May
20
2008
A mixture of soft and hard, dark and light; Opeth returns with their ninth studio album, Watershed. Well, so far only a leaked version of it..
So, is it any good? Well, yes, simply put, although I find a few passages I'm having hard to take to heart. It feels as if the keyboardist isn't really needed; what he adds to the mash could be taken away and the result would be just as good. Spite that, the album is enjoyable and having listened through it only once or twice, I have found a few favourites already.
Opeth delivers, not 100% but close.
06/23/2008 06:03:59 PM
Well, whilst I do agree that the actual album in itself does not compare to previous albums properly, that is likely because of the whole new turn they are taking. As Mikael Åkerfeldt said himself, the music portrays the style that matches his currently mindset -- "Mentally fucked up". Although you say the keyboardist could be left out, I feel it adds a depth to the music previously unheard in much Opeth. Admittedly, the actual parts where a song starts with some piano playing are pretty lame, and might as well have been swapped for some good old fashioned tuned-down over-distorted guitar :)
However, the Mellotron solo in The Lotus Eater really adds a whole new aspect to Opeth that we have not previously seen, which I find really cool.
The starting songs of the album are awesome, though the second song should NOT have such a deep guitar to start off with, as the rest of the song is really awesome if you disregard the opening.
Aanyway, adding the new drummer Martin Axenrot and melodic guitarist Fredrik Åkesson gives a sudden change of style in Opeth, which is only to be considered natural, but the way they have made Per Viberg into a full time member of the band you get something odd in comparison to older Opeth. Mikael Åkerfeldt follows suit by boasting his light vocal talents more than his death vocals, and allows Viberg to back him up with vocals, which is completely "Un-Opeth" for us.
... and yet.. isn't this one of the things that makes it Opeth? Being different and not mainstream? Perhaps this is the extreme of another style of Opeth that will only happen once (look at Damnation), but I think this is a middle step in the transition to something new in the world of Opeth.
Anyway, would you want 9 albums with the same all the time anyway?
/rant, sorry ;)
06/23/2008 06:45:56 PM
On the other hand, like I said the other day, my view on the album changed after I had listened through it a couple of times. I wrote this after having listened through two times, I've now heard it a few times more and it has grown on me -- at least to the point where I don't shudder at every new step they take.. ;-]
I don't feel confident enough to make a proper revies, is why they turn out this small (they're pretty much just a notice saying "hey this is what I like", but perhaps i ought to rewrite it, to reflect how I currently think? ;-]
....Naaah... ;-]
I didn't realise the comment text was this tiny.. ;-O