dorian gray said:
ha! found you! get back to the opeth forum now! theres a great flame war going on......
Wrong tactic to use to get me back.
heres my basic opeth info for new fans:
- damnation: boring. this was mikes experiment and he said as much. from the dvd: (after playing the entire damnation set and moving on to deliverance) "this is what we REALLY sound like."
Gonna argue this one.
I don't actually find Damnation boring. It can be a great album for those not interested in metal, OR who have an interest in the softer side of classic rock, which I do. For me and my tastes, it is an excellent album, and one of my two favorites (the other favorite couldn't be more different, so I can't be accused of narrow taste!).
- deliverance: somewhat of a dissapointment according to die-hards. very basic but accessible and heavy. on the opeth forum, this album is considered a regression in quality.
It's not too bad...takes some getting used to, and I rarely listen to it on its own.
However (and this may also add to appreciation of Damnation), I've made a double-disc set of my own, combining the two albums that really does quite well. If you'd like, I can post the way I arranged the tracklist.
- BWP: the gateway album. everyone should listen. considered by many to be a sell-out album as well as a manipulation by producer steve wilson. incredible though. i love it.
This was the first album I heard in full, of Opeth's. My first Opeth song, "The Drapery Falls", comes from it. If you think you're sick of that song, my piece of advice is to listen carefully to Martin Méndez' bass work. It is INSANE. At first, I wasn't so crazy about the album (as a
complete metal newbie), but I've warmed up to it since. This is the only "non-concept" album I know of that Opeth's done, and because of that it doesn't flow as well. But to me that's its only real weakness. I don't have the issue that some people do with Steve Wilson, either...it's a cool, professional production and I like it.
- still life: i think this is their best work. incredible album. the moor is generally considered to be their best song. much more progressive work than anything previous.
It is a pretty good album, and will probably be well liked by prog-oriented metal fans. For whatever reason I don't care for it as much...the production seems a little "too" finessed at times, and there's something oddly Justin Hayward in the clean vocals at times. (Now let's see who will own up to also knowing WHO Justin Hayward is!) I also think I don't quite identify with the album's narrator as well as in other albums.
- My arms, your hearse: ask Rose Immortal about this one. I like it because it's scary.
It's probably one of the heaviest albums Opeth ever did, with the most brutal production, which is the "scary". But there's a very emotional, heartwrenching side to it too, once you start to pay attention to the lyrics and the concept. The album is narrated by the spirit of a man who was (we assume) killed violently, and we see him try to come to terms with the fact of his death and also to try to reach the woman that he loved. He cannot make real contact with her...even when she is able to see him, he can't actually communicate with her (my personal theory being that as a spirit, he has no voice and thus except for the one instance where he gets through in a dream, he can't actually talk to her). This angers and upsets him, and in his isolation, he begins to lose perspective, and suspect her of all manner of betrayal of his memory. While there might have been some truth to it, the degree to which he imagines it is way out of proportion. When she reaches a point where she nearly commits suicide, and after that, rejects the idea of his continued existence, this sends him into a deep depression that (I think) nearly ends his existence entirely. He then comes to realize that he cannot cling to the remnants of the life he once had, and after much anguish, finally moves on to the afterlife.
The only track at all that I don't like (though others might) is one of the 2 covers that comes with the album--"Circle of the Tyrant". The other one, of Iron Maiden's "Remember Tomorrow", is quite good. This album is my other favorite along with Damnation.
- Morningrise: cant comment on this one. just now starting to get into it.
It definitely does have some cool spots in it, but this is Opeth before the lineup change, and I don't like this style as much...it still doesn't quite have the flow that would later show up in MAYH and forward. And the production is so "dry" for lack of better words that the guitars grate on my nerves when I try to listen to the entire album straight through. (And those cover the record company slapped on the new edition--awful!)
- Orchid: been in my cars cd player going on three weeks straight. difficult to listen to if you start out with BWP (which is what most folks do).
Definitely DON'T start with this one. The production is very rough here, though I enjoy how reverb-saturated it is...very much the opposite of Morningrise in that respect. The vocals are extremely slurred, though, including a very unfortunate mistake that messes up the final outro of the album. The album starts off pretty strong, for a debut, but goes downhill on the last 2 songs, "Requiem" and "The Apostle in Triumph" (on the last song, not only is there that one egregious vocal mistake, but there's one part that sounds suspiciously like the Atlanta Braves chant that just doesn't work!). That's not to say this is a worthless album, but it's something that only fans should get.
- Lamentations DVD: due to contract arrangements, they could only play songs from BWP, deliverance, and damnation. this was basically a tool to promote the already heavily-promoted damnation album. fun to watch but the sound quality isn't that good and it's terribly dissapointing to see a band like opeth be a slave to contract requirements. everyone is at some point though.
I thought this DVD was not too bad at all. In musical terms, the performance was extremely good, and definitely the drumming work was excellent. The only weak area is in the clean vocals--the backing singer was not mixed high enough, and Mikael has a tendency to wander off key live. Still, I definitely recommend it. And the documentary at the end should interest anybody who is interested in the process of cutting an album, because it's quite thorough and interesting...at least, I liked it!
- Opeth live: absolutely powerful. much more impressive than any other band ive seen live. martin lopez is a joy to watch and sounds great live.
I have not had the opportunity to see them live yet...I JUST barely missed the chance due to becoming a fan a few weeks too late.
