OPETH Frontman: 'We've Never Jumped On Trends Or Chances To Make Money' - Sep. 5

[DreamingofUr]

So much more deep than anything out there? pfft! thats a loud of shit sir.

 

[Birkenau]

What makes me laugh with all these fans saying Opeth are not death metal is that Akerfeldt in the doco on the Lamentations DVD said himself "regardless of whatever people say, WE ARE a DEATH METAL BAND".

And for anyone who wants to check this, it's in one of the last interview sections with Mike towards the end of the doco on the DVD.

So all you people out there who think they arent DM, think again, for what better person to state it than a band member themselves?

While I agree with you on most things, I'm going to have to disagree with that statement, the only thing death metal about Opeth is the vocals (although most of them on the new record are soft, clean, non-dm vox). In reality Opeth are more black metal then they are death metal.

 

[:Wreath:]

"IMO they are not DM. Mike says they are DM and I don't think you can argue against the frontman of a band about his own band's genre. Until he says otherwise I'll use that as a crutch."

DreamingofUr - I don't know WHAT interviews you read but all Opeth interviews I've read for the last like 4 years are about Mike saying they are BEYOND metal and it's hard not to agree... Now, I see you're a Nile fan (good for you - they're a fantastic band) and therefore - you know how death metal sounds like... Now name JUST ONE Opeth record that was DEATH METAL... just one... I obviously can't find any... Fact is bro, they were never death metal at all! What Mike said was that THEY INCORPORATE elements of death metal in their music but I never heard any interview in which he would say that his death metal influences overtake his prog rock influences... They were always mellowed out metal so I don't see WHY anybody would have the right to call tehm sell outs now... If they are sell outs, they have been sell outs since Orchid I'm afraid, 'cause not even Orchd was death metal... Sorry if I cracked your picture a bit but that's the way it is... And if you DO want death or black then you are welcome to listen other bands and not whine about Opeth because they never belonged to any of these categories... Cheers!

 

[Austin]

No one sounds like Opeth.

And the new album is commercial? What the fuck is wrong with you? Korn is commerical, a ten minute song with death vocals and no hooks is not fucking commercial. Don't believe me? Well, aside from the fact that this album was recorded before they signed to RR, and aside form the fact that Mikael, musical genius though he may be, has no fucking concept of what is commercial now or how to make commercial music....this album will not be a huge hit. It will sell better than their previous releases, at best crack 100,000 sales (not likely), but there is not going to be any break out singles. There sure as fuck is no Enter Sandman, there isn't even a Got the Life. Nothing is going to chart and the band is not going to end up on MTV Total Request. It's not commercial, period.

And Iron Maiden have sold 70 million albums, and they haven't lost an ounce of credibility so who gives a fuck. There are lot of people who like good music out there. The posters on the Opeth official forum aren't the only fucking ones.

If this album came out by an unknown band on Gates of Dawn records you would have already soiled your copy with cum. So either sit back and rock out or go post at the Ulver forum. Is that too fucking much to ask?

 

[Birkenau]

No one sounds like Opeth.Korn is commerical, a ten minute song with death vocals and no hooks is not fucking commercial.

You mean occasional death vocals...and no hooks?

Don't believe me? Well, aside from the fact that this album was recorded before they signed to RR, and aside form the fact that Mikael, musical genius though he may be, has no fucking concept of what is commercial now or how to make commercial music....this album will not be a huge hit. It will sell better than their previous releases, at best crack 100,000 sales (not likely), but there is not going to be any break out singles. There sure as fuck is no Enter Sandman, there isn't even a Got the Life. Nothing is going to chart and the band is not going to end up on MTV Total Request. It's not commercial, period.

You're seriously retarded, Opeth is a commercial band, I used to have the same mentality as you, luckily I've moved on the better bands, that don't compromise their music to reach out to more people (and sell more records).

And Iron Maiden have sold 70 million albums, and they haven't lost an ounce of credibility so who gives a fuck. There are lot of people who like good music out there. The posters on the Opeth official forum aren't the only fucking ones.

What credibility? They were always commercial, heck, even my pop music loving mum liked (likes?) Iron Maiden.

If this album came out by an unknown band on Gates of Dawn records you would have already soiled your copy with cum. So either sit back and rock out or go post at the Ulver forum. Is that too fucking much to ask?

I'd probably ignore it, the only reason I bothered even listening to the new album is because it was by Opeth, any other other band I would have dismissed it as shitty after a couple of songs.

 

[Birkenau]

No one sounds like Opeth.

Haha, I missed this comment the first time around. Holy shit, you need to listen to more music, there's hundreds of bands that sound like Opeth. Novembre, Farmakon, Darksuns, Rapture and Katatonia are examples of the more popular ones. Opeth are hardly pioneers.

 

[Ermz]

They sound nothing like Opeth.

 

[:Wreath:]

um... aenemated? I got one question... What the fuck are you doing here? Posting on a 'sell-out bands' forum? Maybe you think that your bitching will make somebody here stop listening to Opeth? Or you orgasm each time you post some bullshit? I mean, do you seriously think that anybody here gives a damn fuck about what you think? You've moved on to 'non commercial bands'? I wonder who these may be... But estimating the 'sharpness' of your ear (you really think Katatonia sound like Opeth? better get those ear plugs out man... ) it can't be anything good...

Oh and tell me another thing... Opeth started as an underground band, they haven't gained their success like in a year... They built it up through the years... So tell me, why do you think that a band must stay unknown and not earn a lot of money throughout all the years in order to be good? Because for me it's quite obvious that if somebody plays good music it is bound to reach more and more people... If a band stays in the underground forever it's seldom the question of their choice between 'mainstream' and 'underground'... It's mostly because they are to shitty to become well known... So that leaves your point of view fucked up lad...

 

[Blackthorned]

Hardly the case.

Do more research and you will see there are tonnes of Swedish (Gothemburg) and Finnish (Rapture) bands, and also US bands (Farmakon) doing the same thing and in some ways much better.

What Opeth STARTED doing was new at the time. Now, there's nothing new about it. DM and prog combinations in music these days is about as standard as a purple wrapper on a block of Cadburys chocolate.

In my opinion, the next step in innovation is to go and step beyond the death-prog idea and go into a new direction, whether its musical or lyrical.

Throwing in keys and clean vocals is todays norm.

Seems to me as though you don't really like the band that much and perhaps take all this genre business a bit too seriously. 'Do more research' ? How utterly patronising is that? As though your opinion is only waiting on our supposed enlightenment until it becomes fact.

Are Opeth really following today's norm? That's your opinion again I suppose but time and time again the word unique gets tagged along with their name. Is that a red herring? Clearly it is, they really are just standard fare now after all. I wish I'd known this sooner. Thank the lord for the wisdom of forums and their elitist members.

 

[dorian gray]

I'm just not sure what it is the likes of Hubster and Dorian Gray want from them - to make music exclusively tailored for their opinions perhaps?

come on dudes. so The Hubster, aenimated, dreamingofur and myself dont particularly like the new album and we have all presented fairly valid and thoughtful opinions and arguments on why we dont like it. most of the responses ive read have been either a violent knee-jerk reaction (a la minion520) or an elitist "away with you" (a la shadows skulk and ninefeetunderground). not much in the way of legitimate counterarguments for the most part.
so, would you guys like for this forum to just be an endless praise-fest? the same thing happened in t-rats "what is your OPINION of GR" thread. post a negative opinon and get blasted for not just absolutely worshipping Opeth.

to get back to the argument: the quote in the thread title says, "...chances to make money." well, i think it's fairly obvious that is a lie. do you know how many labels courted opeth? yeah, fucking Sony or BMG didnt come after them offerering $10,000,000 per album (as far as i know) but Roadrunner sought them out and they are arguably the most well-heeled of any of the labels they talked to. so, it would seem there is a direct relationship between the label they signed with and the potential for hightest income.
please dont respond with "what the fuck do you expect man? wouldnt you?" well, yeah, i would, and i do. but i dont go around saying things like, "im an RN because i like treating illness, not for chances to make money." thats just silly, and it's silly for some of you dudes to continually insist that opeth are *completely* immune from compromise.

cheers,
opeth make some great music.

 

[Dreadful]

Haha, I missed this comment the first time around. Holy shit, you need to listen to more music, there's hundreds of bands that sound like Opeth. Novembre, Farmakon, Darksuns, Rapture and Katatonia are examples of the more popular ones. Opeth are hardly pioneers.

heh...the fat majority of those bands are just a waste of time.

 

[dorian gray]

heh...the fat majority of those bands are just a waste of time.

why?

 

[Jude]

Nice one. Oh wait, you always do that to because you dare not get involved in a logical discussion.

Are you 5? You'll never understand anything unless its spelled out in crayon and shoved up your ass. Just stfu you silly fanboy. Opeth sucks! what now? Now I know what mumblefood went through...

Oh, the sweet smell of irony.

post a negative opinon and get blasted for not just absolutely worshipping Opeth.

It's not that. It's just that some people are in here acting like Opeth has betrayed them by not making a black metal album, or saying they're trying to appeal to the mainstream by adding a keyboard player, and various other retarded allegations. It's one thing not to like the album, but entirely another to accuse the band of selling out just because you don't like it. It's not my favorite album, there's plenty of things I don't like about it, but I'm not going to pretend I could have done it better or that I know why the band decided to make it sound like they did.

 

[dorian gray]

It's not that. It's just that some people are in here acting like Opeth has betrayed them by not making a black metal album....

i couldnt care less about the members of opeth and their personal lives and motivations. i posted that i was expecting something much darker and heavier - based on *direct quotes from the principal writer of the music* - and what i got when i brought the album home after buying it was, in my opinion, well, not what was advertised. call it what you want; i think i called it "prog" and that they remind me of "kansas". that's just not what i was expecting. i didn't want to see a bad rendering of the band members *smiling*. this seems like a new direction from my vantage point. i don't like it. i enjoy opeth because they are dark. GR is not dark. i like most of the album - it's just not what i wanted to hear.

 

[Jude]

i couldnt care less about the members of opeth and their personal lives and motivations. i posted that i was expecting something much darker and heavier - based on *direct quotes from the principal writer of the music* - and what i got when i brought the album home after buying it was, in my opinion, well, not what was advertised. call it what you want; i think i called it "prog" and that they remind me of "kansas". that's just not what i was expecting. i didn't want to see a bad rendering of the band members *smiling*. this seems like a new direction from my vantage point. i don't like it. i enjoy opeth because they are dark. GR is not dark. i like most of the album - it's just not what i wanted to hear.

*shrug again* It sounds dark to ME. I definitely don't hear Kansas in it either. And it's up to the band what they want to do, regardless of what they say.

 

[ThornsOfSorrow]

Everyone thinks they sold out, but the new album isn't much different from any of the others. To me, the main difference is that it sounds darker. And what's wrong with signing to a more popular label so that everyone can hear your music? They still have long songs, they still don't use the typical verse/chorus set-up, and they still make music for themselves, not for the money. That's not selling out. Why don't you just leave them alone? Jeez...

 

[dorian gray]

cool. speaking of kansas, GR also conjures up images of dream theater, especially their terrible Falling Into Infinity album.

 

[dorian gray]

Everyone thinks they sold out... To me, the main difference is that it sounds darker.... Why don't you just leave them alone? Jeez...

*who* said they sold out?

you think GR is darker than MAYH or morningrise? BWP even? i think even damnation is darker than GR.

leave them alone? notice the quote in the title of the thread. you dont think that warrants some criticism? maybe we should just start threads like, "opeth are the best band in the world!" and repeat ad nauseum. it's happened before. it's incredibly boring.

 

[ThornsOfSorrow]

Who? Just read some of the posts. And yes, I do think it's darker. I never said that no one can say anything bad about them...I just think that a lot of people are really acting immature, and not thinking before they type.

 

[dorian gray]

true. though im assuming youre affording the "opeth ROX!" crowd the same criticism as you are the "opeth fucken sold out!" crowd.
theres nothing mature and thoughtful by saying, "stop yer fucken whining pussies!"
or "psh. these fools know nothing about anything. i shall take my intelligence elsewhere."