Watershed: Are you disapointed with it?

[Slynt]

out of interest, did you enjoy ghost reveries? where does that one stand for you in their catalogue?

"Ghost of Perdition", "The Baying of the Hounds", "Beneath the Mire" and "Harlequin Forest" are all songs I consider among Opeth's best. "Hours of Wealth" and "Isolation Years" are beautiful but lack the edge of their earlier ballads and are too 'poppy' for my tastes; "The Grand Conjuration" is allright I guess.

So essentially you're one of those "Opeth fans" that isn't really an Opeth fan but is metalhead that considers anything overly soft or progressive repulsive.

That, young man (I assume you are 14 from your handle), is a very silly comment to make. First I am not an "Opeth fan", I am an OPETH FAN DAMMIT, and also devoted to music in general. I never said anything about progressive music, so you made that up, and OVERLY soft is, well, OVERLY soft and as a METAL fan OVERLY soft IS not that interesting to me; especially when the melody lines are sweet and sappy. I love "To Bid You Farewell", "Credence", "Face of Melinda" ... note that these songs do not need Mikael crooning as if he were a soul singer.

Being an Opeth fan doesn't mean you have to look dumb because you're just a sheep falling prey to sycophancy.

Exactly. "Ohhh Watershed must be good because Mikael thinks so". Well, Mikael thinks it's good, and he is probably honest about it, but that doesn't mean *I* have to think it's good. I probably appreciate Morningrise far more than he does (the album, not the other ... morningrise..thingy). So I agree with you here Blue Moon.

Fact is that there are plenty of Opeth fans who only like their heavier stuff, and lots who only like their softer side; thats why there's always so many arguments about it. No point slagging each other off for perfectly valid opinions.

But the important thing here is, that OPETH always was the band where I loved the BALANCE between the death metal and the acoustics/proggy bits. And that BALANCE has been skewed more and more, up until Watershed where there is way too much ambience/quiet moments, making the truly heavy parts seem awkward when they appear (listen to "Hessian Peel" - now honestly do you feel that the grunted parts fit well with the rest of the song)?

Before, their acoustic parts were more eerie, darker...having the same atmosphere as the heavy parts. Now the acoustic parts are PRETTY like a little schoolgirl drawing Hello Kitty in her schoolbook, while the heavy parts are Satan taking a dump in her panties. It doesn't gel as it did before.

So individually, I love many parts on Watershed, but as a whole, it's not good enough IMO.

Still, as I said, very interested in the next step. I admit I am pretty skeptical, I have lost a lot of faith over the last year, but OPETH has been my number one band for a decade and I am definitely giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Who am I to spew forth such vitriol? Nobody, of course. Mikael goes his own ways, and I respect that, but every band loses fans at some point of their career, and gain new ones. That's how it works.

Now, My Dying Bride is the metal band that have the longest running line of consistenly good albums IMO. And their new album is FUCKING AWESOME, even though they haven't really changed that much since their first album released two years before Orchid.

 

[Seikojin]

I didn't have huge expectations for Watershed, and I was slightly suprised by how much I liked it. The varied layers of sound does diminish the overall "metalness" of the album, but I think it works well. Maybe its because I've been listening to so much Porcupine Tree lately, but I'm beginning to prefer layers of atmosphere over straight riffing. I think their next album will incorporate the Opeth riffing we all love with the new atmosphere they hinted at on Watershed.

Agreed!

 

[DarkBarrage99]

To be disappointed in Opeth just seems strange to me. The thing is, it's not a bad album at all but I can't but feel that it isn't up to the standards that I've come to expect from Opeth. But most bands at their 9th album would, quite frankly, are utter shit, which Watershed isn't. So, in my opinion, I can more than let this one bip on the scope of Opeth pass. But to put it straight, yes I think Watershed is a disappointment.

unless martin lopez didnt leave opeth and lindgrin didnt decide to persue a nerd career and just maybe, steven wilson joined the band as a keyboard player, then this album would've reached the standard the older albums made.

the changing of players really changes a band's sound. lopes had a lighter more jazzy sound compared to axe's cannon fodder, fredrik kinda sounds like he's still in arch enemy (not necesarilly a bad thing, just changes the sound), and Per is more of a rock and roll player than... whatever you would call steven willson's playing; more dreary like in damnation and bwp.

with the lineup and how mikael is writing more with major chords, which I find genious in the ways hes implying them, opeth will most likely not be the same.


the way i look at it, watershed is nothing like anything from MYAH to d&d (and gr, if you consider it a part of that chapter), and orchid and morningrise is almost nothing like that same period. it never would be, its almost like 3 completley different bands, watershed being the latest lineup.

but I do notice a difference in all of it, the main difference being the lack of atmosphere. but I find the lack of atmosphere to almost be the atmosphere, especially with the album's concepts.

but I'm not dissappointed, more or less I see it as an effort made by a band that has had a lineup change, and that change in players changes the sound. its like a completly different category from opeth.

 

[DarkBarrage99]

"Ghost of Perdition", "The Baying of the Hounds", "Beneath the Mire" and "Harlequin Forest" are all songs I consider among Opeth's best. "Hours of Wealth" and "Isolation Years" are beautiful but lack the edge of their earlier ballads and are too 'poppy' for my tastes; "The Grand Conjuration" is allright I guess.



That, young man (I assume you are 14 from your handle), is a very silly comment to make. First I am not an "Opeth fan", I am an OPETH FAN DAMMIT, and also devoted to music in general. I never said anything about progressive music, so you made that up, and OVERLY soft is, well, OVERLY soft and as a METAL fan OVERLY soft IS not that inte...

arguing over the internet is like trying to win at the special olympics guys.....

 

[ToRidTheDisease193]

Hmm, I dunno if I'd say i'm disappointed with it. I really enjoyed it when I first bought it, but after listening to it so many times i've definitley realised I don't like it anywhere near as much as their previous albums. It also seems more mainstream to mean, dunno if that's just my imagination though..

 

[Rogue Eagle]

Watershed just feels a little over produced to me

 

[kalikatzaros]

yes it seems like that to me as well. I think it also got too much attention from the media, due to the label, which made it bigger than it is, in my humble opinion. I like some of the songs, especially heir apparent and hex omega, but it (to me) its defiantly not as good as their previous work not to say that its bad, its just different. Its so different that in my ears it has kinda lost the old Opeth feel. That kind of happened with GR but more so in with this album. Seeing how things are going I think their new album will even further drift away from the past Opeth stuff which is pretty sad. Anyways as has been said before: some like it others don't...oh well I guess.

 

[wut wut]

Still not disappointed. Still respect others who think it sucks.

Recently I've started to enjoy Watershed even more. A couple of smudges on the album that I couldn't really get over before... the flutes part on "The Lotus Eater" and Axe's drumming on "Porcelain Heart"... finally clicked with me while listening to the album stoned and drunk at a friend's house (I was abandoned by myself there for a couple of hours with a half of weed, a $400 bong, and a full bottle of UV vodka, while my friend who owns the place was dealing with an unexpected rush at work which she didn't call to tell me about... yeah, you would've been blazing and drinking too).

The funny thing was, I didn't appreciate these parts until I'd already tried to for a looong time and had finally given up. I had just resigned myself to never liking those sections of the album, and that's when it clicked. When I didn't care whether I liked those sections or not, I found that I liked them.

Pretty cool. I'm especially impressed with Axe's chaotic drumming during the second 'chorus' of "Porcelain Heart".

 

[MegaMoose]

unless martin lopez didnt leave opeth and lindgrin didnt decide to persue a nerd career

LOL, as if being in a metal band isn't a nerd career.

 

[Lateralus14]

Changing Lindgren for Akesson is essentially trading about one amazing guitar solo per album for a guitarist that's much tighter live and will maybe help with songwriting. That can be a good or a bad thing really, I mean I'm not happy either that we'll never get another solo like the one in Beneath the Mire or When, but still, it's not really enough of a change to whine about. Lopez to Axe, I don't know much about drumming so I don't really see many downsides, but we do know that Axe is more consistent live. And Per and SW seem totally different. SW added separate piano parts like in the Leper Affinity whereas Per's function is mostly to just complement the guitars with the same notes played on a piano, only exceptions being The Lotus Eater and Beneath the Mire, that's just Opeth trying to be more proggy.

Oh and sorry about my comment earlier Slynt, it was pretty unnecessary and you're entitled to your opinion. I see what you mean about the atmosphere of the clean parts vs. the heavy parts in watershed, to me I guess the weirdness just makes it more evil.

While the atmosphere problem may be a valid point to some, I still think the musicianship is great in other areas. Outside of the shredding second half of the Heir Apparent solo, all the solos are very well done, for instance, whereas in some albums like Still Life, a few of the solos weren't really standouts, like Godhead's Lament, or just didn't fit the rest of the song at all, like White Cluster (I love that song and that solo but I can't help but laugh and think how stupid and disjointed it sounds for a few seconds in between the solo and the riff before)

 

[Dammnare]

It is not a bad album. But I did not like it that much and I did not buy it. Perhaps I will just for the sake of collecting. The other albums vastly outshine Watershed in my opinion. I can't say I am disappointed but it was definitely a strange album.

 

[Chinese Whispers]

It will be interesting to see where the next album/s go, and maybe it will put Watershed into context, but at the moment, even going from Ghost Reveries to it, it stand out like a sore thumb.