Written by Daniell on 10.08.2010 at 20:58

I'll blaspheme now. I'm 100% sure that ALL Opeth's songs would be much better off if Mikael Akerfeldt used clean vocals exclusively. Seeing how versatile his singing is, I'm sure he'd be able to muster a more sinister, darker tone of his voice to replace growling.

Don't agree, i do not like Mike growling all the song (like in Wreath, that's why i can't fully love that song) but his versatility emerges from the fact he can sing clean vocals as well as grows, and there are a lot of songs i do not figure it out just with clean vocals (The Moor, Black Rose Inmortal, When, The Baying Of THe Hounds, Master's Apprenticces)

Yeah, that's blasphemy alright...Opeth isn't Opeth without growling...Opeth to me would be boring if it was just clean vocals...I couldn't take another Damnation album...although it was a great album, there can only be one...

Damnation bored the fuck out of me. Part of what made me get into Opeth in the first place was the contrast.

Damnation with some growling would have been the best album ever...

I can't see why you guys value growling so much. At the end of the day it's just a very limited means of "singing", and it's out of place on many albums. Numerous Opeth songs are probablly the best example.
Of course, I do like growling and appreciate hundreds of albums that contain it, but let's face it, many bands/songs/albums would sound more interesting/intriguing/versatile if their vocalists could sing. Or at least had the will to try.

In before someone saying "good growling is as hard as clean singing, it needs technique and practice":
no, it doesn't. All it takes is knowing how do to it without destroying one's throat. There are many growlers that sound unlike other growlers. Yes, but it's because it depends on one's normal voice. If one's normal voice is unique, so will be their growl.

I agree to a certain extent... but albums completely devoid of growling are less varied and more monotonous, IMO... but you can reverse the logic too! Damnation is a great album (one of my favourites), but the clean vocals kill it to a certain extent... I remember Steve Wilson (who produced the album) saying in one interview that he tried to push Mikael to go heavier and he just wouldn't... he wanted a clean album...

His mistake was that this album has little variety also in the musical department, simply changing vocals around wouldn't help it.

Written by Merchant of Doom on 30.10.2010 at 14:17

I agree to a certain extent... but albums completely devoid of growling are less varied and more monotonous, IMO... but you can reverse the logic too! Damnation is a great album (one of my favourites), but the clean vocals kill it to a certain extent... I remember Steve Wilson (who produced the album) saying in one interview that he tried to push Mikael to go heavier and he just wouldn't... he wanted a clean album...

well, I liked it musically...

Wow, Steve Wilson actually tried pushing Mikael to go heavier, eh? He had his heart set from the beginning though with Damnation and would let nobody push him otherwise...Damnation was oddly the first Opeth album I listened to...weird, eh? I come back to this thread thinking a little differently, thinking now that maybe another clean album would work with heavy guitars and cleans guitars with no growling and long songs...

Drinking my morning coffee and watching Live at Royal Albert Hall. What a great experience! I started appreciating Blackwater Park so much more after watching this DVD. So I recalled one thing I had wanted to post a few days ago.

I was listening to My Arms, You Hearse, an album, which I kind of always overlooked. I liked it all the three times I listened to it, but what struck me the most was Epilogue. Holy.... cow! That song is filled with so much sorrow and grief, it almost spills over, you know? Truly an amazing song conveying so much emotion that it is simply overwhelming.

That is one shitty "song" if you could call it that.

Written by Storchillarn on 17.05.2011 at 23:20

That is one shitty "song" if you could call it that.

agreed, and not because it's rap.

Written by K✞ulu on 17.12.2010 at 09:20

Drinking my morning coffee and watching Live at Royal Albert Hall. What a great experience! I started appreciating Blackwater Park so much more after watching this DVD. So I recalled one thing I had wanted to post a few days ago.

I was listening to My Arms, You Hearse, an album, which I kind of always overlooked. I liked it all the three times I listened to it, but what struck me the most was Epilogue. Holy.... cow! That song is filled with so much sorrow and grief, it almost spills over, you know? Truly an amazing song conveying so much emotion that it is simply overwhelming.

It is my favourite album of theirs, and it makes me sad that it has never been popular among other fans. The epilogue is the best part.

Written by rekkuza- on 20.05.2011 at 18:36

Written by K✞ulu on 17.12.2010 at 09:20

Drinking my morning coffee and watching Live at Royal Albert Hall. What a great experience! I started appreciating Blackwater Park so much more after watching this DVD. So I recalled one thing I had wanted to post a few days ago.

I was listening to My Arms, You Hearse, an album, which I kind of always overlooked. I liked it all the three times I listened to it, but what struck me the most was Epilogue. Holy.... cow! That song is filled with so much sorrow and grief, it almost spills over, you know? Truly an amazing song conveying so much emotion that it is simply overwhelming.

It is my favourite album of theirs, and it makes me sad that it has never been popular among other fans. The epilogue is the best part.

mmm... I don't know, on Metalstorm, it seems that it is many people's favorite album, and generally people prefer their older albums to newer.

MAYH is almost perfect. If that album had the same sound quality and mixing as Blackwater Park and later albums, and if Mikaels clean singing was like on those later albums, and if there was a bigger portion of varied acoustic passages like on previous albums, it would indeed be perfect. They changed their musical approach too drastically and now we'll never get an album that is something in between mid-era and old-era Opeth. MAYH is unique in a way, though, and not in the way every Opeth album is unique but because there is something really creepy going on there. I hardly listen to any individual songs other than Demon of the Fall from that one.. usually when I go MAYH I listen to the whole thing through.

As you can read in my profile, my favorite metal track is "When", enough said of My Arms, Your Hearse.

Did anyone else catch them at one of their 20 year anniversary shows? I went to the New York City one and it was possibly one of the best shows I've ever been to. Everything was fantastic about it: set, performance, sound, lights, crowd, beer...

Written by NyarlathoTim on 02.06.2011 at 22:01

Did anyone else catch them at one of their 20 year anniversary shows? I went to the New York City one and it was possibly one of the best shows I've ever been to. Everything was fantastic about it: set, performance, sound, lights, crowd, beer...

Unfortunately they didn't play anywhere near me, but I'm pretty sure it would be magical.

I saw them in Stockholm but the gig wasn't as epic as I thought it would be. The set list was incredible but they had some unfortunate problems and mishaps along the way. I saw them at a cruise ship some year before that and that gig was much more intense.

So I was listening to Watershed and came with a conclusion.
I really like two songs from that album and the rest is pretty meh: Heir Apparent and The Lotus Eater.

I would love to see more of this songs' style on their music, specially Heir Apparent because it's quite brutal at some points and it has actually some atmosphere there! The Lotus Eater was also a very good song imo.... But I know that ain't gonna happen. Nowdays Opeth don't see the greatness of their works even if they hit them 100 km/h

Yeah. 2 songs for me as well; Lotus Eater and Porcelain Heart. Porcelain Heart was a good song based on it's emphasis on technicality while still holding onto the eery atmosphere. The rest of the album just seemed like a lot of wanking to me.

Written by Doc G. on 03.06.2011 at 12:08

Yeah. 2 songs for me as well; Lotus Eater and Porcelain Heart. Porcelain Heart was a good song based on it's emphasis on technicality while still holding onto the eery atmosphere. The rest of the album just seemed like a lot of wanking to me.

You no like Heir apparment? Me is sad. I thought it was the less wanking song of the album after Porcelain Heart. Also the growls were actually pretty damn good and makes me think of better times. The first 2 minutes are pretty intese shit for me
I can't stop thinking of an apartment full of hair though.

Written by X-Ray Rod on 03.06.2011 at 12:20

Written by Doc G. on 03.06.2011 at 12:08

Yeah. 2 songs for me as well; Lotus Eater and Porcelain Heart. Porcelain Heart was a good song based on it's emphasis on technicality while still holding onto the eery atmosphere. The rest of the album just seemed like a lot of wanking to me.

You no like Heir apparment? Me is sad. I thought it was the less wanking song of the album after Porcelain Heart. Also the growls were actually pretty damn good and makes me think of better times. The first 2 minutes are pretty intese shit for me
I can't stop thinking of an apartment full of hair though.

Hair apartment is ok. Still usually want to change the CD most of the time I hear it. The whole album just hits me as loosely pieced together parts that are all a bit samey, on top of being aimless wankery.

Written by Doc G. on 03.06.2011 at 12:24

Hair apartment is ok. Still usually want to change the CD most of the time I hear it. The whole album just hits me as loosely pieced together parts that are all a bit samey, on top of being aimless wankery.

Oh Oh!!! I recently discovered another thing that pissed me off. It took some time to see what it was but now I know.
I'm pretty damn sure Opeth isn't as poor as they were let's say, on the first three albums... Then why can't they have a session musician to do the string sections, flutes, horns... Why does the keayboard do that? it sounds fake as a 7-dollar bill.

This is how my brain see the situation: Opeth were recording and someone said "yo guys we should totally hire someone to do some nice string, flute or horn or something... it might sound neat!" Then the keyboardist comes go all "but dudes I wanted to eat lots of pizza and we need pizza-money... I can do some fake strin,flute,horn stuff.. No one would tell the difference!

I can tell the difference dudes... I can tell it.
Just a decent violonist is still way better than a good keyboardist.

Written by X-Ray Rod on 03.06.2011 at 12:54

Written by Doc G. on 03.06.2011 at 12:24

Hair apartment is ok. Still usually want to change the CD most of the time I hear it. The whole album just hits me as loosely pieced together parts that are all a bit samey, on top of being aimless wankery.

Oh Oh!!! I recently discovered another thing that pissed me off. It took some time to see what it was but now I know.
I'm pretty damn sure Opeth isn't as poor as they were let's say, on the first three albums... Then why can't they have a session musician to do the string sections, flutes, horns... Why does the keayboard do that? it sounds fake as a 7-dollar bill.

This is how my brain see the situation: Opeth were recording and someone said "yo guys we should totally hire someone to do some nice string, flute or horn or something... it might sound neat!" Then the keyboardist comes go all "but dudes I wanted to eat lots of pizza and we need pizza-money... I can do some fake strin,flute,horn stuff.. No one would tell the difference!

I can tell the difference dudes... I can tell it.
Just a decent violonist is still way better than a good keyboardist.

Agreed. I think something like that could really add to their music.

I like their sound on watershed (wth is a watershed?) the best....gloomier....hope they continue this.

^ a body of clean water in the middle of a forest

So any one have a low hopes for the new album

Written by advent on 05.06.2011 at 20:18

So any one have a low hopes for the new album

Yup. I'm all ready to be surprised, who knows...I somehow doubt it's going to be anything special though.