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#FOR FANS OF: Prog Death
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This is one of my favorites from this band, till they took a dive into progressive rock now. This one, 'My Arms, Your Hearse' as well as 'Blackwater Park', are my favorites. 'Watershed' (to me) is just OK. Really experimental, but alright. So here, we have unrelenting progressive metal. The riffs are outstanding. It’s great to appreciate this progressive metal album. And I do also Opeth's older music. The guitars are my favorite here, just unrelentingly good and fresh riffs. They seem to interchange quite a bit, but that’s the glory of progressive metal. The fact that tempos can just come out of nowhere and just hit you, bam! Heavy guitars and vocals again! It’s really unique. The songs are lengthy on here too, which is good.
As I’ve said, the music fluctuates between heavy and clean guitar work, but it's quality and wholly original. Everything about this band is fresh AND original. The vocals are amazing, too. I liked everything about this release. I thought it to be flawless. In every aspect, just flawless. The music is what steals the listener to it wanting to hear more. And the hoarse then clean vocals (not in order). I like the production quality as well. The mixing and sound is filled with precision, I felt that this is one of the best produced Opeth album in the 90's era of the band. Newer stuff, OK but now it's progressive rock, not metal. It’s amazing how the band just seemed to change to rock.
The effects on here are cool, and the acoustics are quite good. The melodies on this whole album are just amazing. Both heavy and clean. We sort of knew that the path would eventually become different, but that’s alright. I think this album’s music is resoundingly superb. They stole that year (1999) with this release. I really think that the best ones (to me) are the few that I mentioned previously. But there other albums, just not the rock ones are still OK. I like the clean guitar and the heavy guitar. Both are very intricate. The music is what makes this album be what it is – a MONUMENT. The Opeth of the 90’s and early 2000’s are their best.
What I think is the most spellbinding are the guitars. The riffs are wholly original as is are the vocals. They fit the music perfectly. And you cannot help but enjoy the flipside from in your face destruction to an almost ballad-like poles. It’s as if the tempos changes are highly polarized. That’s why people like their old stuff, at least the metalhead crowds. I liked Opeth pretty much right away when I first heard them. It was a shock to the system. They were just highly original and unique. That’s why I still respect their older work. Getting to the new stuff as a metalhead it’s just not there. I’ll stay in respect to the old stuff.
Show support for their music, maybe not so much the band anymore, just their earlier work. They deserve it. It’s possible to like the band a lot just not so much the members. I have utmost respect for this band and if you choose to get the CD upon reading this review, go for it! It’s not on my Spotify, just CD. But I believe they may have it on Bandcamp and the CD is still available through various avenues. I will continue to listen to the older material, the reason why is to keep their spirit alive in the metal community! They were once really great! The work of old Opeth will be a treasured remain. Older Opeth is dead, long live old Opeth! (Death8699)
(Peaceville - 1999)
Score: 90
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