Orchid
Mikael Akerfeldt - Electric and acoustic guitars, lead vocals
Johan DeFarfalla - Electric and acoustic bass, backing vocals
Anders Nordin - Drums, percussion, and piano
Peter Lindgren - Electric and acoustic guitars
1. In Mist She Was Standing
2. Under the Weeping Moon
3. Sillhouette
4. Forest of October
5. The Twilight is My Robe
6. Requiem
7. The Apostle in Triumph
Musically, Opeth is not black metal band. Yes, they're atmospheric. Yes, they do screamed black vocals. And yes, they are melodic and intense. But Opeth does a lot of acoustic guitars. They are a classical, jazz, progressive, black metal band. I think these guys are awesome because they're melodies are so orginal. The songs are relaxing and then become filled with angst. They are more artistic than most metal bands. Opeth is a truly artistic group who aren't afraid to bear their souls in their music. They aren't afraid to show an emotion besides anger. Although the songs are all over ten minutes in length, Opeth is so skilled at what they do that you hardly notice the minutes slip by.
Enough rambling already! "Sillhouette" is a very grand piano instrumental. "Forest of October" is pretty long, as all their songs are but it has a cool drum part to it in the middle. I really like the riffing and the melodicism on this album. The distorted heavy riffing is great. All their songs are just so long they cannot truly be evaluated one by one by one. So without further bullshit...
Production rating 10/10
Songwriting 9/10
Morningrise
Mikael Akerfeldt - Electric and acoustic guitars, lead vocals
Johan DeFarfalla - Electric and acoustic bass, backing vocals
Anders Nordin - Drums, percussion, and piano
Peter Lindgren - Electric and acoustic guitars
1. Advent
2. The Night and the Silent Water
(guitar tab)
3. Nectar
4. Black Rose Immortal
5. To Bid You Farewell
(guitar tab)
All the songs on this album are over 10 minutes long. Some of the distorted guitar riffs are evil and dissonant. They sound really good. I love this guy's clean vocals. They're so clear and melodic. The distorted vocals are pretty damn good too. The bassist does some melodic fills and the double bass drums are tight as hell. Opeth has consistently shown that they're the best and most original band to come out of Sweden in years.
Production rating 10/10
Songwriting 11/10
My Arms, Your Hearse
Mikael Akerfeldt - guitar, vocals AND bass
Peter Lindgren - guitar
Martin Lopez - drums
1. Prologue
2. April Ethereal
3. When
4. Madrigal
5. The Amen Corner
6. Demon of the Fall
7. Credence
8. Karma
9. Epilogue
Just when you thought nothing could top "Morningrise," Opeth puts out another great album. This one is a lot more "metal." This goes to show that the most extreme and intense music is from Sweden and not Norway. There's a lot of aggression and evil riffing but they maintain those great acoustic guitars. The vocals on this album are by far better than ever!!!! They are so deep, that they are almost death vocals, while the clean vocals are more melodic than ever. There's lots of aggressive guitar parts but they still manage to balance it with melancholy acoustic guitar parts.
Production rating 10/10
Songwriting 11/10
Still Life
Mikael Akerfeldt - guitar and vocals
Martin Menendez - bass
Peter Lindgren - guitar
Martin Lopez - drums
1. the Moor
2. Godhead's Lament
3. Benighted
4. Moonlapse Vertigo
5. Face of Melinda
6. Serenity Painted Death
7. White Cluster
Talk about fucking consistency!! These guys cannot release a bad album! "Still Life" is a great album because it shows that Opeth is still growing, evolving and changing for the better.
This album utilizes the dissonance of "My Arms, Your Hearse", but it is more colorful due to its beautiful lead guitars. The pictures painted by the melodies are vivid, stark in clarity and down right emotive. Opeth does a lot of time changes, which throws the listener off balance, and keeps things interesting. Sometimes they do jazzy breaks, and on "Face of Melinda" Lopez actually uses brushes! Akerfeldt's clean vocals are sharper and more confident than on "My Arms".
What astounds me is that all these elements are wrapped up into one band and that each songs flows perfectly, whereas another (inferior) band would cut and paste all these elements together and call their compositions songs. The dissonant rhythms, colorful leads, emotional clean singing, vivid harmonies, fucked up time breaks and (as always) beautiful acoustic passages are what makes Opeth, the shit.
Production rating 10/10
Songwriting 12/10 (a new record!)
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