Opeth: holy ****

[Stanley Nickels]

So, I'm typically very indie rock when it comes to music; I also like a lot of old blues and even some bluegrass.
I usually HATE metal. I think it sounds annoying and gives me a headache. I don't mean that faux-metal they play on 98.9.. I know what death, grind, and black metal are, and I typically believe they're just different genres for me to be annoyed with.
But I recently started listening to Opeth, and I absolutely love it. Holy shit. I bought their album Blackwater Park, and I really like it. I'm not sure how I made it this long without hearing them, but it's not like that type of metal is necessarily mainstream.

Anyway, I'm a convert. Even when he growls, the music behind it is so densely layered and complex that I still really like it. Anybody else like Opeth? Good recommendations for a second purchase?

[Stanley Nickels]

Nice. Look forward to it.

[Chiefspants]

It was a firm belief of mine that Led Zeppelin would probably be my favorite band until hair grew abundantly from my ears. I did not stop to ponder what a momentous day it was when my best friend sent me “In My Time of Need” By Opeth, from their Damnation album. I was surprised to find that the song sounded heavily influenced by pink floyd, and maybe even cut from the 70’s itself. My friend told me they played music mixed from 70’s style rock and current death metal.

After listening to only In My Time of Need during the fall months of highschool. I began to transition into some of their other music. It was then I discovered just how diverse Opeth was, after listening to the soft, melodic Harvest, the heavy, fast paced In Mist She was standing and a mixture of the two in A Fair Judgement, Even my parents became fans. (Though they didn’t care for their heavy stuff so much)

It was then my dad found the song Burden. Wow, this song moved my soul, Akerfeldts voice really reached a new level with this song. A song which is in my opinion, stairway to heaven worthy (Stairway has been one of my favorite songs for ages) The power, and emotion in Akerfeldts voice just blew me away.

Finally, Opeth is so much to who I am. Opeth truly moves my soul, their writing paints a captivating image within my mind and encompasses my soul in a celestial garden. They place my mind into a world where I can see everything so clearly and unblemished. It is a dream environment for me to write within. (Ever since I got serious into Opeth, My novel progressed from page 64 to 405 in only a year.)

After staying with their clean songs for about a year, I finally began to branch off into their heavier music. I downloaded their ghost reveries album on my seventeenth birthday, and "Ghost of Perdition" quickly became one of my favorite songs. I do not believe I have ever heard a song so brutally vigorous yet astonishingly beautiful at the same time. ( I then heard "Bleak" for the first time about a month later, and found that it too achieved this phenomenal feat.)

3,500 last.fm scrobbles later, Opeth is still by far my favorite band, I'm now refocusing on the heavier portions of their watershed album while revisiting Damnation. I do not know if I shall ever know another band so diverse, so daring, so wicked yet beautiful, and completely remarkable at all that they attempt.

I highly recommend this band for anyone who has any kind of a taste in music.

[Reaper16]

For NewPhin (and whoever else), a list of metal albums that blend heavy & light passages, blend genre, are good.

*Legend*
Band Name (brief description of band):
Album Name
Album Name

Agalloch (An Oregon band that expertly blends Post-Rock, Black Metal and European Folk music. I think they are the best band in America.):
Pale Folklore
The Mantle
Ashes Against the Grain

Angra (a Brazilian Power Metal band. The compositions are awe-inspiring. So much Latin influence):
Temple of Shadows
Aurora Consurgens

Ansur (progressive metal. The vocals suck but the instrumentals are the kind of thing you're looking for if you like how Opeth blends heavy and melodic so well):
Warring Factions

Athiest (Death Metal has always been the subgenre of metal that has played up the genre's inherent jazz influence the most. Athiest, perhaps moreso than any metal band, is jazz music. Crazy-good.):
Piece of Time
Unquestionable Presence
Elements

Baroness (Southern-fried, sludgy, subversive use of minor and major scales):
Blue Record

Crotchduster (a comedy side-project from members of death metal band Capharnaum. They shift complete genres on a dime with multiple song parodies within a single song. The album has to be heard to be believed.):
Big Fat Box of Shit

Dan Swano (an influential producer and member of numerous metal bands. Does rare solo work. If you like Opeth you will like):
Moontower

Disillusion (German band. Fits the description of musical blending. Title track is tremendous):
Back to Times of Splendor

Edge of Sanity (A Dan Swano band. Both of these albums are twisting, turning, tornadoes of musicality. Both albums consist of a single 40-50 minute long song):
Crimson
Crimson II

Kalisia (French band. They put out an EP in 1994. They're full-length concept album didn't come out until last year. It was my second fav album of 2009. This band is insane in an organic, uncontrived way):
Skies
Cybion

November's Doom (a Chicago-based band that meshes Doom & Death metal. Tons of light/dark interplay):
The Pale Haunt Departure

Persefone (a lot like Kalisia. Balls-out crazy. So Exciting yet altogether musical):
Core
Shin-ken

Sigh (a Japanese band that was originally a band heavily inspired by Scandinavian Black Metal but grew increasingly and rapidly more experimental. Their most recent album, for example, is musically accomplishing the blending of bombastic German symphony, German thrash metal and Japanese pop/rock. It is far from their most experimental album):
Hail Horror Hail
Scenario IV: Dread Dreams
Imaginary Sonicscape
Gallows Gallery
Hangman's Hymn
Scenes from Hell

UneXpect (a Canadian band that makes surprisingly organic, natural sounding music that also happens to be chaotic. Opera, free jazz, circus music, and all kinds of disparate shit join up in the effort):
In A Flesh Aquarium

So, 25 albums isn't a bad starter list. I could have listed an infinitely large number of other bands that are more straightforward (and yet not straightforward at all). The albums that did get listed are the ones that are complex and perpetually exciting, the ones that keep you on the edge of your seat because you don't know what will happen next, the ones that accomplish all that without sounding gimmicky or sounding like they are "forcing it."

[NewChief]

Awesome, thanks! Now I've got to start torrenting or something. It's pathetic that a music junkie like myself doesn't download music much. I pretty much depend on the public library for my m usic.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

It was a firm belief of mine that Led Zeppelin would probably be my favorite band until hair grew abundantly from my ears. I did not stop to ponder what a momentous day it was when my best friend sent me “In My Time of Need” By Opeth, from their Damnation album. I was surprised to find that the song sounded heavily influenced by pink floyd, and maybe even cut from the 70’s itself. My friend told me they played music mixed from 70’s style rock and current death metal.

After listening to only In My Time of Need during the fall months of highschool. I began to transition into some of their other music. It was then I discovered just how diverse Opeth was, after listening to the soft, melodic Harvest, the heavy, fast paced In Mist She was standing and a mixture of the two in A Fair Judgement, Even my parents became fans. (Though they didn’t care for their heavy stuff so much)

It was then my dad found the song Burden. Wow, this song moved my soul, Akerfeldts voice really reached a new level with this song. A song which is in my opinion, stairway to heaven worthy (Stairway has been one of my favorite songs for ages) The power, and emotion in Akerfeldts voice just blew me away.

Finally, Opeth is so much to who I am. Opeth truly moves my soul, their writing paints a captivating image within my mind and encompasses my soul in a celestial garden. They place my mind into a world where I can see everything so clearly and unblemished. It is a dream environment for me to write within. (Ever since I got serious into Opeth, My novel progressed from page 64 to 405 in only a year.)

After staying with their clean songs for about a year, I finally began to branch off into their heavier music. I downloaded their ghost reveries album on my seventeenth birthday, and "Ghost of Perdition" quickly became one of my favorite songs. I do not believe I have ever heard a song so brutally vigorous yet astonishingly beautiful at the same time. ( I then heard "Bleak" for the first time about a month later, and found that it too achieved this phenomenal feat.)

3,500 last.fm scrobbles later, Opeth is still by far my favorite band, I'm now refocusing on the heavier portions of their watershed album while revisiting Damnation. I do not know if I shall ever know another band so diverse, so daring, so wicked yet beautiful, and completely remarkable at all that they attempt.

I highly recommend this band for anyone who has any kind of a taste in music.

Here's my Opeth story, also starting in high school: people online were telling me that this is an incredible band, that the singer has the best harsh vocals ever, that they are heavy and complex. So I downloaded Damnation and Deliverance simultaneously from a P2P client, song by song. The first song I played was Damnation's first track, "Windowpane." Now, I love prog-rock but I was waiting for the metal... and it never came. I didn't know then that the album was conceptually meant to be a mostly-acoustic album. The the first track off of Damnation's companion album, the [mostly]all-heavy Deliverance finished downloading. "Wreath" was complex, brutal punishment all the way through. The title track of the album showed me how masterful then-drummer Martin Lopez is. He plays a drum part near the end of the song that sounds impossible to the ears of a non-drummer: he's playing a complex counter-rhythm to what is going on with the guitars that sounds like it is taking every bit of his arms to play... until you listen closer and hear that he's somehow hitting the cymbal with some magical 3rd hand, keeping everything in a solid 4/4. It blows my shit away.

So when I got their most acclaimed album, Blackwater Park, and heard on the song "Bleak" that those two sides of the band come together so majestically. I was completely sold then and there. Still Life, my 3rd favorite album of any genre, all-time, made them my favorite band. "Serenity Painted Death" was so much fun and my favorite song by the band, "Godhead's Lament" has this perfectly-phrased folk interlude that sends me to happy places every time.

So, yeah, Opeth rule.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Here's my Opeth story, also starting in high school: people online were telling me that this is an incredible band, that the singer has the best harsh vocals ever, that they are heavy and complex. So I downloaded Damnation and Deliverance simultaneously from a P2P client, song by song. The first song I played was Damnation's first track, "Windowpane." Now, I love prog-rock but I was waiting for the metal... and it never came. I didn't know then that the album was conceptually meant to be a mostly-acoustic album. The the first track off of Damnation's companion album, the [mostly]all-heavy Deliverance finished downloading. "Wreath" was complex, brutal punishment all the way through. The title track of the album showed me how masterful then-drummer Martin Lopez is. He plays a drum part near the end of the song that sounds impossible to the ears of a non-drummer: he's playing a complex counter-rhythm to what is going on with the guitars that sounds like it is taking every bit of his arms to play... until you listen closer and hear that he's somehow hitting the cymbal with some magical 3rd hand, keeping everything in a solid 4/4. It blows my shit away.

So when I got their most acclaimed album, Blackwater Park, and heard on the song "Bleak" that those two sides of the band come together so majestically. I was completely sold then and there. Still Life, my 3rd favorite album of any genre, all-time, made them my favorite band. "Serenity Painted Death" was so much fun and my favorite song by the band, "Godhead's Lament" has this perfectly-phrased folk interlude that sends me to happy places every time.

So, yeah, Opeth rule.

I just got into Deliverance when my parents bought me their "Lamentations" concert video for Christmas. I always had "A Fair Judgement," Though this is not a fair reflection of that album. (It's a rather soft song in comparison to "Wreath", and "Deliverance" from that album.)

Bleak..God...I would call this the Stairway to Heaven of Prog/Death metal. (Okay, I know I already compared their song Burden to Stairway earlier, but hear me out.) In stairway, the song starts soft and slowly evolves into a faster tempo, upbeat song, before concluding with an incredible solo and an upbeat final to the fabled masterpiece. I would argue that "Bleak" has a similar transition, though it starts out vicious and slowly transitions into a melodic masterpiece, before transitioning into a fast paced, brutal conclusion to Opeth's masterwork of "Blackwater Park."

And, I am kind of ashamed to admit this, but I actually have not downloaded "Still Life" yet, I have heard that it is one of the greatest concept albums ever made, but, it will be the final Opeth Album I shall listen to, (Besides their upcoming albums) and I really want to savor their entire discography. (I think I will download it as a reward when I near the end to my story.)

Anyways, what is your opinion of Fredrik and Axe? I mourned for three days when I realized the true impact of Lopez' departure, and for about another week when I read about Peter's departure as well. Though, I must say I have warmed up to Axe as a drummer, listening to "Heir Apparent" and "Burden" while reading into his biography really warmed me up to his character.

[Molitoth]

Welcome to the club Stanley Nickels.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

And, I am kind of ashamed to admit this, but I actually have not downloaded "Still Life" yet, I have heard that it is one of the greatest concept albums ever made, but, it will be the final Opeth Album I shall listen to, (Besides their upcoming albums) and I really want to savor their entire discography. (I think I will download it as a reward when I near the end to my story.)

Anyways, what is your opinion of Fredrik and Axe? I mourned for three days when I realized the true impact of Lopez' departure, and for about another week when I read about Peter's departure as well. Though, I must say I have warmed up to Axe as a drummer, listening to "Heir Apparent" and "Burden" while reading into his biography really warmed me up to his character.

You will adore Still Life when you get around to listening to it.

Lopez is one of my favorite drummers ever. I took that loss pretty damn hard. Axenrot, however, is a fine addition to the band. He's a different drummer entirely; he's not going to have the Latin influences that Lopez had. But Axe is tough to beat for sheer death metal drumming skill. He plays the drums heavier than Lopez did; seeing Opeth live with Axe was seeing a heavier band. Fredrik? Well, he can play guitar and he can play it better than I thought he ever could. Its Akerfeldt who is writing everything anyway and as long as Fredrik can play it then its all good. I liked Lindgren's style and tone quite a bit but I recognize that his departure isn't going to hurt the songwriting.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

Bleak..God...I would call this the Stairway to Heaven of Prog/Death metal. (Okay, I know I already compared their song Burden to Stairway earlier, but hear me out.) In stairway, the song starts soft and slowly evolves into a faster tempo, upbeat song, before concluding with an incredible solo and an upbeat final to the fabled masterpiece. I would argue that "Bleak" has a similar transition, though it starts out vicious and slowly transitions into a melodic masterpiece, before transitioning into a fast paced, brutal conclusion to Opeth's masterwork of "Blackwater Park."

Wouldn't that reversal make it more like the opposite of the Zeppelin song and therefore a Stairway to Hell?

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Wouldn't that reversal make it more like the opposite of the Zeppelin song and therefore a Stairway to Hell?

Escalator to Hell.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Escalator to Hell.

Good job.

[unlurking]

Just to add to Reaper's list...

Monolith by In Mourning is my favorite album of the year so far. Beautifully tragic lyrics (darklyrics.com). Two of my favorite songs:

[Pablo]

Thanks for the Agalloch recommendation Reaper.

Good shit.

[NewChief]

Just checking back in to say I'm enjoying the music recommended so far. At some point in the near future I'm going to get serious about downloading some albums. I'm working out pretty regularly, and that's usually the most uninterrupted time I have to listen to music. Metal tends to be pretty damned good to work out to. So I like to throw an album on the shuffle, workout to it for a few days, then toss another new one on.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Ghost Reveries is my favorite Opeth album.

Also, I would like to agree with those who said Agalloch is awesome.