Anyone else get the feeling that both Ghost reveries and Watershed are a backlash from damnation? and that Mike chose this direction because people might have expected Opeth to go soft? If Opeth hadnt done damnation, do you think the last two records would have turned out the way they did?
Watershed backlash from Damnation?
- Thread starter Andrew Park
- Start date
I'd like to think that Opeth doesn't feel the need to prove anything to anyone anymore. They know their sound better than any of us, so I think they pretty much go wherever the music takes them, not necessarily with the need to prove their doubters wrong. Doing the unexpected is certainly something Opeth uses for dynamic purposes within a song, however.I hear a certain amount of damnation present in Ghost Reveries and even in Porcelain Heart. It seems they carry a little bit of their previous releases with them in to their future releases.
old user1
New Metal Member
- Nov 30, 2005
- 131
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I think that going back the balanced sound was always the idea. D&D were written at the same time, so it's really just one big album, and anyone who heard Deliverance could tell that they were NOT going soft.
Also, be careful. It kinda sounds like you might have heard the new album. I'm sure you haven't, but just a warning... seems they're on a banning spree round these parts.
Also, be careful. It kinda sounds like you might have heard the new album. I'm sure you haven't, but just a warning... seems they're on a banning spree round these parts.
hibernal_dream
A Mind Forever Voyaging
What are you talking about? It's their softest metal album in terms of having the least amount of metal parts and the most soft ones. GR's metal parts just weren't very "metal". That's why Watershed blows it away in every respect.
I'm not saying I havent heard it, but I'm basing this strictly on the two songs that have been released (Lotus eater, and Porcelain heart).
I know that they were going back to a balanced sound, but a balanced sound could have been achieved in a different direction, say more melodic, or maybe not quite as dark, maybe more like... still life esque, or even MAYH. This being said they dont like to make a similar album. But they're all similar in that they have that "Opeth" sound.
edit
I dont mean heaviness as in growling bits, I mean heavy as in... jarringly dissonant sound. I do like that sound, but sometimes I think it could have been possible for them to go another direction and still be different.
on a side note, I HATE scott walker. i think its pretentious bullshit. its not too obvious in watershed and I like what Akerfeldt is doing with some of it, but sometimes I do hear it coming through too much (for example the keyboard section in the Lotus Eater near the middle ish, before the re-entering of the blastbeat).
I know that they were going back to a balanced sound, but a balanced sound could have been achieved in a different direction, say more melodic, or maybe not quite as dark, maybe more like... still life esque, or even MAYH. This being said they dont like to make a similar album. But they're all similar in that they have that "Opeth" sound.
edit
I dont mean heaviness as in growling bits, I mean heavy as in... jarringly dissonant sound. I do like that sound, but sometimes I think it could have been possible for them to go another direction and still be different.
on a side note, I HATE scott walker. i think its pretentious bullshit. its not too obvious in watershed and I like what Akerfeldt is doing with some of it, but sometimes I do hear it coming through too much (for example the keyboard section in the Lotus Eater near the middle ish, before the re-entering of the blastbeat).
whenharlequinsfall
Opethian
- Apr 23, 2006
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not at all. i don't think any part of mike was "if this damnation album is popular, im going for the same style from now on." mike made it because he loves that kind of music, and at the same time he made deliverance because he loves that heavier sound as well.
not my question. We all know mike isnt catering to what he thinks would be "popular". I do recall in many interviews him saying something like "people expect us to keep on with this style or go soft, we're gonna do the complete opposite just to fuck em". so maybe he went with this style just to spite all those who thought Opeth had gone soft.
Dude thats more of a prog influence than Walker. His influence lies more in the ambient and stringy keyboard parts in my opinion....oh and a couple of vocal parts...and that riff heh.
that part is exactly what i meant. the ambient stringy keyboard part just before the second blastbeat thing.
Scourge of Malice
Member
Uh??? The two released tracks remind me alot of MAYH's style.
MAYH is their darkest album so far in my opinion. I think once Watershed is released it will top it though.
Lachybob
Member
Mike isnt one to be influenced by expectations. If watershed is going to be an album to fuck with the people who think that they are gonna go soft, then how do you explain porcelain heart? And then theres the other end of the spectrum, if he wants to fuck with people who think they are gonna go heavy then he wouldnt have done the lotus eater.
... not to mention heir apparent which is sounding heavier than... well, most opeth tracks!
(I'm sure most of you have seen the live vid at this point, just search the boards otherwise)
Adramelech2012
Member
i think watershed is overcompensated since the departure of two key band members. Hence, the very very odd style with watershed. I say odd NOT in a good exciting sort of mysterious way, but in the sense of degradation. But nonetheless, some may find it worth while
Stormwatch
Cock.
You mean Mike. Opeth have gone the way of Death, Megadeth, Iced Earth etc and become a one man show.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I like all these bands.
Kenneth R.
Cináed
I hate to bring up anything about the forbidden "L" word, but the shit I've heard from this album is well balanced in terms of heavy and soft and dark and light, etc etc. But I think if they had really wanted to go in the totally opposite direction from Damnation, they would've gone alot heavier on GR and the new one. And as a side note, I think this album is the best one since BWP, just my opinion though.
gabaghoul
Anus, Slayer of the Gods
nah if anything Damnation confirmed that they can do whatever the hell they want and be creatively triumphant. no surprise that GR had a few more mellow moments than previous albums, 'cause of the confidence and comfort-level they'd established. and while I don't think they're ever gone as dark as they did on MAYH, there are some sequences on GR that get close (the beginning of Ghost of Perdition is just monstrous, and Grand Conjuration does conjure up that occult feeling pretty damn well).
Kenneth R.
Cináed
let me elaborate a bit. opeth, and mikael in particular, have shown time and again that there is nothing they have to prove to fans. there is no need to appeal to certain sentiments or maintain any kind of image. whenever people try to pigeonhole the band or comment on how they should "go back to album A or B", mikael always responds with something like "great that you liked that album, but we as a band have moved on, and don't really need to please you since it's our music."
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