Suggest some Opeth music

DGR6

New Metal Member
Oct 16, 2008
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I am looking for some suggestions from Opeth fans regarding music to check out. I saw Opeth open for Dream Theater earlier this year, and really liked several aspects of the bands music. Unfortunately the growl vocals in a lot of the songs ruin it for me, so I'm looking for Opeth tunes that have little or no growling. I particularly like Face of Melinda and Ghost of Perdition that I've heard so far, but even GoP has more growling than I'm looking for. Did Opeth ever do an album without growling, or could any of you suggest particular tracks to look into? I'd like to get some Opeth in my collection if I can find the right type of stuff.

Thanks in advance.
 
Damnation as an album has no growling. However it also all mellow...so the heavier (instrumental) portion of their music isn't present there.
 
Harvest from Blackwater Park; Isolation Years, Hours of Wealth from Ghost Reveries; Coil and Burden from Watershed; A Fair Judgement from Deliverance; To Bid You Farewell from Morningrise; entire Damnation do not have brutal vocals.

Yet their more brutal songs are much better, more complex written, bears a lot of hilarious transitions from heavy stuff to mellow parts and Mikael's death grunts are awesome really..
 
Man, I'm not even sure if it's possible to listen to Opeth without hearing their heavier side...

...Anyway I won't stop you from trying so I highly recommend Isolation Years as an awesome ballad and Epilogue as the most wonderful instrumental I've ever heard.
Sorry if they were mentioned before
 
..apart from all the above suggestions, I think you might enjoy the new Watershed album, there are growl vocals on there, but a lot of clean stuff as well. Give it a go. My GF, who is a really good rock/pop singer, hates growl vocals, apart from Mike's. Which is maybe weird, but she claims that his growls, once you get used to the tone, are simply more musical and rhythmically interesting then any of the other growly stuff she hears...
 
It took me a loooooong time to appreciate growls. Opeth was the band that did it, and the album was Still life. That album more than any other has the most emotional growling in it. The concept story of the album is fantastic and the growls just fit the music and lyrics sooooo well! Most opeth fans would list "Each and every one would die by my hand, choking in warm pools of blood" as one of their favourite lyrics.

Anyway, its a fantastic album and also contains 2 straight tunes without growls, the beautiful Benighted and Face of Melinda (which you already know) It also contains the best acoustic work that Opeth have done on an album (imo ;))
 
^^^^ I don't know why you are pandering to this nonsense - this is a bloody insult posting on Opeth's forum saying you like "half their sound" - they are a "Progressive Death Metal Band" - if you dont like distorted vocals... dont expect us to understand and reccommend some ballads - although clearly the other forumites above think this idea is good - You arent getting the full Opeth experience without both the heavy and the soft side, I suspect few of us would be posting on this forum if Opeth were'nt what they are :headbang:
 
Don't be an elitist dick, witcher. Many fans of the band took some time to "Get it". Opeth is a band that takes a real investment from the listener, and digesting.. and then growing to absolutely LOVE the growling over the long run shoud be encouraged.... not shat upon. Eventually, once the heaviest of the heavy parts can be fully appreciated, the new fan can truly bask in the full and complete awesomeness of the Opeth dynamic.
 
I was not a fan of harsh vocals when I discovered Opeth, but I kept at it and in time they started to sink in, or I began to "get it", as Samsara said. Don't listen to Witcher, there is absolutely nothing wrong with loving the mellower side of Opeth. I just hope you give the music the time it needs, so that you can eventually discover that Opeth is not just mere music, it's an experience, and you will discover the greatness in ALL of their music!
 
You like Ghost of Perdition? ... Then people should recommend A LOT more songs than simply the ones that don't have any growls, since GoP has a lot of them.
My suggestion: check out their albums, they all have both sides represented (especially since Still Life there is a growing balance between clean vocals and growling). The albums need to be listened to in a whole anyway. You being a Dream Theater fan, I think you understand that. If I would ask for songs by them you would probably tell me to listen to certain records ...
So start with Still Life, Ghost Reveries, Watershed, Damnation, Blackwater Park. Those albums will probably most what you like (or have more of the elements and even complete songs on them you will like).
 
Don't forget My Arms your Hearse... it has Credence which is a beautiful song. Honestly I was not a fan of harsh vocals before Opeth, but once listening to MAYH I saw the beauty and poetry that can come from showing the complete range of human emotions given by both the clean and growl vocals.

So DGR- I would say that even though you believe you do not like harsh vocals, give Opeth a chance and listen to a whole CD such as Blackwater Park, Still Life or MAYH. They bring a whole new meaning to growls.
 
Mikael does THE best death growls Ive heard. I love the heavy, growing parts, and the mellow parts, often interchanging several times in a song. I downloaded some Opeth songs because I heard about them from a friend. They just sat there, not getting played an awful lot. Then several months later, they came on in the background, decided to stick with it, and I was suddenly Opeth crazy.

Im not a big fan of death growls, but Opeth are probably one of the only bands ive heard so far that use them and can do them well. They are used to convey emotion, which as said before is the basis of the Opeth dynamic. Unlike some bands, Opeth don't do death growls for the sake of it. Gotta learn to love it, I did, and well look now :kickass:

I would recommend Still Life, simply because it has such a perfect mixture of the two Opeth styles. It is a masterpiece.
 
The thing with Mikael's growls is that they are really decipherable.You can actually understand what he is saying in most of the parts if the sound quality is allright.Comparing this with many other bands and getting nothing but shit ( Black Metal cover of Cradle of Filth for example I don't understand a shit although some say he is a scream-vocalist anyway you get the idea) it makes it feel like acoustic guitar---distort it----electric guitar and Mike's Clean Vocal----distort it----Mike's Death Vocals.....I really appreciate his voice he is fantastic!
 
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I have a lot to check out.

As far as learning to like growling, I don't see that happening. I'm sure I'll be stepping on a lot of toes here with this opinion, but I've always felt like growling was gimmicky, and really detracts from the song. It's particularly frustrating when you have a singer that actually has a good enough voice to sing, but they choose to misuse it. It's important to me to be as open minded as possible when it comes to music, but this is one area I just can't get in to.

^^^^ I don't know why you are pandering to this nonsense - this is a bloody insult posting on Opeth's forum saying you like "half their sound" - they are a "Progressive Death Metal Band" - if you dont like distorted vocals... dont expect us to understand and reccommend some ballads - although clearly the other forumites above think this idea is good - You arent getting the full Opeth experience without both the heavy and the soft side, I suspect few of us would be posting on this forum if Opeth were'nt what they are :headbang:

I'm sorry if the way I enjoy music doesn't live up to your expectations.