New Opeth reviews

skellington said:
A 'Classic rock' review site has reviewed Opeth
http://www.warr.org/opeth.html
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I agree with a few of this reviewers points, damnation may have a couple drawn out songs and orchid does have some weak moments. It seems though that hes not much into the style of music that Opeth plays which gives him a slightly skewed viewpoint towards the bands music. Hes not unfair in his ratings based on what he finds valuble assets in songwriting and talent in general, but having an expert in the style of classic rock review a progressive death metal bands discography is kind of like having a person who specialises in chick flicks review several horror movies. The movie critic can tell if the actors are either convincing or not, if the lighting fits the scene and gives it the proper mood, if the plot was interesting, all the logistics based on what he or she knows about movies. However, as impartial as the critic trys to be theres always some personal opinion thrown into the mix and itll probably get a slightly lower rating than someone who is a horror movie fanatic. I try not to pay too much attention to reviews, if everyone is raving an album Ill check it out and it peeks my interest and it may introduce me to a good band I havnt heard, but there have been plenty of times where an album has got a bad review and I get it used for cheap and actually really enjoy it and vice versa. Not a bad review overall though.
 
Dante's Inferno said:
Maybe I'm seeing this from a fan perspective, but the first guy has really high standards. BWP a 2,5/5 album? Oh come on.

I like allmusic's better.

Orchid (3/5)
Morningrise (4/5)
My Arms, Your Hearse (4.5/5)
Still Life (4.5/5)
Blackwater Park (4.5/5)
Deliverance (4.5/5)
Damnation (4/5)
Ghost Reveries (4.5/5)

Link: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=OPETH&sql=11:d9ftxqehld6e~T2
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Haha, thats more like it. Although I think I would have to push up GR up to that 5 mark. I guess at least the guy gave them a little room for improvement, lol.
 
"At this point, the band wasn't doing much with time signatures, but their other key elements are in place: extremely heavy sections with Satanic vocals "
lol...
 
Rocker0803 said:
I agree with a few of this reviewers points, damnation may have a couple drawn out songs and orchid does have some weak moments. It seems though that hes not much into the style of music that Opeth plays which gives him a slightly skewed viewpoint towards the bands music.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that mean he's writing from an objective, disinterested viewpoint and that his review is not skewed as a result? Those reviews are among the most accurate i've seen, except for the scoring. Problem with most Opeth reviews is they ARE written by fans, which is probably why you end up with scores of 4.5 for GR.
 
Rocker0803 said:
Haha, thats more like it. Although I think I would have to push up GR up to that 5 mark. I guess at least the guy gave them a little room for improvement, lol.
Click to expand...
They actually don't give that many 5-star reviews unless it's an older classic*(check out Led Zeppelin's discography for example). So 4,5 is kinda the top score unless it's an 'older' album. There are a few 5-star reviews that's new, but not many.

And the different reviews are mostly by different persons.
 
hibernal_dream said:
Wouldn't that mean he's writing from an objective, disinterested viewpoint and that his review is not skewed as a result? Those reviews are among the most accurate i've seen, except for the scoring. Problem with most Opeth reviews is they ARE written by fans, which is probably why you end up with scores of 4.5 for GR.
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I see where your coming from and its a valid point, but should a reviewer thats not interested in what he or she is reviewing be writing a review on the material in the first place? Reviews are supposed to be objective I agree, but with an artform as subjective as music theres always going to be some personal preference thrown in regardless of how fair the reviewer trys to be. If someone asks me to review a cd praised by rap fans as the greatest rap album ever made, I will probably score it lower than people who enjoy that style of music. The point of a review is to try and compare what you will think about the work based on the reviewers opinion. Id personally much rather compare my opinion to someone who knows what thier talking about.
 
affinityband said:
How on earth did that guy give a low score to gr and bwp and make deliverance the best score. loser.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking. He rates albums low that include greatly crafted songs and then rates one of their downpoints the highest out of all albums. I still like Deliverence a lot, but to have it higher than every album is absurd.

If i were to rate them all at once, I'd have it:

Orchid: 3/5
Morningrise: 4/5
My Arms, Your Hearse: 4/5
Still Life: 5/5
Blackwater Park: 4/5
Deliverence: 3.5/5
Damnation: 4/5 (It's impossible to compare it to the other albums, but for what it is, I like it a lot)
Ghost Reveries: 4/5
 
hibernal_dream said:
Good thread idea. And those reviews are among the most accurate i've seen.

http://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/opeth.html
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"Wreath, a majestic eleven-minute gothic fantasia that proceeds from agonizing doom-metal to fast hard-rock and to quasi-grindcore".
Grindcore? Im not a huge fan of the song but I dont remember Wreath having any blast beats and straight tremelo bass lines, lol. I think giving My Arms Your Hearse a 5.5 out of 10 is a crime against heavy metal. In fact the highest rating he gives an Opeth disk is 7 out of 10, the rest are around 6 or less. If that was a rating system on a test in scool that would be D's and F's. Anyone who doesnt give the majority of Opeths discography at least a passing grade is not credible in my opinion.
 
5/10 is a passing grade, so he passes all of them. No one cares about high school grading systems in the real world. And Wreath certainly does border on grindcore at times, justifying the quasi-grindcore label.
 
Reviewing an entire discography is a lot of work. Especially with prog albums, who tend to need a few spins before they creep under your skin. So the way to do is either by being a fan, a metal or prog journalist (in Opeth's case), or you can have more than one person participate.

And I know I'm a fan and everything, but the two top links seems to have very low scores. If there's any metal-band that should be critically praised, it should be Opeth. They just seems like the right band for that.
 
A number of metal artists are evolving way past metal. Acts like Orphaned Land, Kayo Dot and Green Carnation have moved us beyond metal into something that is a fascinating new combination of heavy, death, doom, and black metal, combined with acoustic and folksy music, tinges of jazz, electronica, and space music, and yes, symphonic prog. The whole brew is masterfully blended with the traditional elements of progressive music - wonderful musicianship, complex structures with little evidence of the verse/chorus/verse format, and long songs that move through interesting shifts in tempo, time meters and keys. This stuff is really progressing - in the truest sense of the word - probably faster and in more interesting ways than any other genre.

Opeth is at the forefront of this movement, and they have achieved something that has escaped almost every other prog-whatever outfit: They actually sell! They fill venues across the world, and are beginning to find acceptance in music's mainstream. On the one hand, any modern-day headbanger will appreciate their blend of death metal growls and ripping double-bass, and the bone-hard distorted riffs. On the other hand, there are long sections of elegant, mellow music that could have emanated from Camel - which was band-leader Mikael Åkerfeldt's favorite 1970s prog band.

The staff at Sea Of Tranquility has taken the time to review Opeth's entire back catalog. Click here for a full list of these reviews, which collectively amount to 16,000 words and constitute one of the most comprehensive retrospectives of Opeth's music, anywhere, ever.

Click on each item to see the review.

Year Album Reviewer Rating
1995 Orchid Pete Pardo
1996 Morningrise Murat Batmaz
1998 My Arms, Your Hearse SoT Archives
1999 Still Life Murat Batmaz
2001 Blackwater Park Pete Pardo
2002 Deliverance Duncan Glenday
2003 Damnation Steve Pettengill
2004 Lamentations (DVD) Jedd Beaudoin
2005 Ghost Reveries Pete Pardo

Year Item By
2004 Interview With Mikael Åkerfeldt Duncan Glenday
2005 Opeth's ''Ghost Reveries'' Chart Positions Revealed! Pete Pardo
2005 Opeth, Nevermore, and Into Eternity at Webster Hall in NYC Pete Pardo
2006 Opeth at Yenimelek Concert Hall in Istanbul, Turkey Murat Batmaz

Link: http://www.seaoftranquility.org/article.php?sid=679

Cheers!
 
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