What would make Opeth even better for you?

[Satori]

I think Opeth would be even cooler (if that's possible) if they had more speed and brutality in their music. I've always been a fan of that whole insane half-step speed metal stuff, it gives me such a fucking boner from hell.

Odd as this sounds, I think it would be super cool if Opeth had a guest vocalist on a song or two (yes, I'm aware of Wilson's contributions), someone very different than Mikael, like maybe a soft female voice or something to contrast the growls, that would be absolutely fucking insane.

What do you guys think? What elements would you like to see added to Opeth?

Satori

 

[JesusChristPose]

Female vocals, like in Theater of Tragedy would be cool.

Upbeat tempo, with speed, yes that would be cool too.

A little more gand piano dualing with a riff or two would sound great.

 

[Brutalizer]

I agree with you guys!
Female vocs in Opeth would be cool! Just in one song or something like that.
And on a calm song like "Harvest", because it would not fit in a "hard" song i think.

 

[Scott B]

Oh fuck no. No female vox. The beauty/beast vocal thing is way too overdone. Opeth should just continue doing what they're doing. A DVD release would be cool, and a headlining US tour would be icing on the cake. The 45 minute set last year just was not enough.

 

[The Nomad]

No, not beauty/beast. But if you put the lady in a mellow song, it could have some interesting results.

 

[Sadistik]

I think female vox would be horrible! To gothic sounding....I think that more piano (kinda jazzy sounding) and even something like a sax or violin could work on slow songs/parts...

 

[Brutalizer]

Originally posted by Hearse
And yes I wouldn't wanna change Opeth for anything, but as a extra flavour on some song, would be nice to hear some experimental stuff.

Don't you think they experiment much already?

 

[MetalManCPA]

partly repetitive, but:

an even harder/heavier sound on some tracks with the speed element built in

use of keyboards (which is why I liked the Dimmu Borgir concert so much)

a few more "shorter" songs - not necessarily 3 minutes, but some 5-6 minute tracks, so on those quick jaunts to the store I can get my fill of Opeth (usually, it's incomplete on short trips because the songs don't finish in time)

a music video or two (not live) - their music is so subject to interpretation, I would love to see how Opeth would put a video together for any song - I'd love to see their visualiztion of a particular song

 

[spikes77]

IMO , they should include more piano but not keyboards...and possibly some sax too.

 

[The_Wanderer]

They should include one long instrumental song with some experimentation and some cool bass solos and battery solos too.

 

[veil the sky]

Hammond Organ!!

And all their CDs are free!!!

 

[S4R]

I’m vehemently opposed to female vocals, it simply wouldn’t work in my opinion. I wouldn’t mind keyboards, although I believe piano to be more fitting with Opeth.

Just a side note, call me old fashion, but I would love to see more work in vein of MAYH. I love my Opeth heavy.

postedit: A video would be extremely interesting, as long as Opeth was at the helm of course.

 

[veil the sky]

I'm in the no female vox camp too. It's the prog rock roots that play such a fundamental part in defining the Opeth sound and that would be massively undermined.

But I think keyboards would do that a bit too though, that's if they were really synthetic-type sounds. I don't imagine a 'string ensemble' synth would do wonders for the Opeth sound

 

[Rusty]

Well, apart from me joining them I think more grand piano stuff would be really good.

 

[Duende]

Originally posted by Scott B
Oh fuck no. No female vox. The beauty/beast vocal thing is way too overdone. Opeth should just continue doing what they're doing. A DVD release would be cool, and a headlining US tour would be icing on the cake. The 45 minute set last year just was not enough.

I fucken agree.

No more theatre_of_tragedy clonage ! There are thousand of bands sounding like them on the Velvet era and they are all boring as heaven.

The same goes for the gotteborg sound I think there are too many bands sounding similar .. I only bet for Dark Tranquillity and Opeth .. it seems the same history as hellowen clone german bands ... what a fuck! If there's a band making some original why to imitate ... well I need to feed myself with variety of stuff.. not all the same.

About what can make Opeth better? .. well I think that if they keep their way of improving I really can't image how can they do it to make it better.... I don't think that I got so much creativity as those guys have to suggest any change. They have always greatly surprise me ... and that's what I expect from them so making suggestions would be like kill that magic, kill Opeth itself.

 

[warsofwinter]

Song : More grand piano , Some Female Vocals singing along with Mikale .. and then they female vocals cut out and it's just all distorted shit ..... a couple longer bass runs maybe ..... drum solo ...haha long complex guitar solo on an acoustic guitar .. well Id like the song to be all clean and classical at thbe beggining and then brutally heavy towards the end and then it would go into a really funky jazz riff haha

Video - Directed by Tim Burton...no people in it ... just a rain drop fallin from the sky into a forest and just falling on leaves and shit ... with the sun reflecting on the bead and have weird things in it that you would have to pay attention for ........ and when the heavy parts woud come in have the leaves start dying and the rain drop turning into blood and just burning through the leaves and then when it hits the ground the Jazz riff would come in and smoke would start rizzing from the ground and going all different colours and the leaves would start falling and melting in the smoke ......

could be cool .

 

[Devilish monster from the hill]

Originally posted by Hearse
Agreed with metalmancpa Opeth music video would be GREAT!

NO NO NO!
I HATE music videos, it destroys the whole listening experience for me.
I prefer listening to music and using imagination better than seeing it in the damn box...

It's like a book with pictures, the words can bring you everywhere the writer wants and pictures just destroy it.


hmm... did anyone understood what I tried to say? :s

 

[veil the sky]

Originally posted by warsofwinter
Song : More grand piano , Some Female Vocals singing along with Mikale .. and then they female vocals cut out and it's just all distorted shit ..... a couple longer bass runs maybe ..... drum solo ...haha long complex guitar solo on an acoustic guitar .. well Id like the song to be all clean and classical at thbe beggining and then brutally heavy towards the end and then it would go into a really funky jazz riff haha

Video - Directed by Tim Burton...no people in it ... just a rain drop fallin from the sky into a forest and just falling on leaves and shit ... with the sun reflecting on the bead and have weird things in it that you would have to pay attention for ........ and when the heavy parts woud come in have the leaves start dying and the rain drop turning into blood and just burning through the leaves and then when it hits the ground the Jazz riff would come in and smoke would start rizzing from the ground and going all different colours and the leaves would start falling and melting in the smoke ......

could be cool .

That video description brought some incredible imagery to my mind! Thanks . It would have to be a really expensive and highly produced video to compliment Opeth's music though, so it probably wouldn't be financially viable for them. I'm not sure I'd have the leaves dying though, Opeth's music tends to celebrate the life and vivacity of the forest rather than it's demise (to my ears anyway) so I think an adequate picture of the forest as enduring and of mystical and mysterious life would be even more appropriate.

I just LOVE that idea of the rain drop falling (from a heavy overcast sky) and turning to blood though. Rather than burn through the leaves, I think it should nourish it. And mist rather than smoke. The anger in the music (which I know you are trying to convey here) could be illustrated by the anger of the forest itself! It could, with some kind of life force, make it's wrath felt through the wind and storm. Or something like that.

Jeesus I sound like a fucking hippy! I hate hippies!

This is turning me into a wuss for Christ's sake, I'm going back to the hate pit!

 

[warsofwinter]

You made a great point there . I guess I wasn't really focusing on Opeth's music .. I got that Idea from a thing I watched on sat one day . This guy is a producer but at home he just does short videos (like a rain drop falling from the sky ) but he has a lot of time to produce shorter videos so they come out really nice .. he works a lot with the colors of plants and focusing . I enjoy focus a lot in a video gives more importance to things that people usually would not see . It would be awesome if the camera followed one rain drop down and then it broke through the layer of mist at the forest ground level .. and then it just stayed there focusing on the hole that the drop made in the mist and after about 30 seconds of that more rain drops would start falling and making more holes as the camera went on a journey through the forest at just above the mist level .

I wish I could get a producer and a bunch of people to make videos for me ... Id have so much fun just watching all my ideas on TV .. haha

 

[YaYo]

NO NO NO!
I HATE music videos, it destroys the whole listening experience for me.
I prefer listening to music and using imagination better than seeing it in the damn box...

It's like a book with pictures, the words can bring you everywhere the writer wants and pictures just destroy it.

A music video by Opeth wouldnt have this effect..
Like the music video would simply portray an interpretation of the song..

Similar to Tool's clips. when i watch them i just see an interpretation, i dont see any clear storyline all it does is put the song in the right mood..

Basically the film clip should be art by itself, without the music you should still be able to watch it as a piece of art, with as much interpretation needed as all art should have.. Most film clips would be completely boring without music, and this is their big problem, i guess its just about the approach.

So yeh it'd have to be done well, because if its not then it can easily have the effect you speak of, wrecking the song. But if its done right it can be a good extension of the piece of art.




as for what id like Opeth to do in future to make them better.... experiment and listen to new and wonderful styles and incorporate them into their music, which is exactly what they've done so far so i just hope they keep it up!