Opeth, anyone?

Post Reply New Topic

As much as I love metal, I am the first to admit that most of what is out there is crap. I'll buy it anyway, and I'll love listening to it, but I am not so indulgent as to say that everything I like is musically great.

Opeth is one of the few death metal bands I know of that makes my hair stand on end, sends shivers down my spine, and draws me into their dark world. Yet when I try to play them for anybody I know, they take one whiff of the vocals and automatically dismiss them as being untalented and of not even being music. Such a shame, really.

I was wondering if anybody else here loves Opeth.

My other favorite metal bands are Ayreon and Dream Theater, they all sound so different, yet their skills are all so amazing in my opinion. Heh.

I really like Opeth. They introduced me to metal, and from there I've found loads of cool music. I discovered them less than two years ago and listened to them obsessively for a long time... I don't listen to them as often as I used to, which isn't saying much. My favorite albums are Still Life, Damnation, and Blackwater Park. (I can't decide which of the three I like most.) What do you think of their latest album?

(Incidentally, I can't stand Dream Theater and am very reluctant to listen to Ayreon. Too proggy I guess...)

My favorite Opeth album is easily Still Life.

Oddly enough, my second favorite Opeth album is Morningside, which does not seem to be nearly as popular as their later albums. I find it to be one of their more intense releases. And below is a great example of that.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD4u3TclUSs[/youtube]

Love 'em.

After reading that post, I've got a lot of respect for you. I feel the same way about the music I listen to, and it's great that other people out there are as non-biased as I am. I've got a fair few favorites of mine that I can admit are definitely crap, but I don't care. It's a great attitude to have. Something I can also say is the same for bands that people automatically dismiss by accusing them of rip-offs. Sometimes, they're really not. They're similar, but very different in a lot of ways.
That's the whole point. If you like the sound of the music, who f***in' cares?! !

And about Opeth, I actually bought their Watershed album soon after it came out, I hadn't even heard the band before (I do this a lot, and if I do so, I preview the CD(s) in iTunes before opening), but upon previewing the album, it turns out I didn't like it and I returned the CD and picked something else.

Just now I decided to give Opeth another try, and I previewed them again on iTunes. Holy sh**, I can't believe I didn't like them before, they're actually really awesome!! I'll put a CD of theirs on my to-buy list.

i dunno opeth well, i DO know they were witnesses to one of the most violent bank-robberies in norwegian history, and litterally _between_ the shootout between robbers and cops
apparently they had curled up inside their tour bus, and screamed, while one of them was somewhere else entirely, shopping or something

they swore to never come back to norway again they probably have since then tho

Everyone has their second thoughts, even the bigger people apparently!

Funny, I once saw on TV about how Norway is the "best country to live in," the documentary mentioned stuff such as crime rates, education, economy (this was a few years ago), environment... etc. Dunno if it's true or not, but that's what they were speaking of. But then again, TV's not the best source of information...

oh its true, its the safest place ever.

it just says something about humanity i guess:
the safest country ever has: whores, homeless people, bank robberies, muggeries and occationally old people freezing to death during winter, despite amazing healthcare and welfare systems. people will always somehow fall outside the system.
its the _best_ humanity can come up with :]

That's f***ed up beyond belief. Shame such misinformation is put out. I mean, the media is pretty much hitting an all time low. No wonder I don't watch TV much at all, beyond the few shows I do favor.

There are a lot of bands out there I think which are, like you point out, a bit esoteric. A lot of times people have to listen to them at length to see what you see, a couple sound bytes usually doesn't cut it. When I was a kid for example - I had a particular view of metal where, at least in junior high - it had to be along the skate angle; loved Suicidal Tendencies, FNM, Jane's Addiction, yes, a little bit of alternative in there as well. Wasn't into Tool for whatever reason until highschool, mainly that I never got a solid dose of what their music was about and yes, was probably too young to even have an understanding of what that type of emotion was or that it even existed (let alone done well) in available music.

That said though I had friends who were into stuff like Six Feet Down, Cannibal Corpse, etc., even then I think my need was to have something where the guitar hugged the beat with a tight suspension (got on real well with Ministry from that angle though, later Slayer stuff had that as well). All different kind of ears out there of course, all find their ultimate candy in different elements of the sound which seems to usually lead people to quite different genres over time.

Big respect to all fellow Opethians

I have to admit I love Opeth but they're not my favourite band. No-one can knock Iron Maiden off its shelf

To the OP, seems you like progressive metal probably the best metal sub genre out there apart from folk metal

Should listen to Gojira, they make brilliant music

Love Opeth, hate DReam Theater (but bravo to the bassline in Panic Attack.)

Most metal is kinda crappy, particularly in vocal rhythms. Opeth is just amazing in everything they do though (at least that I've heard; I don't have anything Blackwater Park and beyond.)

My favorite is porbably White CLuster because of the intense contrasts and how much fun it is to play bass and sing to. Still Life's composition is legendarily good and Morningrise is fascinating. That said they do make some weird compositional choices, like the intro of The Apostle in Triumph using an outro riff. The power of the instruments is just incredible, really strong rhythms that are intricate with really good vocals. In fact, I modelled my growling style after Mikael!

Anyone here like Bloodbath? Only death metal band I seem to enjoy besides Dark Tranquillity,

I like it, but sometimes I forget about it since I associate Opeth with a certain sound. So, when I feel like listening to something heavy and dark, Opeth is one of my favorites so I'll often look up one of their albums to listen to, but I see that album and it's not really the sound I was looking for at that time so I don't listen to it. But then when I feel like listening to something more like a prog rock album with clean vocals, I always forget about Heritage as an option since I associate Opeth with heavier dark music.

I haven't listened to it much but I did really enjoy Nepenthe. It is still about 5 albums off, so I only know of Nepenthe and the bonus tracks.

Opeth isn't death metal, the only thing about them that sounds like Death is the vocals. They sound a lot more like Black Metal.