Any Opeth Fans?

[Wc707]

All time favorite 3 are Blackwater Park, Ghost Reveries, and Watershed.

Heir Apparent, Blackwater Park, and Ghost of Perdition have some of the coolest riffs [especially for E standard and Drop D]. Michael's voice is very soothing [even the growl]. Some ASMR shit right there.

Tried to get into Heritage, In cauda Venenum, Sorceress, and Pale Communion but i just can't.

 

[SpaceDock]

I was a massive Opeth fan back in the early 2000’s, I haven’t listened to any album after 2010 of theirs.

I went to see them on the Deliverance tour at a very small venue (1000 people maybe) where Porcupine Tree opened up for them. Me and two of my buddies got there at like 10 am because I wanted to see if we could meet them. We ended up hanging out with both bands, having lunch with them, got to follow Michael to a guitar shop down the street to hear him riff out, got stoned on the bus with the two Martins ( the drummer and bass player at the time). I was shooting the shit with Steven Wilson before I even knew who he was or had heard one of their songs, I didn’t even know he was in a band when I was hanging out with him lol. It was a really great day and one I will never forget.

 

[bracky]

I miss the metal days but Sorceress was a masterpiece. ICV was a disappointing follow up.

 

[EmaDaCuz]

Loved them up to Still Life, with Morningrise being one of my favourite albums across all genres. I remember playing that record back in 1998 and thinking OMG!
I lost them with Blackwater Park, they started to get too soft and lost some bite. They released some excellent songs, Ghost of Perdition is a masterpiece, but they never got back to what they used to be.
Their latest stuff is forgettable.

 

[Bdtunn]

I love everything opeth that doesn’t involve their “ballads”. The newer stuff has some cool riffs and good songs, but it’s not stuff I’ll go back and listen to over and over. Still life, deliverance, and ghost reveries are my top three.

 

[wankerness]

I spent hundreds of hours tabbing their stuff from about 2002-2006, but I really never got into Watershed and everything subsequent has been considerably less interesting than that. I saw them live three times, once on the Deliverance tour, once on the Damnation tour with Porcupine Tree, and then on the Ghost Reveries tour. The Damnation and GR shows were incredible, very memorable.

My Arms Your Hearse is my favorite album some days (other days, it's The Perfect Element I). Blackwater Park, Morningrise, Ghost Reveries and Still Life are just about as good. Orchid is also a classic. I'm in a minority that things Damnation/Deliverance are half-baked and feel rushed. Deliverance in particular has about twice as much repetition as the previous albums. The songs aren't BAD, but they feel like they were stretched out to 10 minutes inorganically. Wreath, By the Pain I See in Others, and even the title track feel like they have about half as many riffs per minute as stuff on Blackwater Park. Damnation isn't bad either, but it's like, the album really kicks into gear for me with "Closure," but then it's basically over two tracks later with "To Rid the Disease," which is a wonderful song, but then the last two tracks both just feel like epilogues. Windowpane, To Rid the Disease, and Death Whispered a Lullaby sound like a warmup. The album doesn't have enough meat to it, IMO.

Watershed has one killer track (Hessian Peel) and one pretty fun track (Lotus Eater), but none of the rest really gets me excited. It sounds like they're just kinda going through the motions on Heir Apparent, it makes sense that their subsequent albums all pretty much dropped the metal. I've listened to Heritage a few times and find a couple things to like on it but think it's all so insubstantial and loaded with ambient noise intended to pad out the album length. Pale Communion I can't remember a thing about. Sorceress had a couple decent songs and was definitely an improvement. The most recent one was actually pretty good, I should give it some more listens.

 

[Forkface]

+1 on the "dont like post-watershed opeth" boat.
few of the new songs here and there, but i cant help myself and i compare them to old Opeth and then i get sad.

new stuff is not bad, but its just not why i liked Opeth in the first place. so yeah.
Ghost Reveries is a goddamn masterpiece.

 

[Pat]

Opeth has been terrible for the last decade.

Wrong

 

[ArtDecade]

Wrong

 

[p0ke]

I'm also on the "not into post-watershed" boat. Though TBH I wasn't that into Watershed either.

What I liked most about Opeth was the extreme contrast, going from acoustic jazzy prog ballad to straight out death metal seamlessly. It just makes the extreme feel even more extreme. They've kinda lost that quality on the post-watershed albums.

 

[Metropolis]

I'm also on the "not into post-watershed" boat. Though TBH I wasn't that into Watershed either.

What I liked most about Opeth was the extreme contrast, going from acoustic jazzy prog ballad to straight out death metal seamlessly. It just makes the extreme feel even more extreme. They've kinda lost that quality on the post-watershed albums.

Same, now it's just bland dad prog.

 

[Musiscience]

One thing that caught me off guard about Opeth was that Mikael Akerfeldt always played a blue PRS Custom 24 live for a long time.

View attachment 88704

Then his PRS SE signature was this.

View attachment 88705

While I don't exactly love blue guitars, but I would've definitely bought a PRS Mikael Akerfeldt blue signature Custom 24.

If I remember correctly he also played a red SC Modern Eagle at some point that he loved. His sig was based on that he said in an article wayyyy back when it was released. Or maybe it's my memory playing tricks on me.

Edit: it's this article and it was indeed the blueprint for his sig.

https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/5-minutes-alone-mikael-akerfeldt-620810

 

[fps]

I was as into them as you can be, saw them three times between 2002 and 2004ish and they were just brilliant. I was at the Lamentations gig, phenomenal. Losing Martin and Peter changed them. I felt they lost their unique spectral feel with the increasing inclusion of keyboards from GR on and lost interest from that album on. I don’t listen to the new stuff.

While I’d probably recommend BWP as ultimately their best album, I’ve listened to it so many times that my current pick to listen to them is My Arms, Your Hearse, which simply drips with stony bleak atmosphere. Mikael’s riff writing and acoustic work from there through Damnation are up there with anything in metal for me.

 

[KailM]

^^^My Arms, Your Hearse.

Best Opeth album, hands down.

 

[Chanson]

I think the most disappointing thing about the new Opeth is it's just so...boring. I really want to like it but most of it is just so unremarkable. If they were more adventurous with it and did something more out there I would respect it even if I didn't like it. I don't think their current stuff is bad, it's just so neutral. I still will listen to a track or two of their most recent albums every now and then, but some of their older albums are binge worthy.

 

[ChrisRushing]

I always thought they had a perfect discography up through Watershed. As a musician, I can't fault them for wanting to explore other musical avenues...I just wish they had called it something else. The later "70s prog inspired" albums don't do anything for me. Opeth always had a dynamic range that I don't think has the same impact on the those later releases. Believe me, I've tried to like them haha. At any rate, I couldn't live without "My arms your hearse" or "Still life" in my collection. I'll always be a fan, I just don't pay them much attention these days.

 

[ChrisRushing]

There was one track that I think was on "Heritage" that had like a pan flute solo against some doomy sounding drums/guitars. That was the coolest thing I remember hearing out of the last three Opeth albums. Reading that statement it just sounds ridiculous lol. Does anyone know what I am talking about?

 

[Big Dumb Bitch]

They're really good live but their music post Watershed is awful and I only really enjoyed half of Watershed. Just listen to Gentle Giant or something and skip everything they've made in the past 10 years.

Still Life is their best album btw.

 

[jco5055]

I think the biggest issue is that Mikael seems like he’d rather just be a copy of his favorite bands than take his influences and be original...that’s what made Opeth so good

 

[jahosy]

It was actually listening thru Edge of Sanity's Crimson back in '96 (try it if you dig Opeth) that introduced me Opeth as Mikeal was a guest vocalist for the black metal parts in the song. Bought Orchid after and loved it. Morningrise was then released a few months later and became a big fan since. Have since seen them over 10 times in 20 yrs? ( kinda big thing here in Australia since we hardly get many international bands on a yearly basis )

Have to say they were always pushing boundaries with each of their releases, and they always had new and interesting flavours added to their sound, making each of those releases unique. Seemed to have stagnant as a band post watershed though. And watched a short clip of their recent live album, and boy Mikeal growl sounded terrible completely understandable as he's been doing it for so long and must've taken its toll. He was one of my favourite growlers during his peak (along with Dan Swano)

Best material for me? Either My arms, or still life.