Opeth sucks big time!!

About your statement, I have a few things to say.

Their meandering tri-tone infused songs are so stuck to a dull formula it is beyond belief.

The tritone is undoubtebly a big part of Opeth's music, beacuse the interval is so dissonant and in many cases evil. Although Mikael uses it a lot, over the albums he used a varitey of other styles and intervals. I don't believe he stuck to the tritone so much that it's become repetative.

Nice but badly played acoustic guitar followed by pre-requisite growling have reduced them to the ultimate cliche of prog-death.

Well first of all, the acoustic sections aren't so bad, except for the skids (what I call the sound of shifting three or more frets very fast, it happens a lot in Damnation). And although your statement is somewhat true, it only refers to Orchid and Morningrise. I totally agree, those two albums were very structured, in a "heavy hard part, guitar fades away to mellow acoustic part". And if Mikael would've written another album like that I would've grown bored, but he didn't. He focused a lot more on creating emotion from the heavy parts, which can be seen a lot in MAYH. On MAYH and beyond, he doesn't write in a "heavy/mellow/heavy/mellow" style. The acoustic sections stop being a prelude or break from the heavy part, and becomes more of an addition to the song.

I mean honestly how can anyone listen to a vocalist who sings in an adequate clean voice then subject themselve to the montrosity that follows.

Not really a valid comment, it's simply opinion. If you don't like the growling, don't listen to death metal. :)

There is no technical leads. Rather benign pentatonic harmonies that simply do not cut it.

The pentatonic harmonies are found mostly in the solos, and Opeth doesn't do too many of them. Mikael himself said he loves them, but he's not Steve Vai. He actually didn't say Steve Vai but rather some other famous soloist, I forgot his name. =/

So back to the point, I don't know what you mean by "technical leads" so I can't really say anything about this except that the pentatonic melodies, when not used in solos, do go somewhere, because they are often followed by harmonic minor melodies. Opeth changes keys quite often, and that keeps the sound refreshing. It isn't all just pentatonic.

Drumming is OK. Bass playing is rudimentary.

You can see my above post on the basslines, but nonetheless, anyone who says that any member of Opeth is untalented is a moron. The basslines are in fact a bit rudimentary, because if I'm not mistaken they mirror the guitars a lot, but the guitar drowns out the bass many times. When it matters to hear a bssline, Mendez/DeFarfalla does a good job of keeping it interesting. And don't get me started on the drumming. Lopez is one of the best drummers I've ever heard. He doesn't use blastbeats and isn't one-dimensional. He has a wide array of styles, and godammit, he's simply fucking amazing drummer.

The guitar on which this whole sad excuse for progressiveness is based is unfocused.

This is purely opinion. I don't see how the guitar is unfocused, it's always creating melodies or blasting riffs that do go somewhere. If it was so unfocused, I don't see how 10 minute plus songs could be achieved. The guitar progressions themselves prove that the guitar is focused.

Soft section, metal section oh I am bored.

Well you can read the above stuff, I talked about the heavy/mellow/heavy/mellow concept earlier in this post.

Give us something new Opeth.

I'll give you this. Orchid and Morningrise were similar. MAYH was unique (not only in Opeth's repertoire, but in all of metal). Still Life was unique, but in a way a cleaner version of MAYH. BWP was unique. Deliverance was somewhat like BWP, except less dynamic. And Damnation was unique. So in a way, Opeth created four completely different albums:

Orchid/Morningrise
MAYH/Still Life
BWP/Deliverance
Damnation

By putting certain albums together, I'm refering to the overall sound dynamically. There weren't many new concept introduced with Deliverance or Still Life, they were just continunations of the original albums (BWP and MAYH, respectively).

So there you have it. This is a cool thread, I like the discussion. Too bad there are people who can't read a whole post before flaming. :rolleyes:

Peace,
Dan.
 
I think Narcisco needs to care less about being the Opeth's Ultimate Metal BB's defense Drill Sargent and care more about finding some damn pussy.

Music is just music, If somebody hates Opeth and think's they're lame musicians, it's not going to effect my own high opinion of Opeth. And I don't think we need a list of common complaints leveled against Opeth to be ready to defend against with ready made retorts. Just relax and like what you like. If somebody feels the need to bash the music you like then you already know you're a few rungs up on the maturity level then such jackass.
 
narcisco said:
Opeth are the most singularly overated band in metal history. Their meandering tri-tone infused songs are so stuck to a dull formula it is beyond belief. Nice but badly played acoustic guitar followed by pre-requisite growling have reduced them to the ultimate cliche of prog-death. I mean honestly how can anyone listen to a vocalist who sings in an adequate clean voice then subject themselve to the montrosity that follows.
There is no technical leads. Rather benign pentatonic harmonies that simply do not cut it.
Drumming is OK. Bass playing is rudimentary. The guitar on which this whole sad excuse for progressiveness is based is unfocused. Soft section, metal section oh I am bored.
Give us something new Opeth.

" A hypothetical critique that I composed". But generally a reflection of what is out there.

Respond with your defence or even agreement.

By the way I love what Opeth does but also realise their limitations until I heard Deliverance of course, lol.

thanks for the info, shit chewer.
 
:lol: "shit chewer"... "full of coggy goodness"... "care less about being the BB and care more about finding some damn pussy" The things flame-inducing threads make people say. :lol: My favorite comment has to go to Mikael Åkerfeldt posted by Papa Opeth. :D
 
This seemingly now infamous post is back again.

Mmm, drill Sargent I have not tried that one on my girlfriend but drill does seem a liitle bit ironic if I am not getting enough pussy.
Thanks for the new status of being drill Sargent of the Opeth forums.
As for "shit chewer" that goes with the role of reading many of the posts on this forum.
As to maturity. Well I am happy enough with my level of maturity. 30 something going on 18 is fine with me.

Long live metal and those that love it and hate it-because for fuck's sake we need them.
 
Well for narcisco i think you should listen to and consider all opeth songs when you say what you say. i know you were trying to spark a discussion but even after reading all of your post and the others. i havent heard one person defend the solos. their are plenty of solos that are way more than pentatonic. ill name a few that have very technical ideas presented. the first two solos in "In the Mist She was Standing", Both solos from "Black Rose Immortal", the first solo in "When", The incredible solo in "Serenity Painted Death", the incredible solos in "The Funeral Portrait", the first solo in "Deliverance", the incredible solo in "A Fair Judgement"(you know the one Mikael played perfect live(at least in Atlanta, GA)) and to throw a good one in from Damnation opening track second solo. i am not arguing just asking you to look deeper into detail before bashing something or perhaps forgetting or overlooking something.

AS for that idiot chedsey. check out his favorite albums. he said that Damnation sounds like everything else from the 70's. what about the fucking Minutemen. i am not bashing the band or the 70's but just that idiot chedsey.

Finally, for the people who have addressed what a tritone is:

look it is taught to band geeks as the devils chord because it is 6 frets or half-steps up or down(half an octave so it doesnt matter) and it sounds very dissonant. someone said it was 4 notes. i dont know what the hell you are counting. finally Hopkins that last chord is a B5add9. the formula is 1-5-8-9-12. 1 is the root. 5 is the powerchord note. 8 is the octave. 9 is the octave of the 2nd. and 12 is the octave of the power chord note or perfect Fifth. dont be conceded Hopkins. you ll get lazy. you need to study not matter who you are and what you know. noone knows it all. not even me i study daily.

i am not trying to offend any one in this forum. so i am sorry if you take it the wrong way. i really do think that john chedsey is a fucking idiot though. based mostly on his contradictions within his writings not just of opeth but of others too.
 
Hey narcisco - nice one. Some dick over at the Metallica BB has pasted your original post (Minus the part about you being an Opeth fan) into a thread of his, telling everyone how shite Opeth are and using your post as proof.
 
illbeleavinnow said:
Awesome post Prolwer.

Narcisco posted that so some people could have a discussion. If we can't even have that on this board we've fucking lost it.

Moron. :rolleyes:

Judging by the amount of posts you've tallied up in your short time here on UM, you really must have had alot of 'dicussions' :rolleyes:
 
TakinTheMusicBack said:
Some dick over at the Metallica BB has pasted your original post (Minus the part about you being an Opeth fan) into a thread of his, telling everyone how shite Opeth are and using your post as proof.
And if they believe him without checking themselves, that's their mistake. A year later, they might hear some Opeth finally and realize they love it. They'll learn from the mistake. With any band. You can't trust opinions when it comes to music. Everyone's tastes are different. If you're passionate about music, don't take someone's word alone that a band sucks ass.

I get the feeling sometimes that people are just bashing a band and not honestly saying why they don't like the music. Like the one made in this thread from Tobias Driver from maudlin of the Well. It sounded like he hoped to hurt Opeth in some way rather than giving his honest opinion. I'd guess that any respectable musician would in fact respect other musicians efforts. Poking fun like that isn't respect. It's hard to repsect people that don't show any for others themselves.

illbeleavinnow said:
What was the comment?
Page 2 of this thread. 4th post down. :)
 
mindphaser said:
Fair enough, I guess I'm just a little negative towards the whole 'explaining why Opeth is good' thing as I constantly tried to get my friends to listen to them which did not succeed. I actually like the fact now that nobody I know really likes them, it gives me the feeling that I have this beautiful and unique music just for me, if that makes sense.

I feel the same, I just now accepted the fact that (except my boyfriend) noone I know appreciates Opeth as the genious they are so we have this precious and unique music for us.
And yes, it does make sense.