DISCLAIMER- Don't take this too seriously. It's supposed to be a fun thought provoking read, just take it with a grain of salt. I'm not way too serious about this, just thought it was cool. I was heavily inspired by the "Opeth has run it's course" thread.
I think Opeth is pretty comparable to Black Sabbath in ways.
Orchid - Black Sabbath
Morningrise - Paranoid
My Arms, Your Hearse - Master of Reality
Still Life - Volume 4
Blackwater Park - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Deliverance - Sabotage
The first real live releases are put about at about this point.
Damnation - Technical Ecstacy
Ghost Reveries - Never Say Die
The next album has a key member missing and replaced, Heaven and Hell and TBA.
So why the fuck am I making this connection that seems completely asinine? First of all, if that's what you're thinking, stop taking this so seriously. There are a few interesting freeeaaky comparisons (the names, at times... deliverance/sabotage?
), but what I'm really getting at is the band's progression and possible fizzle out factor.
Black Sabbath and Orchid are both huge debuts. Some fans wish they never deviated from this musical path, and hold it as their favorites.
Paranoid and Morningrise are kind of the misfits of my theory here. Paranoid is the most classic and well recieved BS album, Morningrise is not that for Opeth.
Master of Reality and My Arms Your Hearse are both steps in a different direction, MAYH more so.
Volume 4 and Still Life are both absolute monsters. More care went into songwriting, a few new sonic elements introduced. Still Life seems to be the most preferred Opeth album, as opposed to Paranoid by BS. You could maybe condense the first three Opeth albums and consider them their "debut albums," and make it work like O,M,MAYH/Black Sabbath - Still Life/Paranoid - Blackwater Park/Master of Reality etc... It really doesn't matter. I don't want to get toooo exact with this whole mess, I'd rather look at the big picture than the minute details.
But now that I look at it in the "debut albums" sense, in some ways it's even more apparent.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Blackwater Park, my favorites by both bands, were very natural progressions, but not ones preferred by all. The themes from Vol.4 that didn't appear in the first 3 make themselves felt heavily in SBS in tracks like Who Are You?, and I suppose the same could be said in the comparison of Still Life to BWP. Both albums seemed to break themselves from the mold they had created, so for both bands these are turning point albums. For Opeth, it's where the exposure began it's ascent.
Sabotage and Deliverance, other than the pretty cool name connection, is more of the same. Tweaks to what worked before. Critically, they are pretty similar, with A LOT of people suggesting the first 5 BS albums and A LOT of people jumping ship with post BWP releases.
Technical Ecstacy and Damnation, another sorta cool name connection, but it's obviously an apples/oranges thing (apples, for the record). Opeth's D albums were much more closely connected than Sabotage/TE. But still a comparison can be made to the style leaps. Black Sabbath probably hadn't made such a shift since Master of Reality to Volume 4. Pretty similar to Opeth, with MAYH/Still Life being their obvious big leap. But I suppose even that could be argued.
Never Say Die and Ghost Reveries is another cool name correlation. I'll admit to not hearing the entire Never Say die album. But I do know things were going a bit awry with Sabbath. It's not seen as a really strong release, and neither is Technical Ecstacy, but it has it's fans. It does okay. The opinions about Ghost Reveries are mixed, and the sound isn't really classic Opeth.
So if we decide to be really obnoxious with this whole thing, maybe we can figure out what Opeth #9 will be like. Well we know Opeth lost a much adored key member to the band. History tells us some people will find Axenrot to be an incredible fit, some people will never go beyond the Lopez years.
We've been able to tell that the album sales don't match up so well here in this comparison. Opeth will obviously sell boatloads of whatever they put out next, and Black Sabbath slipped slightly under the radar without Ozzy, even with a major blip in it simply for having Dio. But still many fans found Heaven and Hell to be outstanding, completely loved it. It was refreshing to see Sabbath could do it after putting out some shaky stuff. Also, if the name thing holds true (and I know this is really REALLY retarded), we will see something very blunt, general, and pretty much badass. Heaven and Hell is a good strong, simple record name.
AHH WHY IS HE DOING THIS?!?!
Well because, Opeth has made it a long way. They may go down as being this generation's Sabbath. This would be extremely exaggerated obviously, because Opeth honestly aren't really pioneers or anything like that the way Sabbath was.
Not a whole lot of groups have such a rich catalogue after album #8. We all know what ended up happening with Sabbath, post Dio. If not look it up.
Led Zeppelin, the mother of all Sabbath compared bands, obviously couldn't cut it (but chalk that one up to alcohol and maybe some soul selling).
Metallica, look at those guys. I mean that situation explains itself. How many studio albums do they have out now? 9 or so? They're gonna be in the dumpster eventually, and yeah I know they already are, I'm not talking about that.
How about (insert long running band here)? How were they really after #8?
There are anomalies, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Motorhead to name a few. But history is telling me that Opeth has a few great moments left (if only for them fanboys, but I'm a borderline fanboy, why else would I do this?) but they're in the twilight of their career. Mikael is Opeth's Iommi. He'll drag this thing around as long as he can, be satisfied, then kind of sit back and wait for the word LEGEND to fall through the cracks. The history of Opeth will be mostly celebrated, even with all of the naysayers around right now.
Now talk about it if you feel like it.
I think Opeth is pretty comparable to Black Sabbath in ways.
Orchid - Black Sabbath
Morningrise - Paranoid
My Arms, Your Hearse - Master of Reality
Still Life - Volume 4
Blackwater Park - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Deliverance - Sabotage
The first real live releases are put about at about this point.
Damnation - Technical Ecstacy
Ghost Reveries - Never Say Die
The next album has a key member missing and replaced, Heaven and Hell and TBA.
So why the fuck am I making this connection that seems completely asinine? First of all, if that's what you're thinking, stop taking this so seriously. There are a few interesting freeeaaky comparisons (the names, at times... deliverance/sabotage?
), but what I'm really getting at is the band's progression and possible fizzle out factor.Black Sabbath and Orchid are both huge debuts. Some fans wish they never deviated from this musical path, and hold it as their favorites.
Paranoid and Morningrise are kind of the misfits of my theory here. Paranoid is the most classic and well recieved BS album, Morningrise is not that for Opeth.
Master of Reality and My Arms Your Hearse are both steps in a different direction, MAYH more so.
Volume 4 and Still Life are both absolute monsters. More care went into songwriting, a few new sonic elements introduced. Still Life seems to be the most preferred Opeth album, as opposed to Paranoid by BS. You could maybe condense the first three Opeth albums and consider them their "debut albums," and make it work like O,M,MAYH/Black Sabbath - Still Life/Paranoid - Blackwater Park/Master of Reality etc... It really doesn't matter. I don't want to get toooo exact with this whole mess, I'd rather look at the big picture than the minute details.
But now that I look at it in the "debut albums" sense, in some ways it's even more apparent.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Blackwater Park, my favorites by both bands, were very natural progressions, but not ones preferred by all. The themes from Vol.4 that didn't appear in the first 3 make themselves felt heavily in SBS in tracks like Who Are You?, and I suppose the same could be said in the comparison of Still Life to BWP. Both albums seemed to break themselves from the mold they had created, so for both bands these are turning point albums. For Opeth, it's where the exposure began it's ascent.
Sabotage and Deliverance, other than the pretty cool name connection, is more of the same. Tweaks to what worked before. Critically, they are pretty similar, with A LOT of people suggesting the first 5 BS albums and A LOT of people jumping ship with post BWP releases.
Technical Ecstacy and Damnation, another sorta cool name connection, but it's obviously an apples/oranges thing (apples, for the record). Opeth's D albums were much more closely connected than Sabotage/TE. But still a comparison can be made to the style leaps. Black Sabbath probably hadn't made such a shift since Master of Reality to Volume 4. Pretty similar to Opeth, with MAYH/Still Life being their obvious big leap. But I suppose even that could be argued.
Never Say Die and Ghost Reveries is another cool name correlation. I'll admit to not hearing the entire Never Say die album. But I do know things were going a bit awry with Sabbath. It's not seen as a really strong release, and neither is Technical Ecstacy, but it has it's fans. It does okay. The opinions about Ghost Reveries are mixed, and the sound isn't really classic Opeth.
So if we decide to be really obnoxious with this whole thing, maybe we can figure out what Opeth #9 will be like. Well we know Opeth lost a much adored key member to the band. History tells us some people will find Axenrot to be an incredible fit, some people will never go beyond the Lopez years.
We've been able to tell that the album sales don't match up so well here in this comparison. Opeth will obviously sell boatloads of whatever they put out next, and Black Sabbath slipped slightly under the radar without Ozzy, even with a major blip in it simply for having Dio. But still many fans found Heaven and Hell to be outstanding, completely loved it. It was refreshing to see Sabbath could do it after putting out some shaky stuff. Also, if the name thing holds true (and I know this is really REALLY retarded), we will see something very blunt, general, and pretty much badass. Heaven and Hell is a good strong, simple record name.
AHH WHY IS HE DOING THIS?!?!
Well because, Opeth has made it a long way. They may go down as being this generation's Sabbath. This would be extremely exaggerated obviously, because Opeth honestly aren't really pioneers or anything like that the way Sabbath was.
Not a whole lot of groups have such a rich catalogue after album #8. We all know what ended up happening with Sabbath, post Dio. If not look it up.
Led Zeppelin, the mother of all Sabbath compared bands, obviously couldn't cut it (but chalk that one up to alcohol and maybe some soul selling).
Metallica, look at those guys. I mean that situation explains itself. How many studio albums do they have out now? 9 or so? They're gonna be in the dumpster eventually, and yeah I know they already are, I'm not talking about that.
How about (insert long running band here)? How were they really after #8?
There are anomalies, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Motorhead to name a few. But history is telling me that Opeth has a few great moments left (if only for them fanboys, but I'm a borderline fanboy, why else would I do this?) but they're in the twilight of their career. Mikael is Opeth's Iommi. He'll drag this thing around as long as he can, be satisfied, then kind of sit back and wait for the word LEGEND to fall through the cracks. The history of Opeth will be mostly celebrated, even with all of the naysayers around right now.
Now talk about it if you feel like it.
(and "Ghost Reveries" was superb)
