Taken from www.the-plague.com
OPETH
My Arms, Your Hearse
(Century Black)
This is Opeth's third and most acclaimed album, seemingly making fans across the spectrum of metal sub-genres, from black to death to folk to progressive. The production is as rock-solid as ever and the musicianship is top-notch, yet somehow My Arms, Your Hearse becomes more of an exercise than an enjoyable listening experience within the first few tracks.
Guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt delivers the gruff, deathly vocals that are a big part of my problem with Opeth. Some people just should not attempt this style of singing (i.e. Amorphis' old singer) and Mikael is another sad example. The clean vocals that come in from time to time are fine and help give the music more of a progressive feel, but the death rasps need to go.
The other major failing with Opeth, in my eyes, is what I believe a lot of people (including the band themselves) find the most attractive about their music: its complexity. Each song goes through enough twists and turns to make the likes of Watchtower and Dream Theater dizzy. This is great and I have love when bands can pull off intricate, epic metal tracks (Mercyful Fate, Voivod, et al), but Opeth just don't have the knack for it. The songs aren't songs, they are more collections of riffs stuck together. The threads that held together such classic metal songs as "Satan's Fall" and "Ride the Lightning" are just plain absent. The contrast from light and acoustic to brutally heavy and back again is repeated song after song. Trying to recognize a song or differentiate it from the previous one are ultimately pointless tasks, as all cover basically the same ground.
I don't want to get too down on Opeth, though, as these sins are more a matter of taste than anything and they just rub me the wrong way. Also, the various parts of each song are usually pretty cool, making Opeth the perfect band for compilations. I applaud the band for trying (and achieving) something unique in such a crowded field as metal is these days, but I think they still have a ways to go to perfect the style. Great album title, though.
OPETH
My Arms, Your Hearse
(Century Black)
This is Opeth's third and most acclaimed album, seemingly making fans across the spectrum of metal sub-genres, from black to death to folk to progressive. The production is as rock-solid as ever and the musicianship is top-notch, yet somehow My Arms, Your Hearse becomes more of an exercise than an enjoyable listening experience within the first few tracks.
Guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt delivers the gruff, deathly vocals that are a big part of my problem with Opeth. Some people just should not attempt this style of singing (i.e. Amorphis' old singer) and Mikael is another sad example. The clean vocals that come in from time to time are fine and help give the music more of a progressive feel, but the death rasps need to go.
The other major failing with Opeth, in my eyes, is what I believe a lot of people (including the band themselves) find the most attractive about their music: its complexity. Each song goes through enough twists and turns to make the likes of Watchtower and Dream Theater dizzy. This is great and I have love when bands can pull off intricate, epic metal tracks (Mercyful Fate, Voivod, et al), but Opeth just don't have the knack for it. The songs aren't songs, they are more collections of riffs stuck together. The threads that held together such classic metal songs as "Satan's Fall" and "Ride the Lightning" are just plain absent. The contrast from light and acoustic to brutally heavy and back again is repeated song after song. Trying to recognize a song or differentiate it from the previous one are ultimately pointless tasks, as all cover basically the same ground.
I don't want to get too down on Opeth, though, as these sins are more a matter of taste than anything and they just rub me the wrong way. Also, the various parts of each song are usually pretty cool, making Opeth the perfect band for compilations. I applaud the band for trying (and achieving) something unique in such a crowded field as metal is these days, but I think they still have a ways to go to perfect the style. Great album title, though.