TNATSW Mikes creative peak?

[Sexi Alexi 94]

yea i love isolation years too! i made a thread about it, i hope to hear it played live some day

 

[Kuros]

THNfLD>TNATSW imo but GFFGP on GR and SL is far better than GLFJD on KDFDJS nOFN ANDAND SDFNOSDLGJODFK:LDKFJG:LDFJG:LK$JI#$960

 

[in limbow]

Opeths creative peaks IMO:
TNATSW
Demon of the Fall
Blackwater Park
Deliverance
Ghost of Perdition

 

[Braighs]

I don't know what 'creative' means unless it means not copying someone or being complex.

The Night
Demon
Dirge
Still Day
Hope Leaves
Isolation Years

these are some of the most 'emotive' songs

 

[Alteredmindeath]

I hope the new music can continue to take me on musical journeys from day to night, light to darkness. I hope that Mike will continue to put zillions of riffs in each song, and take the predictability completely away leaving me astonished like the old days. I notice Opeth doesn't really speed pick anymore like on Orchid and Morningrise, I hope they can continue to do some more black metalish speed picking riffs in the future. Also about the classicaly inspired guitar solos, I miss them we need more of these.

 

[Lothlorien]

I hope the new music can continue to take me on musical journeys from day to night, light to darkness.

nicely said.

IMO, Dirge For November=Opeth's Opus.

 

[Jester-Race]

Creative peak? I find it funny how Mikael describes his Still Life recording session as just "out there" and wasn't really paying attention from what i've heard, and it's the best cd ever made. Creative peak imo is Godhead's Lament or Serenity Painted Death, Face of Melinda... I can't make up my damn mind every opeth song is so fucking great.

If we want to talk about creative peaks from a technicality point of view, I imagine Deliverance would take the cake.

Deliverance. delllllllllllliverance. delllllllllllllliverance.

 

[Iki-ilkkuja]

The Leper Affinity is to me the ultimate Opeth opus. It's both technical and emotional. And brutal when reading the lyrics.

 

[rijkardo]

Hello!

I don´t write here that much, but my all time favorite Opeth track is hmm... Hours of Wealth. I just love very much that rich an crispy clean guitar sound. The solo is great too, it starts very nicely and aah that sound! I Love it I Love it!

...Mike, did you use a Fender guitar on the clean (electric) parts?

Patterns in the ivy part II is very good too, I finally find the Blackwater park deluxe edition.

 

[Korlich]

I think out of all the songs I've written "Isolation years" is probably the one I'm most happy about. I was nervous about recording the song as I was so pleased with the demo, but when I heard the final mix I was just like "Wow!"

Yet, nobody seem to share my opinion about it, but there you go, that's probably my fave so far at least.

"Silent waters" is a pretty good call from the early stuff, I was very pleased about the song when it was written, I just never cared for the recorded version.

Cheers
Mike

I think the lyrics for this song are some of your best, really moving. It´s also clearly some of your best "clean" singing on any one song.

 

[Don Corleone]

putting riff after riff without any healthy passages...this is what opeth did in the first two albums. close to all of those riffs and melodies were very strong and excellent but the songs lacked flow. so no song from the first two albums can be called "mike's peak," in my opinion.

 

[Don Corleone]

Isolation Years, eh? It is a great song, although in my opinion Opeth's creative peak was Still Life, the record consists only of classics, fantastic guitar arrangements, plus it's got the whole concept story going on.

agreed 100%. isolation years has a killer chorus melody but the whole SL album stands out as mike's creative peak.

 

[DEMIgOD]

saying peak, means the top of the mountian. and that there is only one way to go : down. If you guys are saying Still Life is his creative peak.

I think that Mike has a TON of creativity left. and i dont think he has hit his peak.

While still life,and even my arms on some days are my FAVORITE Opeth albums, i think that overall Ghost Reveries is their best album. Thus their most fluent work, best work, and as of now, mikes creative peak.

 

[Arjen W.]

saying peak, means the top of the mountian. and that there is only one way to go : down. If you guys are saying Still Life is his creative peak.

I think that Mike has a TON of creativity left. and i dont think he has hit his peak.

While still life,and even my arms on some days are my FAVORITE Opeth albums, i think that overall Ghost Reveries is their best album. Thus their most fluent work, best work, and as of now, mikes creative peak.

Not true actually, if an athlete has obtained a personal record, does that mean he can't break it in the future? No. It could well be that Opeth releases an album that is (in my opinion, of course) better and more creative than Still Life, but I can't say anything about that, because, well, it doesn't exist yet. I can say something about the creative peak (which is a pretty subjective term anyway) in the domain of albums currently released, and in my opinion that's Still Life. However, that doesn't mean that a higher peak can't be reached in the future.

I also think Mike has tons of creativity left, and every album so far is very unique and very good. I just think Still Life is just a little bit better (and thus their 'creative peak') than the rest.

 

[DEMIgOD]

no arguments with that. Tiger Woods has had some great years, sometimes reaching a level thats hard to match even him self. But hes still the best. makes alot of sense

 

[Thonolan]

putting riff after riff without any healthy passages...this is what opeth did in the first two albums. close to all of those riffs and melodies were very strong and excellent but the songs lacked flow. so no song from the first two albums can be called "mike's peak," in my opinion.

Agreed.


Personally I think "Ghost of Perdition" is Mike's creative peak to date. It really defines Opeth's current music in the best possible way.

 

[Mikael Åkerfeldt]

Haha, don't compare me to golfers please!

I think my "peak" is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder pretty much. It's all different from person to person. From my point of view I know I'm still very creative, maybe even more now than what I was in the early days. Those early songs we're easier to write since they more or less relied on harmony guitars and we just blurted them out like there was no tomorrow. Some were really good and some were quite tedious.

I remember one particular riff that never made it unto the "Morningrise" album. It was like something from a gimmick Robin Hood movie. I was heavily into folk music and folk rock at the time and this riff had me and Peter play completely different things, each sounding pretty alright on their own, but played together it sounded outrageously cheesy. I can't say if it was good or bad really, but it surely topped all the riffs on the record in terms of diverse use of harmonics.

I think we're creative in those days for sure, we made a lot of music, but I'm definately still writing as much now.

Cheers guys!
Mike

 

[Arjen W.]

I think my "peak" is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder pretty much. It's all different from person to person.

Exactly, as I stated earlier, a 'creative peak' is a subjective term.

I remember one particular riff that never made it unto the "Morningrise" album. It was like something from a gimmick Robin Hood movie. I was heavily into folk music and folk rock at the time and this riff had me and Peter play completely different things, each sounding pretty alright on their own, but played together it sounded outrageously cheesy. I can't say if it was good or bad really, but it surely topped all the riffs on the record in terms of diverse use of harmonics.

Nice story, it would in fact be very interesting to hear all the arrangements that didn't make it onto Opeth albums!

I think we're creative in those days for sure, we made a lot of music, but I'm definately still writing as much now.

Yeah, I don't think anyone has to be worried about the upcoming record. Keep up the good work, I'd say!

 

[Violens]

I think out of all the songs I've written "Isolation years" is probably the one I'm most happy about. I was nervous about recording the song as I was so pleased with the demo, but when I heard the final mix I was just like "Wow!"

Yet, nobody seem to share my opinion about it, but there you go, that's probably my fave so far at least.

"Silent waters" is a pretty good call from the early stuff, I was very pleased about the song when it was written, I just never cared for the recorded version.

Cheers
Mike

From the same disc though I love Isolation years, I am always impressed by Hours of wealth, probably because of its relative simplicity..simplicity that makes it a great piece to me..from the older stuff I like really much Forest of October, The apostle, Advent and To bid..

I use this same post to ask a thing that I had in my mind since a lot of time: looking at Orichid and Morningrise way of composing, complexity and stuff like that using tabs, and then looking at My Arms and every other album using tabs always, one can see how different things are. In my view My Arms is a sort of passage album..you can actually hear and see it; the first works contain a lot of double harmony etc., that begins to miss just from the third effort which btw is not yet like the latter ones. What I'd like to know is if this change has begun since something has changed/improved in band's listenings or musicianship or if the choice was only led by being fed up with older stuff. To ask it in a very short way: during Orchid and Morningrise days had Opeth the ability to write down things in the vein of the more prog. sounding stuff or writing that way was a "skill limit"? Don't get me wrong, I love earlier stuff, and I think it's well composed too, but thinkin how different Morningrise and My Arms sound makes me wonder..it's just pure curiosity. I say in advance that I meant no offence

 

[DEMIgOD]

Nr a photoshop of mike as a golfer