what do you think?

are opeth good with their flowing structure

  • of course they are

    Votes: 25 75.8%
  • yeah, but there are times they arent

    Votes: 8 24.2%
  • nah they completely blow at it

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    33

Pessimism

Endemic Vagabond
Feb 16, 2004
10,152
14
38
37
SoCal
now i know there are a lot of people who dont like opeth, but when i was talking to one of my friends and i asked her what exactly was it about opeth she didnt like (trying to see if there was a real reason, not the typical "oh they just" suck excuse or "damnation is lame", as if that was the only album that was heard by said persons).
however, she just said "their not good with flowing melodies, their bad at it" (as in structure-wise).

i know everything is different for everybody, but are their songs that you actually could agree with her on on the basis that it just "doesnt cut it?"
 
not good at flowing melodies?! no offence but maybe your friend isn't quite bright enough to listen to Opeth. i find that most people who don't like Opeth are simply too dumb to understand it, or it's not catchy enough for them to grasp.
 
Dark Thane said:
not good at flowing melodies?! no offence but maybe your friend isn't quite bright enough to listen to Opeth. i find that most people who don't like Opeth are simply too dumb to understand it, or it's not catchy enough for them to grasp.
o-p-i-n-i-o-n :dopey:
 
Uh...most people I know don't even know who Opeth is...so it's kind of like..."Hey who are you listening to?" "Opeth" ".........." "Yes."
 
I think that they are really good concerning the flowing of the melodies. Sometimes I wonder how the hell they achieve to go through such complex and unorthodox melodic shifts without making it sound like shit. Maybe your friend just doesn't like tricky and intriguing melodies.
I think that their melodic creativity is among their biggest strenghts.
 
Dark Thane said:
not good at flowing melodies?! no offence but maybe your friend isn't quite bright enough to listen to Opeth. i find that most people who don't like Opeth are simply too dumb to understand it, or it's not catchy enough for them to grasp.
hmmm i like opeth, but it really pisses me off when people say that.
 
I'm often amazed at the ear Mike & company have for melody and harmonization. Just let your friend listen to the folk section in Godhead's Lament (one of my favorite examples of great melody in an Opeth song) and make her eat those words.

If she was refering to the growling/dissonant parts of Opeth songs having no melody... well, isn't that sort of the point of it all?


First post by the way. Long time lurker, though. Hi. I'm saut.

PS: As a newbie, I promise not to make 50 "favorite Opeth song" threads -- I think 49 is a reasonable number.
 
They can (could?) write good flowing melodies, it's the flow of their songs that never quite got it right. Obviously, if people like tight composition, they arent going to enjoy Opeth's meandering style.
 
Décadent said:
They can (could?) write good flowing melodies, it's the flow of their songs that never quite got it right. Obviously, if people like tight composition, they arent going to enjoy Opeth's meandering style.

It is true that Opeth tend to "meander" in composition. I believe that Mikael (I think) once said that he writes songs in movements, where one part isn't directly related to another, but there is a theme. Much of classical music (composed between the early 18th and 19th centuries) is composed in a similar manner. To say that classical music has no melody because it "meanders" is certainly not true.

I notice that you say they "can (could?) write good flowing melodies." If what you are implying is that Opeth's more recent work lacks in the jaw-dropping awesomeness that was present on the earlier albums (I'm looking at you, Still Life), I agree. While I am still impressed by the clean, melodic sections on Deliverance (especially in the title track), they just don't seem up to par. I think a lot of this has to do with the "double album" experiment. Hopefully, the next album (which as I've heard will be/is composed in the traditional Opeth method) will improve where Deliverance fell short.
 
oops, i accidentally put "of course they are" i meant to put that they suck and i can't stand their singer omg get some lessons, it's all noise...that's why i listen to them all the time and i'm on their forum, i'm undermining you from the inside
 
It's a given that most metal is a riff jigsaw. The riffs are generally written independently and then pieced together going by what fits best with what else... and usually you'll find alot of filler or interludes in between the 'major' ideas.

I think if your friend dislikes Opeth for their inability to flow melodies, then I'd presume that she wouldn't like the majority of metal. IMHO, Opeth's pitfall isn't that they can't connect melodies, but it's the fact that alot of the time the changes are abrupt and the feeling of flow in their songs is lost. This was more of an issue back in the day (Orchid, Morningrise) than it is now.
 
Moonlapse said:
It's a given that most metal is a riff jigsaw. The riffs are generally written independently and then pieced together going by what fits best with what else... and usually you'll find alot of filler or interludes in between the 'major' ideas.

I think if your friend dislikes Opeth for their inability to flow melodies, then I'd presume that she wouldn't like the majority of metal. IMHO, Opeth's pitfall isn't that they can't connect melodies, but it's the fact that alot of the time the changes are abrupt and the feeling of flow in their songs is lost. This was more of an issue back in the day (Orchid, Morningrise) than it is now.

actually i believe you nailed what she meant with "the changes are abrupt and the feeling of flow in their songs is lost". shes definately not stupid, in fact our musical tastes are basically the same, except i listen to a lot more death metal than her (shes a fan of the black/folk/and thrash you see, but im not sure what kind of death she likes if any).
^i mean obviously it cant be the vocals if thats the case.

although i did honostly think that some songs off blackwater park didnt sound a little right in some areas (just as i did with deliverance, but nevertheless both very good) - but then again, i rarely listen to those albums anymore, so i dont remember very well (i stick with all the prior ones). although that is just another reason to pop them in and give them a good listen :D