Watershed: Are you disapointed with it?

Yup as a father myself - and coming from a relatively broken home - I really love the lyrics on Watershed more and more for each listen. Coupled with the mysterious artwork... excellent +3.
 
Im growing older and cant stand as much heavy music as i used too..
I love the fact that Opeth used less cookie monster in this album and more clean. Mikael is an awesome singer and people need to let him produce music and let him take advantage of this time in his life before he gets old and cant hit those notes anymore.


Watershed was too weird sounding the first go round but i love it now, esp the detuning guitar riff on Burden .

Its basically another album from my favorite band.
 
My opinion : I can't say if I definitely like it or not yet, I'm still trying to get used to it (and God knows I'm trying with Heir Apparent and Porcelain Heart), but it's not their worst record, that's for sure.
Coil, The Lotus Eater and Porcelain Heart are my favorite and I appreciate Burden more and more each time I listen to it.
Anyway I really appreciate the risks they're taking by adding different influences on every record, I really hope that will stay true on the next.

By the way, isn't it great when the frontman of your favourite band comes himself on his own forum to write something like "thanks for your concern" ?
Don't mean to be ass-licking there but I'm always amazed by the humbleness of Akerfeldt.
 
I loved this album this and mars volta new album has to be my top two of this year but it would of been cool if Opeth did watershed a tiny bit heavier
 
I'm also one of those that is not all that impressed with this release. I honeslty feel like it could of been a lot better. It feels as if its missing some sort of dynamic in the song structures. Even the stand-out tracks like "Heir Apparent" and "The Lotus Eater" seem kind of incomplete, they are missing that climax, and to me this is new, because in all the other Opeth releases there was always a couple or few songs with that climax, and this record to me is missing that completely. The aforementioned songs will get good but thats about as far as they will go. And also "Porcelain Heart" this song when I first heard it, I was really enjoying it until it got that " rest your head now don't you cry" segment..argh. If it wasn't for that part this song would have been amazing, but that verse was a real turn-off for me...it's just so cliche.

This album also tends to remind me of Deliverence quite a bit, in the sense that the song structures aren't as intricate in the tune of Ghost Reveries, MAYH, Still Life, BWP, and give or take Orchid. I'm mean yeah, Fredrick is a good guitarist, but he only shines on a couple solos, all the others to me are just standard fare. I wish there was more complexity, and this album is missing that.

But don't get me wrong, Still think this is a good release and I really enjoy "Hessian Peel" I guess I was just expecting something really spectacular from this release.
 
Dissappointed?? Hell NO!! I love it to bits! I think that the guys really outdid themselves in this one. And i like the female vocal touch in Coil. :headbang:
 
soundave said:
I agree with you about a lot of this, but my grades are higher overall, especially for Burden & PH.

As far as use of the word "children", I couldn't disagree more. This is a heartfelt album, if nothing else. And the matter that concerns his heart now is family--particularly his children. I think he can appreciate the horror of his happy family going awry, and the thought of it is scarier than any Deliverance-type killer drowning him in the sea.

There are a number of recurring themes on the album. The one that strikes me the most is the repetition of the word "sorrow".
Click to expand...

i agree with this and other posters re. split homes and the fears of parenthood. i am not a parent and have been lucky enough not to come from a divided home, so these issues perhaps don't resonate with me as with mike, or some of the other posters on this forum.

just watched the dvd documentary (i know, what took me so long>? well it was all good listening time!) and i like burden a whole lot more now for hearing mike enthusing about 70s scorpions songs. the rehearsal of lotus eater with just the one clean vocal at the start sounds really cool too! lots of funny stuff, esp. mike with the keyboard- *i have a keyboard, same as per's, dunno if it's good or it's shit, it has, you know, a volume knob* :)
 
I think Ghost Reveries And Watershed and brilliant albums and should defiantly not be on the bottom of the list. It's really hard to choose a favorite album list with Opeth since i love all there albums but there first 2 albums since there just not my style of music. More usage of switching from clean to harsh vocals in there 2 latest releases and all the complex playing makes me completely disagree with everyone claiming that GR and WS are at the bottom. It just sickens me to see people bashing on such great pieces of art, sure Still Life and Blackwater Park are amazing too but GR and WS are right up there with them IMO.
[/end rant]
 
I have listened to watershed many times now, and am left dissapointed. It is not one thing or another, and bland in most respects. I expect the usual groopies to reject this and me, but I have listened to all th Opeth have had to ffer of over the years and this is the worst.
I expect slagging etc.but my view is just as importnant as any of the groupes here.
 
Yeah, I can't sit through it anymore without being bored to tears. It just got worse with each listen as the initial excitement wore off.
 
I experienced the same as the two above, but my initial excitement was dropping after the first time listening through. If I remember correctely I had a strange feeling by the time hex omega came up and thought: well this last song better be amazing...
It's not a bad record by any means but it just isn't up to the standards/feel that Opeth established with their previous albums and I think they lost too much of their sound whith this one.
Still looking forward to the next effort.
 
Mantraschism said:
I was disappointed. Then I found that I couldn't stop listening to it. Then I realized I was starting to love it. Now I'm not disappointed.

Now, I love 'Ghost Reveries'. Yet I can't get over the feeling that with that album they wanted to say, 'We're back!' (after 'Damnation') more than anything else. It seemed like an album that was trying to impress. 'Watershed' seems somehow more self-assured, like we're listening to a band that no longer feels it has to prove itself. I don't think it's perfect - I mean, I would have liked a little more heaviness and growling - but it sounds every bit the band that gave us 'My Arms, Your Hearse', 'Blackwater Park', and all the rest, even though it really isn't. 'Watershed' sounds like a very natural evolution, to me, and I really admire and love it.
Click to expand...

great post, agreed
 
^ Funnily enough, I find Watershed much more contrived then Ghost Reveries. GR is a true masterpiece to my eyes, and despite the fact that I rate Watershed pretty high in their discography, it lacks -- dare I say it -- sincerity in the final rendition. I really think that WS is more meant to impress than GR, which was a "take it as it is or leave it" record, without concession. The tracklisting was daring I think, with three EXCELLENT mellow songs, and the oddity that is Harlequin Forest, just to name those.

In retrospect -- although I will surely give more and more listens to WS, because it certainly deserves it -- I don't think WS will ever rank as high in my list as Ghost Reveries and Blackwater Park. But that's okay peeps, the true genius of this band is that someone's favorite album is somebody else's worse, and somehow along the way we keep on being there when the new albums come out. And that's because they keep us INTERESTED, and we trust the band to reach musical heights few bands can dream of reaching.

So WS is not my best, but I can still see why it could be someone else's, and I totally respect that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
  • Locked
WATERSHED
Replies
26
Views
2K
Opeth (Archived)
Carta's
C
Metamyr
Watershed in perspective of other Opeth albums
Replies
131
Views
6K
Opeth (Archived)
Ninfix
N
B
Was anyone else very impressed by Watershed?
Replies
46
Views
2K
Opeth (Archived)
FRUGiHOYi
F
O
What Opeth Means by "Watershed"
Replies
76
Views
8K
Opeth (Archived)
worldwide_suicide
W
embrace.random
  • Poll
Favourite Opeth [album] Production?
Replies
33
Views
2K
Opeth (Archived)
Chinese Whispers
C
Top Bottom
Back