although breathing shadow is ghey for callinng it gay i have to agree. The major key absolutely destroys that clip utterly. This is something that opeth have been doing. Mike, in exploring style sometimes puts major with minor and it fails completely and succeeds brilliantly sometimes (see start of dirge for november). This suggests unfortunately that mikes clean vocal melody lines are just ad libs he thought of which suggests an element of "luck" in the songs, normally they've been lucky but when mike clean sings in the major key on baying of the hounds he has struck the single most awkward key change I've ever heard in metal. Yes its a pretty bold statement but that modulation is so badly thought through that it has cast doubt as to whether mikael actually thinks about the clean melody line.
The guitars on this album from what ive heard are incredible, so intricate, so neat but in Baying of the hounds and a little bit in GoP (but its forgiveable) the clean vocals have a great tone but the melody is just.....can only be described as a stab in the dark.
