Present Opeth Theory

metal_wrath said:
lolz, that is almost as lame as this thread
:erk: Music makes me happy all over. Sorry.

In 1996, when I first heard of Opeth, I thought they were garbage. I was into the whole gothenburg scene, and Opeth were one of the bands that didn't stick to the rules of melo-death. I hated them for that. My Arms, Your Hearse was released. I fell in love with this album. I didn't understand how they went from Morningrise to a masterpiece like this. After SL was released, I knew Opeth had secured their place as one of my favorite bands. But then....BWP and Deliverance were released. These albums aren't bad, by any means, but by Damnation I felt that Opeth had lost their magic. Luckily GR destroys. Over recent years I have developed somewhat of an appreciation for Orchid and MR.

Opeth though, I wouldn't have considered a progressive metal band until GR. Even though from MAYH to Deliverance there are loadds of progressive sections, they're not really enough to label them "prog." When I first heard Ghost Reveries, I got chills down my spine, because throughout Opeth catalogue, I knew this album would come. I had no idea it would take so long, but I knew it would come. In GR, I can hear a heavy Camel influence, definitely a Uriah Heep influence (BotH), and even some of the crazier prog bands like Circulus I could hear in there. I think Mikael has been waiting to bust this album out for a while, but for some reason he's been hiding behind his melo-death label for far too long. I wonder why?
 
with all due respect, i dont hear so much as a pinch of circulus in ghost reveries. but that probably has something to do with the fact that ghost reveries had been written a good 4-5 months before circulus' debut album even came out. :Smug:
 
^perhaps he meant the craziness in itself, not necessarily circulus' craziness (circulus being only cited for being a 'crazy' band :p)
Ten SiSi said:
I think Mikael has been waiting to bust this album out for a while, but for some reason he's been hiding behind his melo-death label for far too long. I wonder why?
my opinion/theory is that mike has been listening/playing to metal for a longer time than he has prog. that's why he's taken his time in letting the prog influences really show (they were always present in some form, though).

and you know, it's not easy to wake up one day and say, i'm gonna write a proggy riff/part, when you've been playing/writing metal (and folky acoustic stuff :p) for 10-15 years.

btw, i definitely don't think he's been hiding behind the melo-death label, on the contrary, he's been trying to avoid it
 
NineFeetUnderground said:
with all due respect, i dont hear so much as a pinch of circulus in ghost reveries. but that probably has something to do with the fact that ghost reveries had been written a good 4-5 months before circulus' debut album even came out. :Smug:
with all do respect, i was just mentioning that there was an obvious prog rock influence on GR, much moreso than any other release. And the circulus comparison was just because of the somewhat off the wall transitions throughout the album. Don't worry man, I'm not one of these damned kids you like to poke fun at, the circulus comparison was abstract and i should have explained more, but i didnt expect anyone to pick up on it.
 
Ten SiSi said:
with all do respect, i was just mentioning that there was an obvious prog rock influence on GR, much moreso than any other release. And the circulus comparison was just because of the somewhat off the wall transitions throughout the album. Don't worry man, I'm not one of these damned kids you like to poke fun at, the circulus comparison was abstract and i should have explained more, but i didnt expect anyone to pick up on it.

then wouldnt comus have been a much better example?
 
prowlergrig said:
btw, i definitely don't think he's been hiding behind the melo-death label, on the contrary, he's been trying to avoid it
he's been saying that, i know. But i think Mikael is wanting to venture out of the whole death metal thing in general. im not saying he doesnt want opeth to remain a metal band, but before ghost reveries he was saying that the new album was going top be somewhat black metal, but i think he chickened out because he thought it would be too much of a departure for the fans to handle. its kind of a bold statement, but i think it rings true, and it will on their next album.
 
Ten SiSi said:
he's been saying that, i know. But i think Mikael is wanting to venture out of the whole death metal thing in general. im not saying he doesnt want opeth to remain a metal band, but before ghost reveries he was saying that the new album was going top be somewhat black metal, but i think he chickened out because he thought it would be too much of a departure for the fans to handle. its kind of a bold statement, but i think it rings true, and it will on their next album.
no, i really don't buy that. if mike says GR's riffs just turned out not to be bm, even though he'd said before that he'd like to write a bm album, i believe him.
i mean, he writes what music comes to him, and tries not to influence it by making it black metal or smth.

if anything, he's tried to make it more 'evil' by introducing the dark, satanic theme.

...so what are you saying, the next album will be half bm half prog? hehe, we'll see, i guess :rolleyes: