The Opeth Countdown, Revisited ('09 Edition)

Arasmas

New Metal Member
Jun 15, 2007
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Beijing
as some of you may remember, in the weeks before ghost reveries came out, i made a countdown on this forum of all of opeth's songs, from 50 to 1, with an explanation of my reasoning for each one.

BUT YOU HAVE A JOIN DATE OF BLAHLBALHLHALHKHLAFKF

are you still talking? anyway, the reason my join date is so recent is that my old account was banned, and i'm afraid the original list was erased along with all the other beautiful things i poured my soul into on this forum. such is life. i seem to remember that demon of the fall was #1. however, things have changed, opeth has recorded 2 more albums since then, and plus i have grown and matured as a human being, making my opinions now highly superior to my opinions 4 years ago.

so thus commences the brand new countdown, which i'm sure will have you all on the edge of your proverbial (and possibly literal) seats. ftr i'm not counting any of the bonus tracks or cover songs, just the 65 tracks from the 9 studio albums. i will dedicate 1 post to each song, with an explanation of my reasoning for each. did i say that already? well, i'm afraid i did. oh well. i will update the countdown approximately whenever i feel like it.

also, the only reason i am starting this now is because i am very bored, it is 4 in the morning, and i have to "wake up" at 5 to go meet my girlfriend at the train station. before you start accusing me of such things as being "whipped," i haven't seen her in over a month and many reasonable people would do the same in my situation.

COMMENCE COUNTDOWN

#65 - Prologue

well it wouldn't really be reasonable to pick anything else here. it does its job starting off the album, but 'twouldn't be right to put it above any of their more substantial songs so here it is. commence whining that prologue is your favorite opeth track and you will now discount my opinions for the rest of this thread.
 
#64 - Madrigal

the other most obvious one, wouldn't be exactly fair to put this above any of the real songs. this countdown doesn't get exciting until THE NEXT ENTRY! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN
 
#63 - Silhouette

a big fat "meh" for this track, it's rather boring, it's not even played by a "real" opeth member, it's like that guy anders something-or-other. ttytt it doesn't even really feel like opeth.
 
#62 - Weakness

not exactly a crowd favorite, as proven by the audience's habit of screaming things and requesting other songs during its performance. i always felt this ended a great album on kind of a downer note. ending credits would have been a perfect ending, kinda feels like they left this one in because the album would have been too short otherwise
 
#61 - Atonement/Reverie

yawnzo. very repetitive, and not very interesting to begin with. the bongos are pretty cool i guess, but at that point i am reaching for a compliment. as for "reverie," well i guess that's technically supposed to be the beginning of the next song, but i'm fine with it right here so i can ~skip~ it right along with atonement.
 
^cool idea, always nice reading opinions, but i like reading analyses.

what was your old account (if you dont mind, im just curious)
 
old account was bangadrian, my posts were all deleted though

and yes, obv this list is from worst to best
 
#60 Credence

ok i know you guys are going to jump on my balls for this one, but i never really liked this song. there basically is no melody, it just constantly changes depending on what the lyrics are. this was pretty much mike's M.O. until still life, but he got away with it because there were other things about the songs to make them stand out, but this one completely relies on the vocals/melody. by the end he's basically just repeating the same note - starting at 2:34 until the end, he sure seems to like that A an awful lot.

#59 - Coil

not a terrible opener for the album, but i'm gonna go ahead and say it has the absolute silliest, most trite lyrics of any opeth song. the chick singer thing is just ok, kinda comes off as a gimmick. the one part i really like a lot about this song is the guitar lick that comes in the first time at 1:26. otherwise rather boring

#58 - The Amen Corner

well i guess now we've gotten into the "just ok" category. the opening riff is kinda wonky but it seems uninspired, although i do quite like the drumming throughout that part. the riff at 3:59 is pretty good, but we've heard better from opeth and the song overall feels too long, with not enough ~stuff~ filling the time. again this isn't really bad, but there are a million other opeth songs i'd rather listen to.

#57 - Epilogue

this is another prized favorite of the board (or at least it has been in the past), but i never thought it was that special. it's pretty cool i guess but it gets monotonous with the same chord progression over and over again. also as much as i like the idea of a hammond b-3, it's just not well-played here, like those big dorky "dunn-dunn-dunnnnn" block chords seem very amateur to me. if they had per back then it would be much improved. as for the solos, they are good i guess but not even close to any of A.'s or L.'s best solos.

#56 - Requiem

very different, this one is pretty cool because it shows the hippie-ish side of the band, back when they were trying to be "minstrels" (in mike's words). very amateurish but endearing.
 
Nice to see Credence down at #60, definately my least favorite opeth-ballad. And sweetass thread.
A lot of MAYH so far. Tho I think April Etheral, When and Demon of the Fall and perhaps even Karma, will appear in a higher league.
 
#63 - Silhouette

a big fat "meh" for this track, it's rather boring, it's not even played by a "real" opeth member, it's like that guy anders something-or-other. ttytt it doesn't even really feel like opeth.
Anders Nordin, Opeth's former drummer... A real member, he played the piano in that track.