Un-Continuously flowing music (Still Life)

[Rekkr]

After the Moor ends, all the music cuts off because the song is over. Then at the start of Godhead's Lament, we hear this aggressive riff start up. This style persists till the end of the album. Does anyone else hate this?

I liked it on My Arms Your Hearse where the album was continuously flowing. The beginning of When was some jazz, then When leads perfectly in Madrigal which leads perfectly into The Amen Corner, etc.

The flow of the songs on Still Life pretty much ruins the album for me.

 

[Born Dead]

I thought about it today, while listening to Serenity Painted Death... at the start of that song I thought that its beginning could be a little different, kinda slower or something.. but then, in the middle and further, I realized that maybe the conception of the album differs from, for example, MAYH, and Opeth couldn't make it any other way but that. Riffs are a little different, more powerful or somth.. it's just IMHO

 

[Elohim Meth]

I didnt like how Karma started...word

 

[Seance]

when i look at the album in more of a story point of view, since it is a concept album afterall, i would like it if the ends of the songs on Still Life connected somehow to the intro of the next song, so it would all feel like one flowing story (kinda like some on MAYH)

but when i just think of them as individual songs then it doesn't really bother me, and it's not like i really always listen to the full album at once

it doesn't ruin anything for me though

edit: or if you're talking about the flow of the musical style then i disagree, because the songs tell a different piece of the story... and the piece of story told during Face of Melinda is definitely not as dark and angry as Serenity Painted Death

 

[Leper_/-\ffinity]

Get over it...Still Life was the peak of Opeth's career IMHO and almost everything about that album is nearly perfect. Sure, the songs don't connect quite as well as MAYH, but this shouldn't keep you from enjoying the album.

 

[Don Corleone]

The beginning of When was some jazz

eh?

 

[Kottke]

He means the part where Per is playing the first four bars of "Giant Steps."

 

[FUBAR]

Interesting point but it doesn't bother me too much

 

[MasterOLightning]

I agree. The album flows so poorly. SL=overrated fanboy drivel

 

[Nico]

Still Life has some of the craziest riffs I've ever heard.

Aside from that, I think each track represents the lyrical topic, continuity be damned. I havent listened to it for months anyway.

 

[Inconium Guard]

As a story, the lack of connectivity causes it to fall behind MAYH in terms of coherence of the lyrics. But the atmosphere is what makes the album great IMO, not so much the story.....

 

[Demilich]

Fuck this shit SL > MAYH by a bit, maybe. Continuity be damned, it still feels natural and like a concept album to me.

 

[Don Corleone]

still life is my favorite record ever but yeah one can bring such criticism. it's true.

but i believe SL has a much more though-out, detailed concept (storyline). but yeah thats different

 

[Bored]

still life blew me to pieces when i first heard it 5 yearsa go and it still does today.. its phenomenal

 

[KennonKun]

I don't think that Still Life's songs fail to connect, personally. You have to look at each song and how each one represents certain parts of the journey, and realize that the music represents them well. While parts of the album don't connect, I don't think they do it to the point that you're caught off-guard. And just for the record, My Arms, Your Hearse had some of the least flowing moments in Opeth history, and that's unarguable. The beginning of Karma? Yeah.

Oh, and jazz at the beginning of When? I hate it when metalheads assume everything that's played clean is jazz.

As a story, the lack of connectivity causes it to fall behind MAYH in terms of coherence of the lyrics. But the atmosphere is what makes the album great IMO, not so much the story.....

I would add that just the overall great songwriting quality of the album makes it. The atmosphere is good, but the sometimes muddy production got in the way of that, I think. Imagine how awesome this album would've been had it had a different producer.

 

[Evil Ernie]

The flow of the songs on Still Life pretty much ruins the album for me.

I don't think the flow of the album is that bad...actually I don't think it is worse than any of their albums, exept for BWP maybe (I like how Bleak-Harvest-TDF are linked so much).

 

[Ermz]

I agree. The album flows so poorly. SL=overrated fanboy drivel

Oh man, you lost so much credibility right there.

Every time I hear someone ragging on Still Life, I feel like there is stabbing away at my insides. You simply won't find a better, more fluent, delightfully volatile mix of raw emotion mixed down on a 16bit 44khz medium anywhere else. Unless of course Emperor's 'Prometheus' goes down well for you after lunch

After the Moor ends, all the music cuts off because the song is over. Then at the start of Godhead's Lament, we hear this aggressive riff start up. This style persists till the end of the album. Does anyone else hate this?

3:16 of 'Serenity Painted Death'. From frantic frustration straight out into an open sombre melody.

3:38. Lead subsides and we're opened up to a beautiful vocal line which is sung over the backing riff as if in some sardonic 'metal' parody of singer-songwriter style.

Note how up to that point everything has near-perfect flow.

4:22. Time to slow it down. The little transitory interlude there is done in acoustic, yet still fast paced to bridge the gap between the previous part and the incoming pseudo-jazzy clean electric/acoustic part.

You have to remember that at this time the protagonist's emotions are extremely volatile and the music is only mirroring that.

After a moment of reflection and time for events to 'sink in'.... BANG.
5:28. The rage hits again and the narrator turns into a madman, spouting curses and threats in all directions... He is extremely furious at this point at those who took his beloved Melinda away. Note the dissonance in the riff.

6:14. (Relatively) fast solo comes in. I've always received the notion at this point that something is happening, or something 'physical' is occurring as the narrator has hit the paramount of his rage.

7:00. Imprisoned and the narrator is back to feeling sombre. Mikael's singing tone is noticeably regretful, almost as if the narrator is reflecting on the recent past with uncertainty, and perhaps even some fear/uncertainty towards his near future.

8:07. Fatigue eventually takes over and melancholic sleep envelopes our would-be hero.

Just think about this and how much this parallels true depression. I know, personally, when I've been very sad for whatever reason it had tendencies to erupt in sporadic fits of rage and then go back down into even deeper depression. This song perfectly depicts the vissicitudes of the rawest, most extreme kind of emotions. Lust, hate and melancholia.

 

[Demilich]

^^ Fuckin fanboy! lol

 

[Jinn]

SL isn't the album I'd use for fuzz music when I'm doing homework, it's too uncontinuous.

But each song separately is how I look at it, and why SL kicks ass in my opinion

 

[Ermz]

There's all kinds of ambient stuff you can pump whilst doing other things to enhance your enjoyment of them. Still Life, though, requires your full attention.