Opeth - Blackwater Park
|
|
The Leper Affinity* |
| Genre | Melodic Death Metal |
Mikael Åkerfeldt
|
Vocals
|
| Tracks | 8 |
Mikael Åkerfeldt
|
Guitar
|
| Runningtime | 67 Min. |
Peter Lindgren
|
Guitar
|
| Label | Music For Nations |
Martin Mendez
|
Bass
|
| Release | 12 Mars 2001 |
Martin Lopez
|
Drums
|
| Country | Sweden |
-
|
Keyboards
|
| Similar artists | --- | ||
They have done it again! I guess that pretty much sums up my impressions after listening to Opeth's latest fullength release Blackwater Park. Opeth have for the past years established themselves in the elite of the swedish metal troops - proven by the fact that they during 2001 got reveived awards for "best band 2001" in magazines such as Terrorizer (UK), Close-Up (Swe) and Brave words & Bloody knuckles (CAN), and actually even by swedish radio - which is rare and a little surprising.
And the reason for that being a little surprising is that Opeth has always - and here shows that they are on the same track - been a little special. They play a kind of slower metal, with oldschool deathmetalvocals (which I have always held for one of the best ones in the genre), and are topping that with quite a lot of progressive elements - and a lot of classical, instrumental pieces, and just as much clean, normal vocals as growling ones. You don't hear much that sounds like Opeth, I can assure you.
I have heard people give a million reasons why they either love, or hate them. It's either to slow and calm, too many acoustic parts, jumping between styles on and off in songs, vocals that don't fit the music, and so on, and so on...
And the truth is that it takes time to get used to the kind of music Opeth delivers if you are new to them - but I think if you have to really make yourself get used to Opeth, then it's nothing for you - it has to come naturally. Either you feel the musical beauty that lies within this, or you don't.
The reason why I am saying that they have done it again, is that this is what we could expect from an Opeth release. This album take over where the others left as last time, and we are once again being served a couple of 10-minute songs, some reaching 12-minutes, and the rest clocking in on around 8-9 minutes. The long songs has always been Opeth's trademark, and guitarist and mastermind behind the group has once said something like this about that: "It takes that kind of time to build up the mood in a song, and if it has to reach up to around 10 minutes, then it's just because it's needed - I'm not gonna shorten a song just because it's unusal with long ones."
Definitly give Opeth a chance if you would like to experience intelligent music that tests limits, tries styles and - but still is metal to the bone. And for you that already are familiar with Opeth's earlier work - this is the natural follow-up, and you will get what you want when buying an Opethalbum.
The word on the street is that the next release from Opeth is gonna consist of not one but 2 Cd's - and that sounds like a genius plan. The thought behind this is to release 2 separate cd's at the same time - one heavy, and one calmer and slower. The heavy cd will be typical Opeth with all it's ingredients including calm and slow parts, while the "calm" cd will have more laid back material. I think that could attract people that think this is a bit too much, with all styles mixed together in heavy 10-12 minute tracks - this way they can choose the album of their preference.
Opeth have also been nominated in the class "Best hardrock" for the Swedish Grammy Awards 2002 with the "Blackwater Park" album. Other nominees are Entombed, Sahara Hotnights and Backyard Babies - and if you ask me: Opeth crushes that competition with one riff.
See
also review of: Pale Communion
, Heritage
|
Production
|
Vocals
|
Compositions
|
|
8 |
9 |
8,5 |
|
Summary
|
||
|
8,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy |
||
Related links: