Opeth's longest riff

I don't think it's really fair to count a riff as twice as long if it has a different ending the second time round, it's just a variation on the original riff.
 
Okay, so it's A Fair Judgment in the lead with 19 seconds. Anything else?

I prefer counting the bars too, but there's often no way to agree on the time signature. I think A Fair Judgment would be a shorter number of bars than both Heir Apparent and Ghost of Perdition because it's a lot slower.
 
Okay, so it's A Fair Judgment in the lead with 19 seconds. Anything else?

I prefer counting the bars too, but there's often no way to agree on the time signature. I think A Fair Judgment would be a shorter number of bars than both Heir Apparent and Ghost of Perdition because it's a lot slower.

Well my thinking is that two riffs that are both 4 bars long will be different lengths time-wise if they're at different tempos.

There is a clear way to tell what time signature something is in if you know how time signatures work. Most Opeth stuff is 4/4 or 6/8 (though obviously they occasionally use others). Basically if it has a triplet feel it's likely an 8, if it's a straight rhythm then it's a 4.
 
yep ha. I was at a party few days back and I started playing the clean BWP part and thought to myself, hey, that thread on UM, this part is pretty long. Man I love that part, so eery; the atmosphere is beyond words
 
There are multiple ways music can be written/explained theory-wise without changing how it sounds.
The intro to GoP can also be considered 4/4 if the notes being played are triplets. It's difficult to cound out 1/4 notes if you look at it as 4/4, but you get used to it.
If you watch Lamentations, I believe Harvest is the perfect example of this (haven't seen it in a long time though). Lopez counts the song in like it's 4/4, which makes it sound like he does a tempo change when the song comes in, but it's just counted in a different way than expected.
A song can be 6/8, or 6/4. If it's 6/4, the tempo would just have to be half as fast as the 6/8. If you leave the tempo where it would be for 6/8, but have 6/4, the bars would be twice the size. The song would sound exactly the same either way.
 
Calling it 4/4 is a stretch (it would be 2/4 anyway since it's two beats in a bar). That way the whole thing would be written out in triplets, which is not really done. If the whole thing has a triplet feel then it's indicated by the time signature used, otherwise they're used as and when they come up. It would be like putting a sharp sign next to every F instead of jut indicating F sharp in the key signature. It would also imply that another instrument is counting a straight beat, which it isn't.. 6/4 is possible in theory but it's unlikely as it's more unusual than 6/8 and not as simple to write, despite being essentially the same (probably why it's less common). If you're going on which way is simplest to write it (which is largely the point of all these rules) then it's definitely 6/8.

Pretty much all of Opeth's stuff is either 4/4 or 6/8, with the occasional bit of 3/4 (where it is clearly different to 6/8) or odd time signatures like 7/8 or 5/8. As for Lopez counting in with 4 beats, I've often known drummers to do this even when the song is 3 beats to the bar, people just expect to be counted in with 4 beats.
 
Hmm even if it was the repeating riff, I don't think Deliverance's riff would be the longest. A lot of Opeth's songs have parts that just repeat such a long time. Think about Blackwater Parks' first riff, etc. Anyway, we were talking about a riff itself, without repeating it.
 
The reason for the thread is that Opeth's riffs are probably, on average, the longest in metal. Obviously, you're going to have your doom metal band sstretching out 2 bar riffs for 30 seconds, but Opeth's feel the longest in content. They're not the most repetitive though, that award (lol) would go to some shitty black metal band like Xasthur or something.
 
Opeth CAN be kinda repetitive, but compared to a LOT of metal, they aren't at all. And yes, their riffs very well might be the longest in metal.
 
Calling it 4/4 is a stretch (it would be 2/4 anyway since it's two beats in a bar). That way the whole thing would be written out in triplets, which is not really done. If the whole thing has a triplet feel then it's indicated by the time signature used, otherwise they're used as and when they come up. It would be like putting a sharp sign next to every F instead of jut indicating F sharp in the key signature. It would also imply that another instrument is counting a straight beat, which it isn't.. 6/4 is possible in theory but it's unlikely as it's more unusual than 6/8 and not as simple to write, despite being essentially the same (probably why it's less common). If you're going on which way is simplest to write it (which is largely the point of all these rules) then it's definitely 6/8.

Pretty much all of Opeth's stuff is either 4/4 or 6/8, with the occasional bit of 3/4 (where it is clearly different to 6/8) or odd time signatures like 7/8 or 5/8. As for Lopez counting in with 4 beats, I've often known drummers to do this even when the song is 3 beats to the bar, people just expect to be counted in with 4 beats.

Oh, I definitely know that, dude. As far as this post goes, you and I are agreeing. I was stating that there are many ways to write music on paper without changing how it sounds, but the easiest/most-obvious way is the way to do it. I did mention that it's hard to count the parts in 4/4... I was just stating how it is possible, though.