months later i discovered a band called graveworm (one of my favs by now ) and suddenly i liked growling :Spin:. and just a lil later i re-discoverd my opeth downloads and fell in love with the music. as fast as possible i got my first 2 opeths cds (SL and BP). in the meantime i completed my opeth collection (i even have 2 copies of BW - the older one got a horrible scratch right in the best party of my fav song ) and currently i'm looking forward to buy the dvd (alas amazon.de has got no more copies ).

that's my lil story

 

[Stereotypical]

I have this obssession with swedish metal...so i discovered them while browsing www.swedishmetal.net downloaded a couple of mp3s and fell in love with them!! :Spin:

 

[dalailamer]

A friend of mine used to DJ on a radio show and was/is a massive Opeth fan... thought I'd check em out... probably one of the few DJ's to play 10 minute Opeth songs! As for the growls, I like having both, I'm disappointed Amorphis has pretty much dropped their growls.

 

[The Silent Water.]

yeah, i also miss the growls on their ew stuff but it's still nice music

 

[charnee]

Umm..I was searching for new bands..and my brother was helping (like the loving brother he is not) and he was like "here, Opeth. Good reviews on them." Then boom. This was a year ago or something.

 

[Haiwei]

I heard of Opeth for the first time when i was looking for Iron Maiden covers on the net.. So I came across Opeth's version of Remember Tomorrow. I liked it very much and downloaded two songs: Blackwater Park and Demon of the Fall. At the time my taste for music was just getting heavier from classic acts like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath etc, so those songs were a disappointment for me 'cause of the vocals. I forgot them for a year. Half an year ago I thought i'd give them a second chance, since i had really started to like many death and Prog metal bands. So I downloaded Deliverance and the next day I went to a store and bought the record. Now they're one of my favorites.

I wonder if i'm the only one who discovered Opeth through that Remember Tomorrow -cover song?