| Opeth 'Blackwater Park' Music For Nations , 2001 Lord Pale : Combine rather drab light death metal with some alternative ( occasionally like Portis Head ) rock with excellent clean vocals and a light dose of prog guitars and you have something close to Opeth . I have always found that Opeth usually have about 15 minutes of worthy material on each album , the problem ? The albums usually go for over 60 minutes . This has changed with Blackwater Park , there is at least 20 minutes worth of listenable material contained within , but you still generally have to pick through the rather boring moments to get to them . With long songs around the 7 to 10 minute mark most of Opeth's song structuring revolves around the aforementioned dull progressive rocky death with deep guttural vocals before progressing into the clean vocals and rockier moments where the band really shine ( although sometimes even these moments can sound pretty average too ) . Only one song on Blackwater Park show that the 2 elements can coexist and make a truly interesting song and that is 'Bleak' , the rest ( apart from the solely clean vocalled 'Harvest' ) have some interesting moments but usually get boring by the tracks conclusion ( like most of Opeth ) . This is however Opeth's best album to date and has some worthy qualities , but for all the hype they get they certainly don't come up to standard . Avoid earlier releases , get this if you truly must own an Opeth album . Favourite Tracks - Bleak , Harvest , Blackwater Park Mark - 6.5/10 Opeth �Ghost Reveries� Roadrunner, 2005 Gloon: It is one of the great mysteries of the world why Opeth are so highly regarded and now popular even. I have always found their music un engaging, excessive and quite frankly fucking boring how so many people who truly love metal can clamber on this prog snooze fest bandwagon is beyond me. Now signed to the king of trendy metal labels Roadrunner, we are blessed/cursed with a new album which seemingly is not to be compromised by the label or the big buck. Well if 10 minute songs are a sign of not compromising than Opeth are true to their word as there are at least three monolith opuses on board this gravy train while the majority of the remaining tracks also exceed the 5-6 minute mark. My problem with Opeth has never been their talent or their ability to write a good riff its their inability to write a cohesive interesting song without over indulging in crap that frustrates me and Ghost Reveries is no exception. In parts Ghost Reveries works, there are some hauntingly wicked riffs and keyboard passages found throughout the core group of songs such as Ghost of Perdition, Beneath the Mire and The Grand Conjuration and if honed in on and trimmed down could each have been a memorable, impressive song however with the �need� to add acoustics or prog crap to �every� song they become bogged down and tiresome. Then we finally have the three songs that are respectable lengths however each of these are just shithouse art folk acoustic crap without a shred of metal in sight. So in concluding sorry if I don�t �get� Opeth but as far as I�m concerned theres nothing to get. Their so called �metal� components are lame and token at best and I still stand by the fact that they are boring and self indulgent. So if you think Opeth are unique and love them because of their non metal elements than great good on ya have a blast, just don�t go calling yourself a metalhead if you listen to this shash. Favourite Tracks � Moments in �Ghost Perdition�, Beneath the Mire�, The Grand Conjuration� Rating � 5/10 |
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