Blackwater Park

Man, I really wish I wrote this review 15 years ago when I first stumbled upon this album. It was after Opeth's "Ghost Reveries" came out—a fantastic album in its own right, probably even their best—that they landed on my radar. But "Blackwater Park" holds the most special spot for me. Problem was, 15 years back, English wasn’t my thing, so I couldn't write this then. Fast forward to now, feeling stronger in my ability to self express and with some time on my hands tonight, I decided to write this all down while listening back to this album. And it still feels the same it felt back then, feels so.. Good.

Mostly because this album is just pure brilliance. It’s got this gloomy, moody vibe, switching between intense moments and softer ones. It paints a vivid picture but never drifts into happy or cheerful zones that always feel a bit fake in music. Instead, it hangs onto a dreamy, melancholic and honest feel all the way through. I remember back in the day folks calling it 'progressive' and even tagging it as 'progressive death metal'. But to be honest, I don’t think those labels really hit the mark. There's no odd time or anything really musically advanced to claim it to be prog, just really interesting song structure, which is a bit of a prog influence. So yeah, there are bits and pieces from those genres, and maybe back then those labels made more sense. But now? I think there's way more to this album.

What’s cool about "Blackwater Park" is how it borrows from all sorts of styles—classic rock, prog rock, doom metal, gothic vibes, and even a touch of jazz among others. A big shout-out to Opeth’s drummer Lopez, the best one they ever had, for adding that unique bounce and feel to the tracks. So, instead of boxing this into a genre, I’d say it transcends those definitions and it’s just great, brilliant music in the end, pure and simple. The kind that takes you on a ride rather than just giving you a tune to bob your head to, which it does too, but I don't feel like it's all that's it about. Each song feels like it tells its story, with highs and lows, fasts and slows, and they all link together perfectly. The glue that binds is every band member’s unique sound and, of course, Mikael's voice. He might have gotten way better with singing over the years, but the more kind of a raw feel he brings here sets the tone just right for the album.

Right before this, they gave us "Still Life", and sure, those songs were solid bangers. But "Blackwater Park" is different—it’s got this atmosphere, this mood that’s hard to describe but impossible to miss. A lot of it comes down to the mixing and mastering which is spot on. Of course everything was better on the next big one - "Ghost Reveries" but it's another review entirely, and despite it being better in most regards, this album still feels more special.. Like it's still somewhat shy about it's beauty, like a young person sometimes is. Anyway it's hard to add anything that hasn't been said over last two decades of this album spinning around in countless music players. It's just really great and good if you allow it time to shine. Which I advise anyone to do.

In conclusion, "Blackwater Park" isn't merely an album—it's an emotive journey through plains of Mikael's and his friends imagination at that time. The intricate layering, the masterful interplay of genres, and somewhat vague but fitting lyrics come together to form a timeless piece that stands tall in the annals of rock and metal. It serves as a testament to Opeth's genius and is a beacon of what their music, at its best, can achieve. Even after all these years, it remains a poignant reminder of the transformative power of music, and its impact is undiminished—a true testament to Opeth's lasting legacy.

Why Opeth ever became such big deal is perhaps one of life’s greatest mysteries. I’ve spent more than a decade pondering exactly what could be the cause, why this one particular band shot to the top, leaving so many other progressive/death metal bands in its wake. And all these years later, I’m still at a loss. Ask any one of their rabid fans, past or present, and you’re bound to get some vague, wholly unsatisfactory response about how their songwriting is/was so ‘intellectual’ and ‘sophisticated’. That there’s a solemn beauty in their music that no other artist could possibly replicate. That Mikael Akerfeldt is simply a genius, whose compositional talents far surpass any uncouth neanderthal who would deign to write something capable of starting a pit at a live show.

Personally, I think it’s just down to the mistaken belief that a song running 8 – 12 minutes on average automatically makes it thoughtful and artistic. Never mind that Opeth’s are largely overlong, drudging slogs, chock full of enough mindless repetition to cure an insomniac. Tepid, limp-wristed, mid-tempo meandering that could well serve as lounge music were it stripped of any distortion or pretense of aggression (Damnation more or less proves that point). And yet, despite having effectively written off their old sound nowadays, the cult of personality surrounding Akerfeldt and his band continues unabated.

A while back, in the lead up to Pale Communion’s release, I took it upon myself to listen to and review each and every Opeth album to that point. I’ve long since deleted those reviews from this site, both because I was unsatisfied with my writing back then, and because my heart wasn’t truly in it. So now, rather than draft up a new review for each one, many of which I couldn’t care less about, I’ll instead be directing my focus on one album in particular to serve as an outlet for my gripes with this band. And which better than the widely acclaimed Blackwater Park? It’s the one most fans seem to point to as the ‘definitive’ Opeth album. Akerfeldt himself seemed to think so at one point, given the decision to play the album in its entirety on their 20th anniversary tour. And ironically, I actually agree. For one thing, it features a whopping 2 songs that are actually worth listening to, a better average than maybe half the albums in their catalogue. What ultimately sets Blackwater Park apart however is just how remarkably good those two particular songs are.

I’ll usually go back to this album every couple of years to give it another shake, and each time the opening track comes blazing through my speakers/headphones, I think the same thing: ‘How the fuck can I hate this album?’ That’s how good “The Leper Affinity” genuinely is. It’s got all the old-school Opeth trademarks: a winding song structure, plodding riffs that predictably repeat 4 – 6 times before moving on to a new idea, an extended acoustic interlude with clean vocals, and of course, a 10 minute song-length. And yet somehow, it all just works so incredibly well. Every twist and turn in the arrangement flows perfectly into the next, without meandering into the realm of self-indulgence. Repetitive as the riffing can sometimes be, these ones are worth repeating a few times. The interlude is perfectly placed, and serves as an excellent segue back into the song’s introductory riff, giving the entire piece cohesion. But above all, it never becomes boring. The song’s 10 minute length is justified not only by the amount of ideas crammed into it, but also by the manner in which they’re organized. Sure, the piano outro comes off as a bit of an afterthought, but that’s about the only complaint I can realistically level against it. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, I guess, and indeed, this album does get it right one more time before the end.

So yes, the album kicks off on a remarkably high note. Again, whenever I’m bored enough to pull this record out for another try, I always wonder why I’ve never been able to grasp Opeth before. By the time the second track is halfway through, I realize, ‘Oh yeah, that’s why.’ “Bleak” cycles through a series of uninteresting, all too repetitive riffs for a full 9 minutes. Whereas “The Leper Affinity” raged ahead with aplomb, this thing dithers about with the urgency of a dying slug. It too falls back on an acoustic interlude in the middle, albeit with nary an ounce of the effectiveness or atmosphere of the preceding one. The lion’s share of riffs are all based around virtually the same strumming pattern, whether clean or distorted, and aside from the admittedly catchy chorus melody, the song is completely flat.

More to the point however, haven’t I heard virtually this same song before from this band? It went by “Godhead’s Lament” on the last album. It’d be called “Ghost of Perdition” a few later. Structural similarities with those two in particular aside, “Bleak” is as good an example as any of what middle-era Opeth is all about: too few riffs stretched too far, with scarcely any worth being repeated so incessantly. While nowhere near as obnoxious as some of what they came up with on the next album, I can still feel myself aging with each passing bar. Nothing improves by the time “Harvest” starts. The same stale strumming at roughly the same speed picks back up again, sans the distortion, and the band proceeds to stretch one minute worth of musical ideas into six. The vocal melodies are far too dull to carry the song, and the chord progressions too bland to form an interesting foundation. Strictly in terms of Opeth’s acoustic songs, “Benighted” from the previous album kicks the ever loving shit out of this.

Really, it’s at this point that the album falls into a slump from which it can’t possibly recover. Very little changes between tracks 3 – 5. The meter remains stuck in the same trudging waltz-time throughout, at virtually the same tempo, seeming content to mire in a monotonous rut. Everything blends together into an impenetrable mass of somnolent acoustic work and riffs that leisurely coast by rather than crush. For a so-called ‘progressive’ metal band, it’s remarkable just how stagnant the music becomes. What few inspired moments pop out of “The Drapery Falls” aren’t worth hunting and pecking for when surrounded by so much drudgery.

And to any and all Opeth fans reading this, I implore you, what exactly is “Dirge for November” if not a dumping ground for reject ideas that didn’t fit elsewhere on the album? Because it’s certainly not a song, or at least not a well constructed one. It consists of a pointless intro topped by Akerfeldt’s whiniest vocals of the album, followed by yet more meandering riffs that go nowhere for a few minutes, only to abruptly cut to a finger picked acoustic outro that repeats twice before ending. There is no cohesion, no build up, no pacing whatsoever about this track. None of these ideas belong together in their current arrangement, or lack thereof. The parts could be swapped around in any order, and the result would be no different. But then, perhaps this is what it truly means to break boundaries in music. Crafting a nearly 8 minute song that still feels half-finished is certainly one hell of an accomplishment! And why stop there when you can do the same with a 12 minute one? The title track effectively pulls the rug out from under one of the best riffs on the entire album, to be replaced with a 2 and a half minute clean guitar interlude which serves no purpose whatsoever, and then leaps right back in as though nothing happened. Way to kill the momentum, guys! The rest of the song, though refreshingly bludgeoning, once again feels stagnant. Plenty of aggression, yet cast to the wind without much in the way of direction.

Yet, there is still one song I haven’t talked about yet, namely, the only other time across this bloated 67 minutes besides “The Leper Affinity” where they miraculously get everything right. “The Funeral Portrait” has got to be the single best song of Opeth’s entire discography, bar none. Something must have kicked Akerfeldt square in the ass for this one, because right from the start, the band comes out swinging with some of the catchiest, and downright heaviest riffing of their entire career. The momentum builds and builds, breaking only occasionally for a couple of slick rhythm change-ups, acoustic sections that fit snugly as opposed to meandering about, and even a full-on solo duel between Akerfeldt and Lindgren. It’s actually quite astonishing to think an Opeth song could tempt me to headbang or throw up the horns, but here it is.

Alas, it does nothing to sway my opinion on the rest of the material present. You might chalk it up to this just not being ‘my kind’ of music, and that’s where you’d be wrong. Progressive death metal, while not my immediate go-to subgenre, is host to a number of bands I have no problem enjoying, many of whom even count Opeth among their influences. But therein lies the conundrum: I just don’t understand why it was this group in particular that became so unbelievably successful. They started out as ostensibly just another band out of the Swedish melodeath scene, with songs far longer than average owing to Akerfeldt’s admiration for prog rock. They didn’t really change for the longest time either, aside from dropping most of the Maiden harmonies and streamlining the more chaotic transitions from earlier efforts (not completely, as a couple of tracks here prove). And apparently, that was enough to be hailed as revolutionary. But as far as I can tell, they’re just some random band who got incredibly popular for no real reason.

Opeth has been (and mostly remained) one of the more cherished bands by a great deal of my close friends since I can remember, and as such, it's a band whose evolution (and ultimate decay) I have experienced firsthand. A couple of decades ago, while initially exploring both the death metal and progressive rock realms, Opeth was a name that popped up constantly, not only recommended by people close to me, but also in music blogs, magazines and websites. However, I must confess I have never been amongst their more ardent die-hard fans and worshippers, though some of their past repertoire has remained in sporadic rotation for my ears all these years. Blackwater Park, recently turned 20 years old, is one of my preferred works by the Swedes, though not necessarily my favorite. To most, this record represents Opeth's finest hour, and it’s still considered by many to be their absolute masterpiece to this day. For me, it is definitely short of that achievement, though recognition should be bestowed upon it regardless.

A constant complaint I've heard about Opeth throughout the years is that they're not “too death metal” or even “barely death metal”. I agree… to a degree, mainly because the rhythmic section rarely enters the realm of truly punishing death metal, unlike other progressive death metallers. Despite boasting a stellar performance by the two Martines, the truth is, the rhythmic section is quite basic in composition and speed, with virtually all songs rooted firmly in mid-pace, aside from the sporadic jazzy transition or occasional bursts of double bass. There aren't blastbeats or really fast or mind-bending technical passages. Likewise, the guitars, while having a certain degree of heaviness and distortion, just aren't too death metal-ish nor technical themselves. No tremolo, no palm-muted passages. Since 1998's My Arms, Your Hearse Opeth’s guitars lost most of their 'extreme metal' traits, and adopted the more accessible sounds and tuning of something akin to alternative metal, let's say, like Tool, making them a bit plainer sounding to many metalheads.

I remember a conversation a few years back with a friend that suggested Opeth to be prog death/doom, and how he felt the progressive death metal tag was incomplete. But I sustained (and still do) that the guitars do lack the heaviness, crunch and weight for them to be considered even the mildest of doom. There is, however, the presence of somber passages, but they come from a dark prog origin rather than a doom metal influence. In any case, Opeth's albums live and die by the magic of Mikael Åkerfeldt. His vocals and guitar playing are what sets this band apart, and no matter what amount of metalness they possess in each release, his charisma can't be counted out; this is and always will be HIS band. Blackwater Park showcases his tremendous death growls, the sole element by which Opeth might be labeled as such (and for me, that's more than enough). His clean vocals are also quite remarkable, downright beautiful, man-crush inducing. I'm more fan of his acoustic guitar than the already mentioned electric one, but both appear prominently here.

As Peter Lindgren's input seemed to be diminishing, with complex guitars being relegated more to a few of the acoustic passages as the electric ones became simpler, another unofficial “member” had a really impactful role on Blackwater Park. Steven Wilson came here to stay, and despite never becoming a true band member, his touch would forever shape Opeth's direction going forwards. His camaraderie with Mikael and his own re-appreciation of metal music would influence him as well and his, back then, main band Porcupine Tree, as it would gain the heaviness that Opeth would eventually end up losing. On this album he contributes clean vocals, featured prominently on “Bleak” chorus, and an assortment of keyboards, like the vintage mellotron, a staple of 70s prog rock, and one of Mikael's favorites. His role on production is also important, though I don't think this one is one of his better works, just one of the most famous in the metal world. The rhythmic electric guitars, again, kinda feel sterile and dry, but I like the organic drums and the enhanced beautiful melodies, be it vocals, acoustics or on the few times when the bass guitar is given more room.

But the most defining aspect which deters this still quite good and enjoyable work from achieving true masterpiece status for me, is a quite common flaw among “progressive” music; it is too damn long for its own good. At an hour and seven minutes, much more variance and a broader exploration in structures and elements was needed, especially deeper into the album. The first 36 minutes are excellent; “The Lepper Affinity” serves as a crunchy 10-minute introduction to the mood and motifs of Blackwater Park, followed by two of their most memorable and iconic pieces in “Bleak” and the folksy ballad “Harvest”. “The Drapery Falls” is the tune in which the proggy cut-and-paste sections are arranged in the most successful and delightful manner, especially in its first half, since it drags a bit at the end. After that… the same ideas seem to come and go with less and less impact, the formula gets repeated ad nauseam; acoustic passages (including the stand-alone and totally unwarranted “Patterns in the Ivy”) mixed with electric ones, but the riffs and solos aren't that good to sustain the same level of interest, and even the famed title-track closer just doesn't get the job done.

A penchant for the dark and melancholic, a combination of the intricacies of the progressive with the taste of the extreme, a fluctuating chiaroscuro play of heavy and acoustic passages, a love for nature, antiquity, death and the arcane… Blackwater Park seems to possess some of the musical and aesthetic traits that I enjoy the most, but somehow I find it lacking in several fronts to rank it higher than just a very influential record that's slightly overrated. Cos' reality is, there wasn't much progressive metal being done like this two decades ago, and more and more bands borrowed its blueprints in the coming years. My appreciation towards it remains solid, though the excitement of the first listen has long subsided and has been replaced with bittersweet remembrance, much like the record's own melancholic themes. Both gleeful and painful memories have been intertwined with my listening experience of this record, though my purely musical judgment has become clearer as years has passed and other Opeth-esque bands have produced similarly-styled works, some of which I consider superior and enjoy way more.

It would be terribly tempting to dismiss this album as being the meandering prog-ish jams from a few metalheads in Sweden that remotely switch from clean to distorted, as a result fulfilling the ultimate cliche for this style of music. It just so happens it isn't that, and this is the real deal. Sure enough the songs are basically all 10 minute monsters apiece, all consist of the seesaw heavy and quieter moments interplay, and the instrumentalists do showcase their acute musicianship, but the crux of it resides not in the framework but in the quality filling in those frames. This album merely borrows a complex format as a platform for its mature and meticulously crafted parts and where previous releases may've wandered in the open spaces of progressive composition, this one made it a point to be powerfully relevant from each intro to every epilogue and most sections in between.

So all aboard the ghost ship. Whether during the doomier ponderous rhythms, on the lighter more dynamic octave-chord movements or with the clean guitar settings, the music is irrevocably ghastly and wraithy. It feels phantasmal regardless of the instrumentation or arrangements for any given part as none of the various influences on display resist the embrace of the haunting underlying tone dominating the songs. Even on the softer moments of acoustic guitar melancholy, most notably the entire 'Harvest' track, the momentum ineluctably shifts back towards that darker harmony. At any point, whenever a section seems to thrive in weighty out-and-out sorrow, an odd minor chord or lead phrase pulls the listener back into the nocturnal fog. Probably the effect of long, deep Scandinavian winter nights. The only glimpses of daylight occur on the proggier riffy guitar work, more hard rock in tone, and even then most of the time its awkward vibe and contorted off-beat deformity doesn't seem to carry the music towards anything even arbitrarily rosy.

To get into some of the specifics, although the entire album (and its whopping 1 hour 7 min runtime) can be listened to seamlessly while casually checking out the latest bikini pics on one's Facebook home feed, certain moments stand out and a few in particular simply need a mention for being music that just doesn't exist anywhere else but on this right here. The first that comes to mind would be the clean guitar outro to 'Dirge for November' which despite its title isn't a song from the band 'HIM'. Depressingly sad and dark, highly atmospheric with the prominent reverb wash in the back as if depicting the damp foggy setting, it feels like the aural description of the album cover: a haunting obscure scenery but with a numbing placidity there, like a place between life and death where time stops for an undefinable stretch, some sort of an out-of-body experience where the subconscious takes control and produces strange metaphoric meaning that's terribly deep but near-impossible to put into words. And it's utterly and uniquely beautiful.

The ending on the opener 'The Leper Affinity' (right before the piano outro) is another brilliant Opeth moment, driven with a rare passion again midway between sorrow and an underlying blackness, finishing off the song like dusk closing in from a distance (wow, the poetry). 'Bleak' has one of the catchiest clean sung "choruses" the band's ever written, a bit past the 3min mark. Pure, unfiltered, heavy grief from the gut. Lastly the iconic intro section to the finale and title-track would surely be the most representative grand theme for the record: awe-inspiring, climactic and that unique mixture of melancholy with dread.

The production is plain and unostentatious, and distinctly feels a lot more like progressive rock than metal although not without a slight modern shine to it. The instruments feel alive and organic yet sharp. The guitars have a lavish smoothness to them, the bass is perfectly audible despite its round low pick attack/controlled bottom end presence. On the drums the snare is snappy and compact but pleasantly full, the kicks of the clickier variety while the overheads are given lots of attention and supply a characteristic scintillation at the top of the mix for the album. This sounds highly dynamic but in a spontaneous kind of way rather than from an aggressive volition from the producers, and although the latter are surely to be credited for the pristine quality here, it's like the songs were written skillfully enough that each instrument would just find its place naturally into the mix. It feels like the songs never needed any added studio magic, like big EQ or artificial transient boosts, relying on their innate compositional pedigree.

As criticism, although this is the most efficient Opeth had been so far, the band still enjoys dwelling on a section a while and building minor off-shoots from it that could've been cut out for some. The following 'Deliverance' is arguably more concise and to the point in that regard, but 'Blackwater Park' is the album that permanently set these guys apart and the fan base will generally fondly remember this one as the golden chapter in their discography when all the pieces came together. More broadly, what is a bit more certain is this period of the early 2000's from 'Blackwater' to 'Ghost Reveries', possibly up to 'Watershed' in 2008 for some, seems to be the apogee of Opeth as a fully developed metal act. Few fans consider any of the earlier 90's works as peak Opeth, and the band would never again release an album as influential and unique as the 'Blackwater Park' to 'Ghost Reveries' anthology.

Annable Courts - http://antichristmagazine.com/review-opeth-blackwater-park-music-for-nations/

This album is a bit heavier than 'Still Life' though it features more diversity (piano). But it is also a bit heavier than their predecessor. The music varies a lot here. Hence the progressive metal effort. It's a shame that the band stopped playing metal and swayed to progressive rock. But at least we can appreciate their older music than what's now that they are dishing out. The music and the vocals are the best parts of the album. The length of the album is another one that exceeds 60 minutes. They really were a talented progressive metal band. I'm not in the liking of how they changed, but like I said, their old stuff is their best stuff.

The metal and tough sound permeates throughout this album. But they do a good job with taking a break from the heavy guitar bits to settle down with clean guitars and vocals. Mikael uttered that he hates the deep throat on songs, but it's still good to have. It could be another reason why they're a rock band now. I like the old stuff only, 'Heritage' is not for me, sorry. The music on here is fantastic. They really don't include much lead guitar riffs, just acoustic guitars and clean tone riffs. But it constantly fluctuates. I like it when they put forth the metal in the songs. It takes me aback, but it's also good to hear them always changing it up.

I like the music and vocals the most, they can do without some things though most of it is appropriate here in making this a dominating album. I like the deep vocals, the clean is a good change up however. I wouldn't really change anything on here, the music is just amazing. It's the riffs that do it for me. The bar chords and that mixed with the clean is well-done. The fluctuation always keeps you guessing. They don't seem to run out of ideas on here. The music just flows and the thickness in the chunky guitar is spellbinding. I like the clean stuff too, it's good for a change. Sometimes it's difficult to hear only heavy shit.

I would say that every song on here is worthwhile, nothing on here misses a bit. I would say this is one of the best Opeth releases in the early 2000 era. But just how they changed made me pause. As long as they keep it to music that is progressive metal, then good. But that's not going to happen again, at least that is my prediction. They put in their bit in the metal world, onto the next chapter. I like this one entirely, as I said, nothing that needs a change on here. I like the clean a lot on here. Both the vocals and guitar, it sounds really amazing. But once the heavy guitar bits come forth, then the destruction of your eardrums.

I venture to say if you still have a CD player, buy the physical copy of the album! Show support for metal music! This one is another great chapter in metal history. It's not that you necessarily have to like the band members to respect what they have done for the metal world over the years in their career in music. They still need your support for ongoing the next chapter in their career. Check this one out, you'll hear a great many things worthwhile and experimental. The heavy and clean are both wicked, and they show their talent for mixing these two aspects into a great many compositions. Own it if you don't already!

Opeth are one of the most unique bands in the extreme metal landscape. Over the years, they have forged a sound that is highly original and distinctive, and their music can be instantly recognized.

The music is very technical, but their skills are firmly to the service of the song, rather than the other way around. The songwriting is complex and clearly inspired by progressive rock (Akerfeldt has always worn his passion for prog on his sleeve). The guitar riffs are in constant change and mutation, some only lasting for a few bars before being abandoned. There are lots of breaks and tempo changes, and acoustic interludes with clean vocals. The guitar riffs are often double-layered, with the acoustic or clean guitar offering counterpoint riffs to the main riff played by the distorted guitar. In many cases, the songs last around 10 minutes. In a way, Opeth play an extreme metal version of the epics that 70s prog bands, like Yes or ELP, used to write.

In my view, the complex songwriting has always been the greatest limit for Opeth: their music is very hard to digest and assimilate, and it requires repeated listening. Even with that, the songs often remain shapeless and are hard to fully grasp. For some, this may be a favorable trait, but for me it partly ruins the listening experience as I get lost without reference points.

However, with Blackwater Park Opeth managed to create a more digestible and accessible form of their trademark music. The songs are more clearly defined, mostly because the number of riff permutations are reduced compared to previous albums. In many of the songs here, the same riffs are repeated for several bars and the songs display a more standard verse-chorus-verse format (well, as standard as Opeth can get!). This is particularly evident on the fantastic "Bleak", a song perfectly balanced between brutal growls and clean singing, fast parts and melodic openings. "Dirge for November" and "The Drapery Falls" are other examples of this new, simplified, more atmospheric version of Opeth. Needless to say, these are my favorite tracks on the album, together with the gentle acoustic "Harvest" (which is, however, a bit too plain compared to songs like "Face of Melinda" from Still Life, for example).

Another difference relative to past albums is that in several instances the guitars use leads that are somewhat reminiscent of Katatonia's contemporary work: melodic, atmospheric and relying on prolonged notes and chords. Another change is the collaboration with Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), who plays piano on the coda of "The Leper Affinity" and sings the chorus on "Bleak" (and backing vocals on some other tracks). The effect of his interjections is beautiful and it truly brings Opeth to a new dimension.

But these are all subtle and gradual changes: Opeth do maintain their trademark sound and compositional approach on Blackwater Park, and the album is not dramatically different from Still Life. Nevertheless, I do prefer this version of Opeth to their early albums. I don't think the the simpler, more digestible format takes away depth from the songs. They are still complex and multi-layered, just easier to understand and appreciate, which is an advantage in my opinion.

I think I get where the problem here is. People read about Opeth and about them being a "progressive death metal" band and think they are something like Death, Atheist, or just an old-school death group with some technical and prog-rock influences. The thing is, whoever decided to label this band this way is an outright idiot. Opeth are not death metal, they have never been and from this album onward they can barely be classified as an extreme band. What they are is a progressive metal act in the traditional sense of combining progressive rock melodies with the "heaviness" of metal. And they just so happen to have slight black and death influences, but not enough to put them anyway near extreme acts from the US scene and even not most of the Scandinavian bands.

And where most extreme srtists lack Opeth fill in the cracks. Melody has always been key to their music. What others do when writing is just play along with power chords, tremolo and some slightly technical elements, usually on just the first 5 frets. But here, Mikael shows he is a classically taught guitarist in the sense of using the instrument's potential very consistently but still remaining rooted in the heavy metal spectre. And even in the more simple songs like Harvest the guitars sound beautiful, even though it is catchy and "poppy" it is still a very emotional piece. In the band's first two releases they focused heavily on counterpoint harmony, thus the two guitarists always did "different things", but that got quite boring because of its overuse. Here, Opeth present a better multilayered guitar approach where there is still a fair amount of harmony between the instruments but what is used is one main riff-leading (rythm) section with another one or two which compliment the atmosphere, with counterpoint still present sometimes and used efficiently. Traditional melody isn't overused as much as the early albums and it all renders the whole record quite diverse. The acoustic guitars are the main difference from their previous works, as they are not as strongly presented in the overall scheme of things. What I mean by that is they are not played the classical way that was used on Still Life and Morningrise, thus 90% of the music is driven by harsh metallic songwiriting, resulting in one of the band's heaviest efforts.

The drumming is another thing I have to note - Martin Lopez is, and I say this without hesitation, one of THE greatest drummers in metal. No, he doesn't pound the kit at 250+ BPM, he doesn't play technical 23/16 or 31/32 time signatures, what he does is HE SERVES THE FUCKING MUSIC! His playing couldn't have been more fitting for this type of metal/rock. He uses the percussion sensibly and with caution, making sure he doesn't lack or overblow, going crazy rarely, only when the moment allows it.

The same goes for the bass, the only place where I want crazy and grinding bass is on death and thrash metal, and this is neither of those - what this album calls for is softly but audibly mixed track that is fingerpicked and different from the guitars, and that is EXACTLY what we get. The instrument is played in the traditional prog-rock style, setting Blackwater Park even farther from the "extreme" label.

Vocally Mikael continues to amaze me. He got even more comfortable with his voice and began using it even more throughout the music, and this is one beautiful male vocal performance (#nohomo). His soft singing recalls the days of 70's melodic rock acts by the way he compliments the flow of the songs. We also have a contribution from Steven Wilson (though his music I am unfamiliar with) with his harmonic addition to Mikael's parts. But there's also the growls, which are pretty much the only death metal element in this album (aside from a few riffs here and there) and although they aren't the most notable when compared to other great vocalists such as Corpsegrinder or Frank Mullen, they do work in conjunction with the rest of the music, especially on "Dirge For November" where Mikael delivers a striking low-frequency lead while supported by one of the heaviest riffs on the record.

So, great guitars, beautiful vocals and very fitting bass and percussion work, all produced clearly and mixed so all of the instruments work with each-other, not the other way around. With no filler tracks to mention and no notable flaws to alter negatively the listener's experience I am willing to give this album a full score for it being the pinnacle of the band and perhaps even in the whole genre. Any further effort Opeth tried to produce failed to reach the quiality of composition and musicianship that Blackwater Park has.

After the monumental and fantastic onslaught of songwriting mastery that was Still Life, I'm sure many people were wondering how Opeth would follow it up. Of course, Blackwater Park could never top its predecessor, but it's good nonetheless. This is, to many listeners, the greatest Opeth album; and while I do not personally agree, I can see where those people are coming from.

Unfortunately, some of the epicness of the compositions on Still Life is lost to high production and a subtle commercial leaning. Although the guitars retain the same not-quite-distorted tone Opeth originally began using on the preceding album, it sounds a tad too processed for my taste here. Stephen Wilson of Porcupine Tree performs keyboards on a number of the tracks in addition to producing the whole album, which adds atmospherically but doesn't really feel necessary. Mikael Åkerfeldt passed up on the chance to have made three concepts in a row, meaning each song is just a song and not part of an overarching storyline. The riffs remain in their usual menacing, twisting form; but all black metal influence has been finally discarded and there's a weirdly noticeable amount of groove-laced riffs which unfortunately reflect what was occurring in the less distinguished, edgier areas of metal and hard rock at the time.

None of that by any means makes this a bad album. The high-level, complex songwriting is still present, but acoustic interludes have been lengthened and Åkerfeldt's massive-sounding growl is now almost completely balanced out by his clean vocals. He's a great singer, but I personally preferred when Opeth's output was dominantly death metal-oriented. As with Still Life, I still find every song to be nice and enjoyable, just not nearly as much as before. The completely calm yet brilliant "Harvest" is the same basic idea as "Benighted" from two years earlier, but definitely an improvement. "The Leper Affinity" is a strong opener, but simply doesn't have the breathtaking intro heard on "The Moor."

There are a few facets of Blackwater Park that were completely new ideas for Opeth. Most notably is a slow, creeping doom metal influence heard on "Bleak," which adds a bit of much-needed variation in speed that had previously failed to appear in the band's heavier songs and also includes guest verses sung by Wilson. Additionally, we have "The Drapery Falls," which might have the evenest balance of soft and heavy in an Opeth song. The previously mentioned "Harvest" proved Åkerfeldt could write a song based completely on catchy melodies, and it's a formula he repeated several years later on the brooding "Burden" from Watershed.

I think Blackwater Park could be an amazing album and possibly Opeth's best, and I think they really did the best they could to follow up on Still Life. To its credit, those are hard shoes to fill. But the fact that Åkerfeldt's response to his own masterwork was a repeat of the same formula as before but with an increased dosage of the elements that made it accessible is a little disappointing. While satisfying, it fails to live up to the colossal shadow cast by its predecessor, and that's where it fails. I think it's an important album because it becomes a gateway for a lot of people when they're first getting into Opeth, but musically it just doesn't stand out next to its rivals.

Highlights: Every song is good, but the best are "The Leper Affinity," "Harvest," "The Funeral Portrait," and the title track.

Wow, people really do get excited over Opeth, don't they? Looking at the 23 reviews gathered beneath mine, I can only see seven that seem not to include hyperbolic statements in either their title or review score. I've never quite got that strong a feeling from Opeth, but allow me to say that I like the majority of the band's output and am (by some happy coincidence) sitting on my sofa wearing an Opeth hoodie as I write this. For those unfamiliar with the band: firstly, where have you been hiding? And, secondly, here are the commandments of songwriting according to the Swedes.

1. Thou shalt include an acoustic interlude in every song over 5 minutes.
2. Thou shalt not write any song shorter than 5 minutes, excepting acoustic interludes.
3. Thou shalt not let thine drummer slack off and play in 4/4 timing more than once per album.
4. Thou shalt create elaborate concepts that most people can't be arsed to understand.
5. Thou shalt use two guitars to ensnare listeners in an emotional web.
6. Thou shalt switch ceaselessly between death growls and clean vocals, barring in thine early work and thine progressive rock accident that shalt end thine career.

In essence, every early and mid-period Opeth album can be recognized by their adherence to those commandments, while the post-Watershed efforts require a whole new religion, which results in about as much deviation as Christianity from Judaism after that Jesus fella was crucified. Blackwater Park, however, stands out among the "progressive death metal" releases in that it most definitely has the greatest commercial appeal and the greatest accessibility. Considering that Steven Wilson was called in for the first time on this release, his impact seems to have shaken up the writing and recording process, giving the album a sheen and sparkle that reflects the doubled recording time (from a month and a half to three months) and some more straightforward ideas pertaining to song structure and hooks. Songs like the opener 'The Leper Affinity' really have a widescreen quality to them that gains gravity from the swooping slow guitar lines that the band began to use on the preceding Still Life. The riffs hit a touch less hard than before: there is no fist-to-face aspect to this album and instead we must concentrate on mood, detailing, and the different kinds of motion. There is a winding quality that comes back time and again in the songs, which feels like mist rising, while I also get the feeling of elevation and a soaring feeling, such as winds across a cliff face might give. As a result, the atmosphere is still very much "outdoors", though there is more of an element of mystery and dewy British mornings than the Scandinavian forest or the quiet Mediterranean village that permeated the previous efforts.

If all this talk of atmosphere is putting you off, then I don't think you're going to like Blackwater Park very much, because it needs an investment in the mood of the music to get the full benefit. Some of the songs, especially the wandering 'The Drapery Falls', don't do much besides atmosphere, containing many transitions from acoustic to dreamy heavy playing (heavy is the wrong word here, but what can one contrast with?) and wrapping the listener either in a fog of emotions and thoughts or boredom, depending on their attitude. On the other hand, there are some definite moments that regular fans of metal can be expected to enjoy. The punchy riffing of 'The Funeral Portrait' is a more aggressive and memorable example (the riff at 2:00 will blow your head off if 'Dirge for November' made you sleepy), plus the lengthy title track goes halfway to death metal in its most incensed moments, as well as packing a majestic melodic conclusion and a couple of monstrous solos.

A new feature of Opeth's music that Wilson brought to the fore is also the growing tendency to include repeating parts in songs, allowing the length of the album to become more manageable in the face of hooks and choruses. Both 'Bleak' and 'The Drapery Falls' manage to strike with refrains that rise high above the rest of the music both in terms of focus and emotional intensity, the forming being perhaps the greatest vocal hook that the band ever came up with. Neither song is arranged around those moments, but 'Harvest' is a much simpler song that harks back to 'Benighted', the similarly all-acoustic song on Still Life. At first glance, 'Harvest' is a ballad with a longish solo section straddling six minutes and following a fairly regular pattern of verse and chorus, yet the execution of such a piece really takes this album to the next level. There is a pastoral quality to the song that evokes very specific images for me, aided by Mikael Akerfeldt's wistful vocal delivery and some fine soloing that seals the deal. If I played that song to a girl and told her that the moment I laid eyes on her, etc. etc. - I reckon it would give me a fair shot. It's pretty fucking gorgeous, that's what I'm trying to say.

Thus far, I'd say that I've been viewing Blackwater Park in its better light, because there are some problems with it that prevent me from really appreciating it as much as I should. In the first place, the balance between the two sides of the band is not exactly even: placing the more overt, accessible material next to the dreamier, mazier compositions shows up the weaknesses of both, while the mood is jerked around a little by the transitions between the two. Whereas a full-on onslaught of ideas made early Opeth albums like Orchid into long reveries, the attention-grabbing nature of 'The Funeral Portrait' and 'Harvest' merely highlight the fact that what lies between them ('The Drapery Falls' and 'Dirge for November') are more than a little rambling and unfocused, causing attention to grow and diminish throughout the listening experience. There are also one or two small sections that sound forced here, particularly during 'The Drapery Falls', while 'Bleak' - great refrain aside - could use some tidying up in other areas. Thus, in somewhat the same way as I found myself frustrated when reviewing Ghost Reveries, Blackwater Park comes mighty close to being damned with the label of inconsistent.

In the end, the good material on offer overwhelms the weaker parts and I'm convinced that, with a bit of cutting, this could have been the band's finest hour. The strength of 'Harvest' and 'The Funeral Portrait', as well as large parts of 'The Leper Affinity', 'Bleak', and the title track have rarely been matched in terms of simultaneous complexity and catchiness, while Opeth themselves have never returned to this style since. As such, this album is not to be held up on a pedestal nor shoved down into the pit, but can be generally appreciated for what it is - a very creative and partially flawed listen.

I know prog metal (and rock) have always been rather self-indulging but seriously? I'd rather listen to, say, four 20-minute Yes-songs or 90 minutes of Dream Theater instrumentals than this big piece of nothing. I mean, it's obvious that everyone on here is technically very proficient and maybe they put that to better use elsewhere, but this really lacks any impact whatsoever if you ignore the fact that it's PAINFULLY boring. There's an excruciating amount of padding going on here, the pointless acoustic sections are fucking everywhere - to the point that you start forgetting that you are listening to what's supposed to be metal. Really, the only thing about this album that I find in any way memorable is how ridiculously pretentious it is ("The Drapery Falls", wow man, that's fucking deep).

Opeth juxtaposes the worst and the most annoying elements invented by art rock circles with MTV friendly death metal - this is as real as Cradle of Filth's corpse paints, as artsy as late period Dali paintings and as progressive as John Williams soundtracks are for modern classical music. But hold on, this is the leading band of progressive death metal. The "prog" part, like in any other cases, is for individuals too narrow minded to try something beyond death metal. As for the genre itself it may be a real gem, but what can we do when the whole genre has been eating its tail since it's been "invented"? That's progressive metal in a nutshell. At least power metal and too a certain extent death metal are fun to listen to.

This band has always had a significant problem in being able to coherently compose songs, the guitar work on this record is depressing drab; the lighter parts being stuff a lot of prog rock bands who came before them did a lot better, and with more rich chord voicings and as noted, these guys weren't exactly gonna knock you down with pure heaviness. Unless you're really impressed with soft/loud dynamics, which hey, good for you. I just happen to ask more out of music that says its progressive than just that. The bass playing, of course, just blends into the shades of unimaginitive grey this album resides in. Because Mikael Akerfeldt, a noted student of progressive rock, decided that active bass guitar playing didn't suit his band.. wait, what??

Whatever. The point is, this album is 67 minutes of fuckin' boredom. You can talk about elitism all you like - we both know what's really up with that - but the band can't coherently chain two passages together to save their lives, the heavy parts AND soft ones are as dull as dishwater. Akerfeldt is a good vocalist and that's about what this album has going for it. And good vocals by themselves rarely save an album.

I'd rather stick to something raw, evil, underproduced, misanthropic and primitive, without art rock vocals, art rock solos, art rock production, art rock growlings, art rock tempo changes, art rock oriental riffs, art rock acoustic intros and all this Death meets Porcupine Tree meets late Pink Floyds meets late Metallica meets Tool meets Nightwish meets My Dying Bride meets Queensryche meets Paradise Lost shit.

Sorry, I really did try my best. I wanted to like this. But this album did not cooperate at all. The fact that this is one of the most popular metal releases of the last decade is a really sad testimony to the genre. If you must listen to an Opeth record then Still Life is you're only option. That album has more things going for it than any other Opeth record. But that is for another review.

I always thought that Opeth were this kind of death metal band, that deals with complex concepts and occasionally throws in the mix a couple of prog influences to spice things up. Until I listened to Blackwater Park in full for the first time. The music was well written, but on the other hand I couldn't enjoy it to the full. This album has everything that is needed in order to be a killer effort and yet it doesn't reach that status. The beginning was very promising and highly enjoyable, and I really liked 'Harvest', but still some moments just don't click for me. If anything, Blackwater Park is amazingly produced for sure, and it features some great ideas. But the listener can easily get lost in them, I mean that the flow of music is not as good as it should be. Before culminating in my favorite final song, there are several songs from which I literally cannot recall a single riff. 'Bleak' is not like that, I'm talking about the songs right after 'Harvest'.

The album however remains worthy of many listens, since there are some great things happening in those worthy songs. There are grooves, acoustic fillers and just straightforward death metal. Opeth for the first time, showed that they weren't satisfied with being merely a death metal band, but all those progressive influences are just too much for me. On the other hand the execution is perfect. All band members were capable of delivering the goods, each on his own instrument and Mikael's vocals are incredible, both harsh and clean. Steven Wilson's participation is probably one of the pros, since the man knows how to mix an album and his backing vocals sound great next to Mikael's (especially in 'The Leper Affinity').

So what is the problem exactly? For me, an album is great when there is a lot of feeling put in it. For me emotion is more important than technical mastery, and in Blackwater Park, I only get that impression in those three tracks that stood out for me. It's not that every other track is depraved of feeling or anything like that, but after a while, the outcome sounds somewhat stagnant. Blackwater Park is not as good as I expected it to be, but that doesn't mean it's not good at all. I mostly enjoy it, and I'll be surely returning to it but it won't become one of my most treasured albums. Maybe what puts me off the most is its length; 67 minutes of death metal are always welcome but this style is just not rewarding.

I'm not sure if Opeth continued like that. I was never eager to explore their whole discography, probably due to their approach to death metal (and later, progressive rock). However I strongly believe that everyone should give this album at least one listen. This is a threshold, a crossroad where Opeth had to pick a direction, even if the death metal element was present in their next releases as well. I don't know if they chose the right path but for this I can be sure; Blackwater Park isn't even remotely bad or mediocre. Maybe this review makes it seem that I hate it but it's not like that. I like it, just not as much as I initially thought I would. I should probably listen to Still Life, I've heard that it's their peak. But again Blackwater Park can easily stand on its own feet and at leas not disappoint. Solid effort.

Favorite tracks: 'The Leper Affinity', 'Harvest', 'Blackwater Park'.

70/100.

Following the piano chord that occupies the very first seconds of Opeth's 2000 release, Blackwater Park, a crashing riff comes in, that promises that the album to come will take the listeners on a roller coaster ride through heavy peaks and soft, soothing moments. Opeth's Blackwater Park is a clear example of how both beauty and absolute brutal mayhem can be combined into one near perfect package. This album is one of the progressive death metal bands most popular releases, and also, in my opinion, their best, bordering on perfection.

Album opener The Leper Affinity is the perfect song to showcase both the bands talent and the bands signature sound. For a while, this song is absolutely bone crushing, with some very heavy riffing, great growled vocals from Mikael Akerfeldt, and then, all of a sudden, the song changes. The way this song flows from the heavy to the soft is simply breath taking, and this song is the perfect introduction to Mikael's vocals. He can do very low growls, which neither lack emotion nor energy, and then he can also do some gorgeous clean vocals, that soothe the ears. I can honestly not think of many better vocalists out there then Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt.

If the opener wasn't enough of a ride, then track 2 certainly will be. Bleak has always been my favorite song Opeth ever put out. This song is fantastically composed, beginning with an extremely heavy and yet atmospheric section, before going into a blues section in the middle, and then building back up to a thrilling finale. The growls on this song are some of the best on the album, and the clean vocals do not slack off either. The guitar work for this song is utterly amazing, with some powerhouse riffs in there, and the gorgeous instrumentals in the middle section. This song is one of the most perfect songs ever released.

Harvest and The Drapery Falls are two much more atmospheric songs, that drag on for a while and showcase some more great clean singing from Mikael. Harvest is one of the bands most popular songs, and the reason is immediately clear, with the fantastic use of various dynamics to create one of the most perfect atmospheres found in music. This song was an indication of what later albums would bring, as it had no metal found in it whatsoever. The Drapery Falls contains some growls, and great lyrics to accompany them, but is more focused on building a mood and a real feeling of desperation unmatched by any other song.

Dirge For November, The Funeral Portrait and Patterns In The Ivy are all brilliant in their own right, with the former being a song that contains 2 minutes of acoustic work, before the real heavy side of the band kicks in and it is, as usual, perfectly put together. Patterns In The Ivy is a pure instrumental acoustic song that merely leads as a warm up to the absolute brutality that is the title track. This song contains some utterly crushing riffs, quite possibly the heaviest on the album, and the song is just made even better by the 2 minute softer part in the middle. The lyrics to this song are extremely well written, depicting an evil environment that does not bare thinking about. This is Opeth at their absolute peak of brutality.

The instrumental work on this album is fairly technical, and fantastically written, with some real talent behind it. Each song conveys the emotions and mood that the lyrics would suggest brilliantly, creating a sense of dread that is missing from so many albums. This is a text book album on how to create a dense atmosphere without ever once compromising the musical integrity of the album. The growls and clean vocals are nearly perfect on here, proving Mikael time and time again to be one of the fore runners in the metal vocals scene. This album is a flat out classic that may take a few listens to get into, but once it has you hooked it will never let you go. Utterly incredible

I’ve never fully cared either way about Opeth. I mean, I know that these guys are one of the more polarizing bands in all of metal (and one of the biggest reasons for this is today’s subject of review, Blackwater Park) but I’ve just never cared all that much. It’s not that their brand of melodic death metal/progressive metal was a turn-off or anything, it’s just that I never gave them a chance. I think the closest thing to that “chance” would of been when I took a few extra seconds to figure out what the clerk at the 7-11 was listening to one night. Turns out it was this album and I’m not going to lie, it sounded pretty tempting. I just have a shitty memory and forgot to look it up when I got home. Oh well, if it was really something that amazing, it’d find me later on down the road.

And it did. YEARS later, but it did. The fine folks at The End Records (for some fucking reason) sent me a box of CDs, including the re-releases of Blackwater Park, Deliverance and Damnation (watch for those reviews shortly). So thanks for that!

Anyway, on to the review!

The album itself comes in a glossy case with a fairly thick booklet of liner notes and lyrics! That’s some snazzy stuff right there! Also included on the audio disc is a live rendition of The Leper Affinity that fairs pretty well in the grand scheme of things.

Let’s skip over to Disc 2 (a DVD) for a second. You get the 5.0 Surround Sound version of the album album that, I’m sure sounds fucking amazing on a Bose sound system but not all that great coming through my stock speakers in my $200 Magnetbox. Next up, is the Making Of Blackwater Park documentary. Wow… you may as well of watched them record this album in real time because you learn just as much from the documentary. Very in-depth! The boys Opeth talk about how just about every riff was thought up, every lyric was dreamt of and you walk away learning how every moment was genius.

And with that a little too on the nose segue, let’s go back to the main attraction! Since I never got to listen to Blackwater Park beforehand, I can’t tell you if this version is superior to any of the earlier recordings. What I can tell you is that the sound quality is excellent, period. Starting the album up, I was pretty damned excited. I get to listen to an album that I’ve been unconsciously dodging for a couple of years now (it also helped that since it was for review, I had no choice)! About a quarter of the way into the first track, I knew I was in trouble. Aggressive, progressive, melodic death metal? I messed ‘em…

Lyrically, Mikael Akerfeldt’s words are hauntingly beautiful and terrifyingly surreal at times. They’ll take you all over the goddamned place and drag you through murky waters and barbed brier to get you there. But it’s done in such a way that you’ll ask to go again when all is said and done.

As for the overall musicianship… do I really have to say anything here? Most of you already know that this album owns in just about every aspect. Akerfeldt’s voice is simply perfect for the task at hand. Mellow and clean when needed and an oceanically deep growl for when the moments arise. Mikael and Peter Lindgren’s guitar work is also on par with that of some kind of actual guitar Wizard! It’s all so magical! Every riff (that on occasion are played ad naseum, I’ll admit) sounds like a happiness spell that was cast on my eager, prog loving ears. The acoustic stuff is especially pleasing since it’s not overused and punctuates the ends of the better tracks.

Skinman Martin Lopez dazzles on his set with spellbinding rhythms and manic foot work that pops up out of nowhere. I was incredibly happy to learn that the talent didn’t just reside in the vocals and guitars like everyone I knew tried to make me think. This album HAD TO have a competent drummer to be half as good as everyone says it is. I’m also glad to know that I was right, as I always do. And finally, we have bassist Martin Mendez and his speedy bass lines. Seriously, you don’t catch bass rumblin’s like that in progressive metal all too often (and that’s not often enough if you ask me). This guy might be my favorite progressive/melodic bassist next to Ed Vink.

As I mentioned before, some of the riffs are repeated to the point of me being able to point out that they can be a bit repetitive. But they’re great riffs and maybe they deserve to get pounded into your head! No, forget that. They can get to be kind of irritating. So there you naysayers go. I smudged this album a tiny bit. Ya happy?

Overall: I can honestly say that this album deserves all of the hype that’s been surrounding it for eleven years. It is everything you could possibly ask for in a progressive/melodic experience and more. Sure it’s a bit on the repetitive side, but I think that that is a pitfall that every progressive outfit falls into every once in a while. Aside from that, this re-release of Blackwater Park is a “Must Have” if you don’t already have it and if you do, then I beg you to consider this version if not only for the documentary.

Before anyone listens to an Opeth album, particularly this one, they should be aware of the following:

- There will be lots of repetition. Opeth is notorious for repeating riffs and other musical ideas for minutes on end. If you want to hear something like Unexpect, where noticeable changes in the melodies occur every 3-5 seconds, this band is not for you.
- This is not a "traditional" metal album. Opeth isn't focused on sounding brutal, "kvlt", shredding, playing 32nd note double bass kicks at 300 bpm, or any other stereotype associated with black, death, and thrash metal bands.

Now onto the actual review:

Surprisingly (for metal purists at least), the more metal that I listened to overtime (and it was almost solely underground bands for 3 years or so, I was a purist for a while), the more I came to respect this album, along with all other Opeth albums. After listening to mostly jazz, classical, reggae, ambient, hip hop (*gasp) and other genres for a year or two, it has become one of my all-time favorites. Few metal bands can create atmosphere for an album as effectively as Opeth does on this album, let alone switch from various moods and emotions to others multiple times in each song, as demonstrated here. The album contains moments of mystery, sorrow, brutality, suspense, calm, fear, longing and and overall autumnal atmosphere throughout. As a musician, I have noticed that at times the members of Opeth are playing as many as four melodic lines at once, a feat that only a handful of other metal bands can match in a coherent manner. The song structures are atypical and usually fairly complex, and the vocals, acoustic, and electric guitars fit into the overall soundscapes well and are unmatched by any of their other albums.

I would take a couple points off of the album because Martin Lopez's drumming and Martin Mendez's bass playing have sounded more complex and varied on other albums such as "Deliverance" and then a couple more because the music isn't very accessible. It takes a lot of time, patience, and often a musical background to truly appreciate the album for what it is. Its hard to find metal bands today who are musically mature enough to realize that many often-lauded, more underground metal bands play music that honestly requires only basic songwriting knowledge, drummers with fast feet (or programming), and a vocalist with enough stamina to avoid damaging their vocal chords (AKA 90% of black and death metal) and take steps to avoid this label.

Sure Opeth may sound boring to the untrained ear and a lot of people might shower this album with praise (which of course automatically makes it terrible/mainstream/watered down). Sure Opeth has a large number of fans and supporters who aren't metal heads (most of the Opeth fans I know are fellow musicians). Sure they have stronger songwriting abilities than most other metal bands could even dream of. As much as I may sound like an Opeth fanboy for saying this, I have yet to hear a single cogent argument that explains the musical deficiencies (citing actual music theory) of the album. All that I hear is "the songs are boring and drag on without substance" or "inexperienced metal heads like this" or "it's really overrated". Sorry if it disappoints you, but Opeth understand how to write music, convey many different themes, incorporate various genres, and play music that is complex, beautiful, and thought-provoking in a way that most lesser known metal bands (save Windir, Agalloch, Alcest, Ulver, Falkenbach, and a handful more) can ever hope to accomplish.

An oft-lauded masterpiece of modern music, Blackwater Park is the next great step in the evolution of heavy metal? Born of the blues and ganja smoke in the late 60’s by Black Sabbath, and streamlined and solidified into a more-than-legitimate music genre throughout the 70’s by Judas Priest, Motorhead, Black Sabbath once again and the progenitors of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, it seemed like metal music was going places. The following decades revolutionized how the world saw, listened to and interpreted heavy metal, as the had music split into dozens of subgenres, with bands as polarized as Riot, Kreator, Candlemass, Mayhem, Disembowelment, W.A.S.P., Death (and Black Sabbath, of course) all crusading for the good of the genre. Even the often downtrodden era of the 90’s and 00’s yielded countless inspirations and unique (for better or for worse) releases. But here it is, 2010, and all I am really looking forward to is the next Black Sabbath album, dammit.

But for now, we have Opeth. Oh joy.

I find it greatly difficult to express my opinions regarding this band. For months, I constantly flip-flopped on my stance, originally thinking “this is just as lame as the Internet told me it was,” before moving towards the idea that “you know, this really isn’t all that bad and offensive,” until I decided once more “this shit sucks. Hard.” So after this long history of indecision, I’ve finally settled down and come to the conclusion that Opeth merely plays repetitive, inoffensive, boring, meandering music that, by some miraculous stroke of luck, somehow became idolized and worshipped by the mainstream metal media worldwide. Yes, ask any average (presumably young and not entirely experienced) metalhead about Opeth, and you’ll need to duck from the waves of saliva and semen that will invariably expel from various orifices at a frightening rate. The vast amount of praise bestowed on vocalist/guitarist/principal songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt and company would lead someone who knows nothing about metal music to believe that they have written nine (and counting) metal masterpieces, dripping with “emotion,” “atmosphere,” and “progressive” touches.

The band is touted by its annoying fans as “Progressive Swedish Death Metal.” The progressive aspect of Opeth is a tad bit debatable, however. Because of their convoluted song structure’s, the band received the tag not so much because their music is legitimately progressive, but because they write very long songs, that contain both death growls and clean singing *gasp!!*. Anybody can write long songs in this vein, but it takes to talent to write a good short song, and even more to stretch it out to the lengths of these songs and maintain interest. And considering the many great bands spawned by the Swedish death metal movement, Opeth is easily the single worst band to come from it, merely for the fact that they do not play death metal whatsoever. Yes, Mikael Åkerfeldt growls deeply, but plays nary a death metal riff, only slow, samey-sounding metal riffs of an unclassifiable genre. Let’s call it “progressive,” shall we? The tempo of the music rarely ever rises above a casual rhythm, and drummer Martin Lopez never plays a blastbeat, or even plays fast at all, aside from a few quick bass-drum segments. As far as the listener will be able to tell, guitarist Peter Lindgren offers fairly little to Opeth’s sound, even though it’s quite possible his presence is the only thing keeping them from descending into a torrent of musical suckage. Martin Mendez’s bass has been very enjoyable on past albums, but here his contributions are sadly buried by guitars hardly worth highlighting at all.

Opeth’s fifth effort, the charmingly named Blackwater Park, is quite representative of the band as a whole. The album is 70+ minutes long, with most songs ranging from 7 to 11 minutes in length, while a few others are relegated to the expected level of “2 minute acoustic interlude, just to shake things up.” Each song showcases a variety of vastly different segments; this would normally be impressive, except the band paid no attention to how these sections transition between each other, or whether they even sound good whatsoever when they are juxtaposed next to an entirely different-sounding part of the song. This is the downfall of Opeth: for the most part, they just don’t really pay attention while writing their songs. It’s like they wrote 2 minute intros for 35 different metal songs. Some consist of distortion and riffage played in a monotonous yet somehow enjoyable fashion, accompanied by Åkerfeldt s growled vocals; some are built from acoustic guitar noodling and clean singing. Yet others consist of piano, and even other contain both acoustic and electric guitars at once, and may include clean vocals instead of death growls during the “metal” parts. Some of the segments may feature guitar solos, which throughout Opeth’s career, are pretty much just “there:” meaning enjoyable while being played, but without being particularly noticeable or integral to the songs when they finish. But despite how nice these individual parts are, they are still just intros to songs, and nothing more. They must be expanded upon and taken to its logical conclusion while maintain variety, yet never overwhelming the listener. But rather than expand upon what they already wrote, Opeth simply took these 35 intros and slapped them together in 8 songs.

This is a bit of a hyperbole, of course, as the band clearly paid some attention to how the album’s individual moments flowed, but only to the point that they never sounded jarring and outright wrong. However, the transitions still do sound awkward and confuse the listener. The first few songs manage to be strong and, rather surprisingly, memorable to a degree, but these feelings never grow any stronger as the album goes on. “The Leper Affinity” has that one good riff in the beginning, but the song just goes through the motions without accomplishing much. There is a guitar solo at some point, as well as an acoustic part. The vocals are harsh for a bit, and then go soft and delicate later on (really, however great Åkerfeldt’s singing voice is, it is quite emasculated), before switching once more. The metal comes back again, and then gives in to a piano piece at the end. However bland that description of the music is, it is all that can really be said about it. When the song ends after 10 minutes of trying to decide where to go, it hasn’t accomplished much, other than to demonstrate the band members smoke too much weed and are unsure how to properly end a song.

The one-two crotch-shot that is “The Drapery Falls” and “Dirge for November” best displays why this band is looked down upon by a minority of the metal scene. By the time you’re halfway into the former, you’ve already forgotten everything that already happened in the song. At 5:50, the band introduces some of the worst riffing I’ve ever seen be taken seriously by anyone: it sounds off-kilter, trying far too hard to be “progressive” and “unique,” and it is just flat-out not enjoyable to listen to. A few minutes of nothing of particular importance later, Opeth display’s their weak grasp on what constitutes musical progression. They switch to acoustic, folky guitars, complete with soft singing, but before the listener can even wrap his head around what just happened, the band blasts into about 7 seconds of chaotic, metallic nonsense. The guitars then drop out again, but just as the listener is trying to relax and absorb the calming atmosphere of the music, it is ruined once again by a fast metal part that isn’t even good in the first place.

I make it sound like this album is painfully bland and never pleasurable to hear, but this is thankfully not true. “The Funeral Portrait” is easily one of the best songs both on the album and in Opeth’s spotty discography. It opens with one of the fewmoments on the album worthy of headbanging, contrasting simultaneously with some interesting sounding acoustic parts. This is followed by an excellent (!) Celtic Frost-esque passage, all wrapped up on Opeth’s own unique, silly take on progressive metal. The band steadily moves forward without ever looking back, and I can’t help but wonder why they don’t always sound as good as this. Well, at least as good as it sounds until 3:50, where I suppose the band felt that if they played a song for more than 4 minutes without introducing a massive shift in dynamics, they would no longer be taken seriously by their high-minded, snobbish fans. So they do introduce a quiet part, and once again, it is quite unnecessary. It wouldn’t even be so bad if the band stuck around to develop it, but they abandon the acoustics after 10 seconds or so before returning to the metal. At this point, I am always quite baffled, wondering why they even felt the need to stick a folky part in the song if they weren’t even going to use it for more than a few moments; it’s like they put it in there solely to aggravate me. But the following guitar solo is more noticeable than usual, and thankfully the Celtic Frostian riffs return as well. Several clean singing and bland guitar noodling parts later, there’s another good solo and the song ends without feeling several minutes longer than it actually is.

Opeth is an enigma in the metal scene. They play long, lavishly constructed songs that somehow manage to accomplish little, despite the band member’s obvious talent and prowess with their instruments. They have become astoundingly popular worldwide, and developed one of the most rabid and irritating fan bases ever. By most standards I should hate music that eschews the massively important concept of songwriting so casually, but Opeth has a bizarre, charming quality about them that keeps me coming back for more. However mediocre the band is, I will say that I’ve listened to them more often than I would care to admit. Something about Opeth can bring me back every once in a while, but Blackwater Park is usually not the album to do it (the band’s debut, Orchid, will normally hold that title). This is an album meant to be listened to alone, while in a muted and bland sort of mood: neither happy nor sad. The third song, “Harvest,” a six minute all-acoustic track, best exemplifies this atmosphere, and manages to be a decent song in and of itself. “Bleak,” “The Funeral Portrait,” the opener and the particularly great closing title track “Blackwater Park” are all good, mostly memorable songs. But Opeth has never known when their formula has gone too far, and cutting down (or perhaps removing altogether) “The Drapery Falls,” “Dirge for November” and the interlude “Patterns in the Ivy” would’ve been beneficial to the album’s pacing. Ever since the quality of Opeth’s music declined after their third effort My Arms, Your Hearse, I suppose nobody should expect much more of the band but nice, boring music: mildly pleasing to play while driving on dreary autumn days or while trying to fall asleep, but little times else.

It disappoints me that anybody would give this album a bad review. But alas, sometimes the light in such amazing works are overlooked. This album is my personal favorite Opeth release, and displays a huge mastery of musicianship. Opeth managed to take control of their instruments and give birth to flowing, depressive, reverent music. The music in here goes beyond following timing, notes, keys, and flow. When writing the music, it seems as though all those elements were disregarded, and Mikael just allowed for beautiful music to flow out of his mind that reflected true beauty. Some people say metal can’t be pretty. Well, lets be honest, yes it can and this album proves it. The music in here does so much for the listener, you can either get caught up in the brutality of such songs as Blackwater Park and The Funeral Portrait, relax to the ambient masterpieces such as Harvest and Bleak, or gaze into the sorrow that exists in your heart through the depressive masterpieces such as Dirge for November. For sure nobody can listen to this album and not feel some sort of mood instilled in their mind. This album can also be listened to at any time of day or in any situation, personally I enjoy listening to it before I go to sleep. The beauty of the music allows me to forget every worry I have and just gaze into reverie.

As I said before, this music does not reflect the technical corner of music playing. Mikael and friends have clearly mastered every aspect of music writing and performing that they are able to conceive beautiful soundscapes in which every instrument works together in perfect harmony. Mikael must have invented his own chords while working on this album, because many of the chords are very exotic and not commonly used. Though the solos are short and there are not a lot of them, every time there is a solo it is placed just in the right spot and sparks just the right mood. The transitions in the album are perfect, and Mikael showed he really knows how to move into one idea to the next without making it sound random. It just flows perfectly from section to section. One section in the song will sound completely different from another part but when leading from one part to the other you would not notice the change due to the great flow.

The bass is very audible and actually displays some great feel. Martin knows his place in the band and keeps the groove and feel going. The drums do not receive a perfect score because even though Lopez is a master who can play 5 things at once on the drums, I still wait for him to take over and show his skill, but it never really happens. However the timing and fills are excellent. The piano playing is beautiful, especially at the end of The Leper Affinity. However it is quite slow in Patterns in the ivy. However it still captures the listener’s attention and reflects a sorrowful yet beautiful sound.

The vocals on this album are incredible. Mikael has mastered growling and has a beautiful voice. Just listen to the clean vocals in Leper Affinity when he sings “You sighted and let me in.” Every time he hits the note on Sighted, a chill runs through my spine. He continues to put so much emotion into his singing, and it really is something you must hear. The harsh vocals are loud and brutal. They rest softly on top of the music yet every word is pushed out hard and it is rather brutal actually.

The two best tracks are Blackwater Park and Dirge for November. Dirge for November starts off a bit awkward but very emotional. Then a relaxing guitar duet finds its way in there. Soon the distorted guitars are playing some cool moody chords and then the good part hits. The vocals come in with a very minor dark mood to them. You can almost picture Satan having his way during the vocal lines. There is a very red, bloody evil mood the main section of this song, but soon the clean guitar comes and slowly fades out with one of the most beautiful, depressive soundscapes I have ever heard. Blackwater Park closes the album with a bang. The opening is just evil and bouncy. The vocals are there for a little bit but an acoustic soundscape intervenes. It is very relaxing and you would never expect what will happen next to happen. Soon the whole band comes back in and the next 4 or 5 minutes of the song, which leads to the end, are the most evil, brutal, and well written moments in metal history. The song keeps getting louder and faster and the vocals drive a powerful message and then the song has built to the peak and soon a quiet acoustic line has come out of nowhere and it quickly fades out, leaving the listener speechless.

Would I recommend this album? No duh. This is my favorite album I have heard yet. People who dislike it should give it another chance and sit down with nothing else going on and truly absorb the amazing music it has to offer. I can guarantee you will have trouble finding another album with the same impact as this one. Before you buy this album, I suggest checking out the song Bleak, it is a good intro to what this album is like, and contains every element of the album. The rest of the album focuses on more distinct moods and styles, and is worth waiting to listen to. I suggest if you buy this album to sit down and relax with nothing else going on and listening to it start to finish, and you will be shocked.

When Opeth released the stunning and beautiful "Still Life", expectations for the band had arguably reached their peak. After all, it would be extremely difficult to match gems such as "Serenity Painted Death", and "Face Of Melinda". Opeth, I am happy to say, shattered those expectations beyond belief. This is an album whose musicality cannot be matched. Whether it's the crushing progressive riffs of songs like "The Leper Affinity", "Blackwater Park" and "The Funeral Portrait", or the acoustic softness of "Harvest" and "Patterns In The Ivy" (which has a wonderful piano mixed into the song), this album will be sure to please almost anyone who listens to it. I highly recommend this album to an aspiring Opeth fan, or just about anyone (providing they can look past Mikael Akerfeldt's frightening growls).

While the above-mentioned songs are amazing, I must describe the remaining three songs with more depth. "Bleak" is my all-time favorite Opeth song, and justifiably so. Beginning with a very strong chord and continuing in that memorable riff, followed by Mike's growls, it hooked me from the very beginning. The best part however, has to be the cleanly-sung chorus (performed by Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson). The acoustic middle of the song, with Mike's clean vocals, definitely made this song a highlight.

"The Drapery Falls" is (not surprisingly) a fan favorite, and will continue to be for a very long time, if not forever. The acoustic guitar gives way to a very nice opening riff, segueing into more acoustic guitar with clean vocals, before being trampled underfoot by a bombastic chorus which made goosebumps appear on my skin. "Dirge For November" is equally brilliant, following the same formula and song structure as many of their songs. Soft opening, hard riffs, and ending with a piano/guitar medley. While some see this as Opeth's weakness, I myself am constantly amazed at how they can take the same formula and make it sound fresh and exciting every single time.

Equally as important as the music are those who perform it. As I have already stated, Mikael Akerfeldt's harsh vocals are very scary (in good way of course). Even before Blackwater Park, he had established himself as one of the best vocalists in metal. It's no wonder Bloodbath asked him to return after Peter Tagtgren left. He is a very able singer as well. The clean vocals are very soothing and add a level of atmosphere and sensitivity that help solidify Opeth's reputation. The dual guitar work of Mike and Peter Lindgren is always impressive, as they churn out riffs and solos like nobody's business. Martin Lopez is great as always behind the kit. He definitely keeps pace with the guitarists and he adds complxity and even more sophistication. Martin Mendez is also impressive on bass.

The above review can be used to describe almost any Opeth album, but it is on Blackwater Park where all these qualities are at their best. It is album where their ambitions have only begun to be realized, and will make for nothing short of an electrifying listening experience.

Highlights: Bleak, The Drapery Falls, Dirge For November.

Generally hailed as Opeth's masterpiece, “Blackwater Park” stands still as one of the most important prog metal records ever released. Well, while “Blackwater Park” certainly is a pretty good album, it can't be considered as an essential prog metal album: Opeth made much better records than this one, I'm pretty sure of that. Albums like “Deliverance”, “Ghost Reveries” or “Watershed” are so much better than this one, we can't even compare them with “Blackwater”, at least in my opinion...

Maybe because I'm a drummer, I consider the poor drumming of this album one of the reasons why I prefer other Opeth records instead of this one. Martin Lopez is an awesome drummer, very creative and original, but until “Deliverance” was released, his performances were just... average. While I'm listening to “Bleak” I can't help but think that it would sound much better with improved drumming. Lopez can play almost everything and it's really sad to see such an album ruined by the mediocre drumming.

I also have serious problems with the guitar work of this album. While there are lots of good riffs and intrumental passages to be found on this record, the guitars sound too... soft, even when heavy riffs are played. I don't know, but the production doesn't fit that well with the music: thanks to it, the album has a strange 'warm' feel and songs like “Leper Affinity”or the title track lose their aggressive edge. On other hand, the calm sections sound amazing, the production giving to them a very cohesive feel: “Harvest”, the third track, is an example, with the moody, soft guitar lines sounding amazingly well.

The structures of the songs are all pretty damn complex, though. All the tunes contain many different movements and sections, and there are lots of elements to be found on may tunes. “Bleak” is an example, containing an aggressive first section, which leads us to a very prog rock-influenced bridge, where Steven Wilson's vocals are used. And there's a reason why Steven was chosen to perform some clean vocals on this song: at this time, Mikael Akerfeldt wasn't the brilliant clean vocalist he is today and, as a result, his calm singing isn't that used throughout the album. If we compare it to “Ghost Reveries”, we'll conclude that, on the latter, the clean vocals are much more used. The growls are as ferocious as ever, though: I always enjoyed Mikael's growls and they sound great on “Blackwater Park”.

Speaking of highlights, the best song possibly is the underrated “Dirge for November”: it contains a calm intro, a fairly heavy middle section and a repetitive but awesome outro: it kind of hypnotized me the first time I heard it. “Lepper Affinity” is also a very good song, even though, as I've already said, it would sound much better with an improved production. Its outro is particularly good and this song probably is the first tune Opeth ever composed containing some piano lines. “Harvest” is also worth mentioning, an upligting mellow piece, filled with some tasteful clean guitar lines and pleasant singing. “The Drapery Falls” is just an average track, the same thing going for “Bleak”. Unfortunately, “Funeral Portrait” is a bit on the forgettable side though, and the title track is also very average. I was expecting it to be the pinnacle of Opeth's career, because it is generally regarded as one of the best songs this band ever recorded, but, hey, I can't help but think that it is terribly overrated. The crescendo that opens the song works fairly well, but when the first heavy riff kicks in, I immediately knew that something was wrong. That riff should have been played much much faster, it is played way too slowly, in my opinion. The acoustic parts are also pretty long on this tune, but they aren't that great either. I really love the last two minutes of it though, they sound really... 'epic', so to speak. Finally, “Patterns in the Ivy” is a small instrumental, which works relatively well, building the atmosphere for the the title track.

Conclusion: this album is terribly overrated but still very enjoyable. It's a good album to begin with if you want to know Opeth.. “Ghost Reveries” is much much better than this piece, though, so be warned: this is NOT, by any means, the pinnacle of Opeth's career. Highlights: “Dirge for November”, “Leper Affinity”.

Best Moments of the CD:
-the outros of “Leper Affinity” and “Dirge for November”.

Thye first 30-odd seconds of Opeth's Blackwater Park aren't a riff, a solo, not even a vocal line. It's a single sound that builds up right before it bursts into an energetic, incredibly heavy song that sets the stage for one of Opeth's finest listening experiences. This progressive outfit has pumped out very high-quality extreme progressive metal albums like Still Life and My Arms, Your Hearse, and Blackwater Park is no different – a very high-quality extreme progressive metal album.

The first thing you'll notice when you listen to Blackwater Park is that the sound is much better than that of previous albums. No longer do you hear any channel drop-outs or inaudible bass lines – the sound in Blackwater Park is superb through and through, and that's not only in terms of technical quality of mixing and mastering, it's also about the soundscape of the music itself. With the help of Porcupine Tree leader Steven Wilson (who contributes production, backup vocals and even some solos), Opeth displays here some of its aurally-finest tunes ever, with a lot of great backup vocals, unique sounds and some grand piano played for extra emotion. Beyond the clear sound of the album, the MUSIC is rich in atmosphere and variety.

You'll hear some great touches in the music here. "Bleak" has a slightly Arabian feel to it that changes into an stunning segment that shows off Opeth's talent in creating seamless transitions between heavy playing and soft, soothing singing in large thanks to Mikael Åkerfeldt's beautiful voice. "The Drapery Falls", another album highlight, contains only clean vocals for about four minutes before erupting into an evil rush that introduces us to a passage of weird drums and guitars that are truly psychedelic. "The Funeral Portrait" has Åkerfeldt and Lidgren switching roles soloing, "Harvest" is probably the band's best, most melodic effort to the point of the album's release and album closer, "Blackwater Park", continues Bleak's middle-eastern theme and closes the album in an all-heavy, no-clean-vocals burst of energy and makes the experience go out with a bang.

As good as all the songs are, there is one song that's worthy of special mention. This song is "The Leper Affinity". The opening track of an album must do a good job of capturing the listener's attention and setting the stage for the rest of the album, and that's exactly what Leper does. It's built of amazingly heavy riffs and a lot of transitions, and it seems to flow better than just about any other Opeth song to date. What's extra impressive is the lyrical idea, which handles murder, love, death and love-making. Quite a poetic effort made all the more awesome thanks to excellent instrumentation.

So yes, Blackwater Park has everything an Opeth fan could ask for – highly progressive songs with excellent riffs and solos, audible bass and of course, amazing drumming in the hands of Martin Lopez. It does have its week points, namely an unnecessary instrumental bit and a slightly stretched-out tune called "Dirge for November". Dirge is unfortunate because up until its very end, it's a very impressive song, but it seems Åkerfeldt took it too far expending the song. Two minutes shorter and it could have been a real classic.

If you're a fan of Opeth or progressive metal at all, then by all means buy Blackwater Park. Mikael Åkerfeldt's amazing songwriting abilities and technical execution, both mellow and extreme, are at their finest here, and while it might not be as good as Still Life, it comes very, very close to it. Two thumbs up to Opeth for pumping out another amazing record.

Blackwater Park tends to be the "jumping-off" point for people interested in checking out Opeth's music. Basically this album is one that will make or break one's desire to hear the band, and for good reason: it contains some of their best but most progressive works. Many tend to be driven off by the long, meandering passages, while others are enchanted by them. Nevertheless, Blackwater Park contains a lot of Opeth classics, and does give a good representation of their overall sound. It is, for the most part, a logical evolution from their previous works My Arms Your Hearse and Still Life. It also incorporates a few elements heard on their later albums such as Deliverance, and thus is a good bridge between their older classics and newer work.

The majority of the songs on Blackwater Park blend together heavy death metal sections with progressive and acoustic sections. Songs such as The Drapery Falls and Bleak accomplish this quite well, really giving the listener a taste of the complexity and intrigue of the songs. Clean and death vocals are used in equal measure, and fierce death metal riffs fade into melodic passages to accompany them. You can note the changes in rhythm and texture are quite contrasting, though they still manage to hold together the song's overall atmosphere. This is different from their earlier album Morningrise, where the shifts in song structure were so complete that many times you would think you were listening to an entirely different song (Black Rose Immortal from that album can almost be 3-4 separate songs in my opinion). Heavier songs like The Leper Affinity and The Funeral Portrait give you a decent dose of death (albeit more repetitive than most dynamic death metal bands). Harvest and Patterns in the Ivy are entirely melodic, which are great for when you're in a different mood. Finally, the esoteric Blackwater Park gives you more of the complex style, while also hinting at a few rhythm and atmospheric elements that would appear in their later albums.

If one wants to try Opeth, Blackwater Park is the album to do so. It includes a good sample of all their works, prior and future to this one's publication. It also includes a lot of their classics. I rate this as one of their best, and definitely recommend it. If you don't like this one, chances are you won't like any of Opeth's work.

The fact that this is probably my favorite Opeth album they've released to date doesn't really compensate for the fact they they are one of the most boring progressive metal bands to date. And I don't mean 7-minutes-of-improv-and-solo Dream Theater-esque boring, either. What I mean is that almost every song is at least 60% filler; i.e., the same riff being repeated for much too long at a time with hardly ANY variation, at all.

But let's attempt to focus on the positives. The drumming's quite nice, and not that bad when you actually decide to focus upon it. The group's guitar-playing isn't very exquisite [I'm guessing that Ã…kerfeldt's vocals & guitar combo contributes to that], but they are good enough. Ã…kerfeldt's vocals are actually very good, especially on this album. Unlike most clean male vocals in metal, his pitch is mainly at the median, and still has power behind it. Needless to say, he's one of the best clean male vocalists in my own opinion. However, his guteral vocals -- at least Blackwater Park-era -- are quite giggle-worthy.

As for the songs, "Harvest" is the high point of the album, a very enjoyable song with some interesting lyrics and clean-sounding guitars. Below that, I would rank "The Drapery Falls" which is a great song tainted by repetitive [although good] riffs and the irritating second-half full of Ã…kerfeldt's growling/grunting and lack of conscious melody.

The rest of the songs really fall into eachother, hardly differing from eachother to the point of just melting together to the point of when the dreaded "What's this song called again...? No, that's the title of track 3, isn't it?" syndrome goes into effect.

All in all, it's half-amusing with a few good tracks, but Opeth definitely falls into the shallow end of the prog-metal gene pool. It's can be a greatly enjoyable listen once in a while. But if you're looking for something complex, thought-provoking, and/or attention-grabbing... I advice you to save your money, and distance yourself from this band.

I remember it was a cold and long winter, it was raining outside almost all the time and I just discovered this album at the same time, at the right time I guess. Actually I bought this album in the end of the summer, but I knew it will be better for me to wait until winter arrives, and then to get into this album which only by his cover I could tell, will suits the winter as the moon suits the night. It's a brilliant mix of death metal and progressive rock, and it has a unique melancholic atmosphere which makes this album sounds much different than anything else out there. And no, I ain't talking about the poor emo trend which spreading like a disease on our days...hell not! Here it isn't a fake pose of some depressed teenagers or the usual sense you get from typical thrash/speed/heavy/death metal, here it's a real emotion which makes you feel something else than headbanging or moshing. The music here takes you to another places in your mind, makes you feel something brilliant and sweeping, a rare shivers from musical excitement in your back, a feeling that you and the music isolated together in an imaginative place in the other side of the world. Damn it, who the hell needs LSD when you got such exciting experience in a simple CD?

Now let me talk in a less emotional way, and talk about the music itself, in a more technical way. First of all, the production [by Steve Wilson and the band] is perfect.
The guitars sounds deep and bright. It sounds clear even when it distorted and it doesn't loosing strength and just sounds flawless but still internalized. The acoustic guitars sounds incredible. Clean and precise, pleasant as a fragile wind and even hypnotizing sometimes. The bass is dominant and intense, it doesn't blends beneath the guitars. The drums are overwhelming too, but the drumming isn't an extreme one as in typical death metal. It's a bit more mid-paced and it isn't brutal or something close to it...which is a positive thing of course, as Opeth's music isn't sounds like by the book death metal. The vocals (by Mikael Åkerfeldt) are amazing and outstanding. 'Åkerfeldt' sings low and harsh growls when it's the more death metal part of the music, and he sings also clean and melodic when it's in the softer tracks or parts of the album. He doesn't sings on high notes like a typical power metal vocalist, he has style much different than this. He usually sings in a calmly way and he has a very soft voice when he sings like that and he relaxing you and completely changes the mood of the song .

The songwriting here is topnotched. There are a lot interesting passages from heavy mood to melodic mood, a lot memorable melodies (especially in the pacific 'Harvest' and in the unparalleled 'Bleak' which sounds just perfect) and astonishing emotional lead guitars which makes you feel a musical orgasm. There are 8 tracks which clocks at 67 minutes, which means that the average length of each track is 8 minutes, and believe me that they aren't a tiresome tracks. Each song develops a lot and doesn't has the normal formula of the verse-chorus song [except the third track, and it doesn't means that it's a bad track]. It's actually a highly varied album which keeps on unique atmosphere and interest for each moment. There are also some keyboards here and there which keeps the melancholic mood of this album, listen to the perfect ending in 'The Leper Affinity' with the piano, it's just sounds excellent.

So, is it a masterpiece? yes. Is it a varied album? definitely yes. Is it REALLY deserves 100? Absolutely, it deserves much more than 100, it deserves your attention and money. Buy this album, you won't regret. Honestly, you won't like it at the first listening as in the fourth listening, but you won't like it in fourth listening as you'll like it in the tenth listening. The more you listen to it, the more you like it, exactly like that. And god forgive me than I mentioned the hollow emo fashion in a Blackwater Park review...

The construction of a typical Opeth song is really based on guitar riffs. But rather than a lone powerhouse driving the song, guitarist/singer Mikael Akerfeldt weaves together many intricate passages with lightly distorted guitars. When all these pieces are put together it forms a singularity of massive scope. The guitars don't churn or burn, they don't spew or chug, they grind and slide, they swirl and dig. The overtones present in any massive moment are incredible and genuinely melodic.

This band really knows how to create harmonic tension. The very first licks in the opening track The Leper Affinity starts with a middle E5 and then the same chord with a flat 9. This is followed immediately by some descending stacked minor thirds, and then quick chugging on the low E. And as it goes along, more guitars are added to the mix. Often Akerfeldt puts near identical passages on top of each other. It isn't like double tracking because the differences are too great. The effect is something akin to being just out side the eye of a hurricane. There are so many little pieces flying by, that you can only catch some at a time. It takes some skill to hear everything all at once.

The transitions are incredible. This is an area that so many have trouble with. Going from one riff to another is something Opeth elevates to an art. It would be easy for me to fall into more music-geek traps and detail my favorite of said passages but it is entirely unnecessary. I will tell you that the coolest thing is hearing this band transform instantly from a seemingly dissonant, grinding chaos, to a full-on Odysseus. Dark clouds seam a distant memory in place where giant power-chords and soaring vocals have the power to lift you up so high. One particularly great example is on The Drapery Falls when everything seams so together you can't help but move. Your head will bob, your fist will be raised, and you won't know these things are going on. You have no control. But it is a very shaky place to be in, as "Leper" proves going into a double grind that increases in power up until the very end. The things you will least expect are when all the instruments drop out entirely and a tender acoustic guitar will play delicate passages like a light breeze across your face. By the time you acclimate to the situation it has changed. Opeth always keeps you guessing. At times a song doesn't even sound like itself. There even a few tunes into which musical brutality doesn't enter. Harvest, Patterns in Ivy, Dirge for November, all flow brilliantly with a tonal purity that you just can't be expecting. "Patterns in Ivy" is especially surprising because it fades into the immense darkness of the album's title song. "Dirge's" delicate hollowbody electric figures sound so mellow and wide-ranging acoustic chords cast a spell. "Dirge" isn't entirely acoustic but the difference in sections is so pronounced that the two sections might as well be different songs. The electric section is equally lovely.

No one can get out of a review of this record without talking about the vocals. They are mostly very harsh and deep, an intense growl devoid of melody, fairly typical death metal styled vocals (another review mentioned that they were typical of black metal. This is not true; black metal vocals are very high and screechy). This will bother many and unfortunately deter some. They do not bother me. I enjoy them and the lyrics, which are cryptic and sometimes clunky (the band is Swedish, but they sing in English). To those of you who cannot take this kind of voice, I offer this: stick it out and give it a chance. Try listening to it before you make a purchase to see if you can really handle it. Also keep in mind that Mikael Akerfeldt does all the vocals, even the impossibly high and soaring clean stuff that could impress a hardened voice instructor (I've seen it happen). Let it sink into you and cringe and run away. After a while you may not even notice that Mikael is singing in that voice. If you keep an open mind you may find yourself really enjoying this. Most people won't be immediately thrown off, and some who aren't fans of death metal will actually enjoy it.

There is really something special to be found here. This is a band being truly creative, taking risks with their music. It is too easy to stick to a tried-and-true formula. Opeth falter sometimes, but these occasions are over-shadowed b the immensity of their genius.

It was really hard to decide how much i liked this CD. I feel i have to be in a certain mood to really enjoy it, but there's never a time where i really hate it. There are a lot of people out there that are going to love this music, or hate this music. Myself, on the other hand, i find it somewhere in the above average category. Its somewhat great, but it does have its bad points. Sometimes, Opeth is just heavy as hell and banging out the low, creepy riffs, while other times theyre just going into a melodic breakdown of acoustic guitar and a crooning voice that you would never guess would come out of the vocalists mouth.

Pretty much every song does the "Opeth breakdown," and most of them contain the thrash-like riffs that are hard and kickass, with the death vocals that are quite excellent. I don't find this album very different than any others in terms of vocals, and guitar parts. I think speaking guitar-wise, this is probably the best of them, for i find that the melodic stuff is quite pretty and its really worth the time to listen to. The thing that was done the best on this album was the bass. Sometimes basses just aren't heard very much throughout albums, but Opeth is one of those bands that wants their beats heard. It works very nicely with the guitars, on all parts of the song. You wouldnt think of it, but it adds a lot to the album and the sound quality of each song.

One thing that you can expect from Opeth, is long songs. They are a band known for extremely long songs, that have many different beats hidden inside them. The longest track is somewhere around 13 minutes, but something i notice, is that the tracks don't grow old. They do enough switching of their stuff in one song that i find i can listen to the entire thing without ever being tempted to press the skip button and carry the CD to the next song.

All in all, if you can handle something that has just such an abundant load to offer, this is the CD for you. If youre looking for straight-up metal and nothing but that, don't get this CD because youll be too disappointed with all the acoustic parts they go into. Highlights are "The Leper Affinity," "The Drapery Falls," and "Patterns in the Ivy."

...give or take 5 from my final score if you like/hate Opeth.

I had intended to let others review more popular band’s albums until I decided to compare “Blackwater Park” to Esoteric’s SDitC as they have long songs but that’s where similarities end as Opeth are supposed to be a progressive melo-death band while Esoteric are an Atmospheric (in my opinion) Doom Metal band.

Now onto the music, sod everything else they did in their career because everyone and his motorbike has reviewed them, I’m concentrating on this release only.

When one listens to “The Leper Affinity” and a “heavy” mallcore song, the thing you’ll notice in repeated listens is that “The Leper Affinity” and the mallcore song have the same song structure, a la, heavy part of a song = harsh vocals, mellow part of same song = mellow, singing vocals, coincidence? Listen to Linkin Park and then listen to this song and you’ll know what I mean. In fact, throughout this album, this very formula is repeated apart from “Bleak” where you’ll get duo mellow vocals in some of the heavy sections before the eighth verse, “Harvest” which is an acoustic song all the way and “Patterns in the Ivy” which is an acoustic instrumental. Not very progressive, isn’t it?

It’s just mallcore with Heavy Guitar work that isn’t drowned in distortion but diluted enough to satisfy those who don’t know who sang in Iron Maiden before Bruce Dickinson but hate mallcore enough to search for heavier music.

Also, the heavy parts aren’t Death Metal at all; they sound Hard Rockish to diluted Heavy Metal guitar work. The Drumming also doesn’t make the grade in Death Metal as it’s been marketed as, one might feel ripped off if he gets into bands like Possessed, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, Kreator, Slayer, Death et al after listening to Opeth for a number of years.

Of course, on one hand, the songs themselves are enjoyable but on the other, they don’t have the staying power in one’s list of favourites for long once you do dig deeper into the archives of metal (ha, ha). One of Opeth’s strengths though is vocalist Mikael Akerfeldt, who can growl but also sing in a clean voice with some conviction but he is held back by the material of his creation. He needs to create stronger, memorable, heavier material before the band can justify the “Progressive Death Metal” tag they received.

And what the hell is “3 Eggs”? Did the band run out of eggs for their toast before Markus Lindberg gave them some to crack? The world may never know…

Opeth is the best band on the face of the earth, and this is my favorite CD of theirs. To all who read this, carefully look at the reviewers who gave it bad ratings, and be absolutely sure to never EVER take anything those human beings say seriously in your entire life... but alas, this isn't about bashing, this is about reviewing, so it's time for me to tell you what makes this such an awesome CD:

Let's start off with the guitarwork - it's perfect. They're not obsessively shoving complex fast solos and leads into every minute of the album like some prog metal bands might (not that I'm against prog metal, I'm a big prog metal supporter). Rather, Mikael and Peter approach their guitars the way they SHOULD; with the idea of writing riffs that actually sound good, and fit the songs. There is great contrast with the heavy death/doom metal style riffs, and the beautifully written acoustic guitar parts which I think take a more active and important role in this album than their early work. Peter's soloing style is unique and awesome; he's a guitarist who can bring more power to a song by sustaining one note at the end of a lead for a period of time than some guitarists can do with the fastest of the fast shredding and sweeping etc. Another aspect that really draws me in personally is the way they sometimes have acoustic guitars playing at the same time as the heavy riffs, such as in "Bleak." One might think this would take the edge off of the heavy riffs, while in that song it actually has a very eerie, kind of dissonant tone that brings a whole new edge to the music. Everything the two of them do works perfectly for the songs, to give a very colorful, dark overall sound.

Now, I'm going to skip saying much about the bass and the drums; while I do know good bass and drums when I hear them, I wouldn't have the expertise in discussing such elements as my bandmates might. Plus those don't seem to be the focus of Opeth's music. So I'll go straight onto the vocals. Mikael Akerfeldt has one of the most powerful growls I've ever heard in metal; it's low, but not ridiculously low like silly Mortician-style nonsense. It's audible, it has a huge sound, and you can understand what he says for the most part. He adds appropriate echo to it in this recording as well, so that it doesn't cover anything up; just enhances the experience (I do the same thing when I record vocals). His singing voice is anything but whiny (despite other reviewers' opinions), with the exception of some parts of the beginning of "Dirge For November" - I suppose there's some slight whine in there. Nothing to stop me from thinking he's a great vocalist though. His vocal melodies are great... it's not easy to write vocal melodies, it's much easier to just do a lot of raspy voices and growls (which is probably why so many metal bands do nothing but that), and it's also easy just to sing every note that the guitar sings. But Mikael takes a more difficult process in order to create a more beautiful product. The acoustic-based song "Harvest" is a good example of well written vocal melody.

I'm excited for all their future albums, and I'm excited to go to my first Opeth show on 2/28/04! Hopefully won't be the last.

Well, I don't think any album is as love/hate as this one. People have given it 100, and then other people have given it nearly 0. No, this album isn't perfect in my opinion, but it is a great record and definitely deserves a hell of a lot more than zero.

Opeth has a very interesting and ranged sound. They skip from full-on acoustics to brutal death riffage at the drop of a hat. This album includes some of their coolest riffs and most melodic acoustics. This is probably their most accessible album, but most of their works are quite alike in style and format.

This album has all the typical Opeth ingredients. Great, heavy riffs power the songs along for the most part. The riffs themselves range from super heavy, to quick, to thrashy. There is plenty of lead guitar work thrown in as well. During the aggressive sections, gutteral death vocals are abundant. Every song has at least a couple slower, melodic sections where the vocalist switches over to very controlled and melodic clean vocals, which fit the acoustics perfectly.

The drumming is strong and controlled, alot of very active and interesting beats are played, along with full-on double kick assault during alot of the deathy passages. The bass is also expertly played, and is fairly audible throughout the album, especially on the slower passages, where it accompanies the acoustic guitars very nicely.

The songs themselves are long and drawn out, but never grow tedious. The shortest song on the album besides the small instrumental interlude, is six minutes, where the longest (the title track) clocks in at just over 12.

There's no typical verse/chorus arrangements here, everything is a complete progression, and each song is like a symphonic movement in the way it builds and progresses, travelling from hard to soft and back again.

There are some very non-metal elements in bascially every song, but the contrast works very well and makes this album great to listen to no matter what your mood. There are many headbanging moments, and many moments where you'll just want to close your eyes and feel the wonderfully picked acoustics.

This album is best listened to in an atmosphere where you can focus on it and experience the entire record as a whole.

All in all, a very nicely produced and strong sounding record that offers lots of variety.

Choice cuts: "The Leper Affinity," "The Funeral Portrait," and "Blackwater Park."

Opeth probably takes the "modern" approach to metal to one possible extreme... some features of modern metal include random death vocals that do not make sense with the music underneath, and just plain too many ideas thrown in that just don't make much sense. Also, interesting riffage takes a back seat to pseudo-random sounding guitar patterns that are far too repetitive. In order to make up for this, lots and lots of long passages are thrown in that do not join together well. The song structures just don't make any fucking sense, when all is said and done, really. Finally, this is definitely not death metal, no matter what someone may say. Most of this isn't even metal. Go ahead, tell me Harvest is metal. (It's a silly acoustic interlude that manages to be 6 minutes long, but contain about one minute worth of ideas!) Then do yourself a favour and listen to some Iron fucking Maiden or something.

First, we have The Leper Affinity. The guitar work is just plain lifeless. It has no edge to it - no ability to grab one emotionally in any way. It's just... kinda... there. Listen to the guitar meandering under the verse at, say, about 1.40 into the song. Or 1.20. Or 2.15 - it's the same thing still. Boring. There's a decent riff around 2.17 in, where it seems like the song starts to pick up, but the problem is, the riff is worked right into the ground. Over it is a solo that is decent but lacks definition - it's also just kinda "there". It's a nice solo, but just not a particularly interesting one. Finally, the same transition again at around 3.15 in.

This is at once an album that has not enough ideas, and too many of them. Yes that is possible. The same riff tends to weave together many passages, so that the song becomes boring - instead of changing nicely to other ideas, one gets abrupt changes. "Oh, we gotta throw in a silly acoustic interval here". For example, at 4:15 into the song. Another boring-ass solo. Then, some clean vocals that just don't do anything for me. If I wanted to listen to this, I'd get James Taylor. The clean vocals are awful - they're just too "nice". Things pick up a bit later, but one is left with the feeling of "what the fuck was that middle section for?" - and again, the same riffs are used again in the second half of the song. Oh and then there's a piano bit. Which genius came up with that one? Want to hear a GOOD piano part, listen to the intro to WASP "Thunderhead". Now THAT is emotional right there. This? Well, this one just ended and I can't remember it.

Well, there's one song dissected bit by bit. And it just does not hold up under analysis. It is just not INTERESTING. The rest of the album is just like that. It kinda sits there. This is not HEAVY FUCKING METAL the way it is supposed to be played - nothing comes out and screams "On your knees!! I want you on your knees!" like metal is supposed to do. Yes, I subscribe to some pretty old-fashioned metal ideas, that metal is supposed to be impressive and majestic and arouse me into battle frenzy. Not this.

What's the rest like? Just about the same stuff. If you've heard one song off of this album, you've heard it all. So pretty much this album lacks any of the features that make metal great. It's not HEAVY. It's not even fast, or furious, or exciting. It lacks the pummelling riffs of a Black Sabbath, the screaming soloing of a Judas Priest... It's not even distorted - Hell, even mallcore can accomplish that, and this just has one passage at the end of Bleak that is (probably due to yet another brilliant idea) really over-distorted to sound awful.

"The Drapery Falls" has some really awful vocalists around 2:30 in - I swear, if I hear a singer breathe, I will flip out. Learn some techniques so you don't exhale into the mike, that just sounds unprofessional. "Dirge for November" is practically the same ideas again. "Dirge for November" finally - FINALLY - picks up a bit, but it is far too little, far too late. We have the only riff that's almost worth hearing in this album, at around 1:59 in. Too bad it sounds like a ripoff of Metallica "For Whom the Bell Tolls" kinda played around with a bit, so that half the effect somehow falls out anyway. It's difficult to acknowledge Metallica being better than someone else at anything, but unfortunately here is an example of that. Nonetheless, this is the highlight of the album. Though, when they crank up to 11, it's like most bands cranking up to "3". And the song is overlong anyway - after 4 minutes, right before the first acoustic part, they just should have stopped. Game over. New song. "Patterns in the Ivy" is good simply because they figured out when to stop, though while it is going, it sucks. The title track is just replete with bad ideas, as are all the other tracks. Acoustic interlude? Check. Death vocals over silly guitar patterns? Check. Forgettable solos? Check.

There are precisely zero really fucking memorable riffs here - in fact, most of the riffs aren't even metal riffs, they sound like badly recycled 70s rock riffs. Didn't I hear a Pink Floyd album once that kinda, almost, a bit, sounded like this, but sucked far the fuck less?

Ya know, I'd love to get all worked up about this album and release some really malicious invective in their direction. But, I can't. This has put me right to sleep. That might be the most damning of all. Metal isn't supposed to be a fucking lullaby.

To start off, I must say that I did not always like this band. I used to think of them as boring. I even saw them in concert and still thought their music was boring.

Then one day, I decided to give some of their music a chance - and it just clicked. The specific song was Forest of October from their album Orchid. I was extremely impressed at how the band was able to compose this grand canvas of intertwining guitars and bass and how it all, despite the huge size of the song, formed a massive, coherent, wonderful, yet at the same time dark and bleak picture.

This was the standard I measured this album to when I first got it. I was not disappointed - although the album isn't really perfect for some reasons. These reasons are the fact that some parts of the songs are boring - yes, boring. Gasp, you say. Truth, I maintain. For example, the first song of the album, The Leper Affinity, starts with boring, uninspiring guitar riffs. Some of the riffs in the song Blackwater Park seem to be the "filler" kind and the song The Funeral Portrait has absolutely no hooks whatsoever...which brings me to my next point.

Another bad thing about this album (about most of Opeth's music too) is inaccessibility. One cannot just pop an Opeth album in their discman and just listen to it for fun. Well, one can, but it just sucks when you've got only a five minute break (or less) and the songs are all more than 9 minutes save for a couple... Opeth songs are more experiences than songs - only by listening to the whole thing can one truly come to like an Opeth song. For the uninitiated, listening to an album several times may be a pre-requisite to liking it.

That said, the good points must now be highlighted, for they are legion. As this review's title suggests, the beauty of Opeth is mostly in the compositions. The sheer creativity of some songs is somewhat hard to swallow. Let me illustrate this point with an example: the song The Drapery Falls. The song starts with soft, fairly simple accoustic chords...then the other instruments kick in. I can only close my eyes in silent contemplation as my senses are assaulted with myriad amounts of sensations that can only be provoked by three distorted electric guitars, one accoustic guitar, and one bass guitar that are playing different things in perfect harmony. Everything just fits - and fits beautifully. This is what this album's (and this band) about.

Don't be misled by my heavily emotional description of The Drapery Falls. The same kind of thing can provoke all kinds of different emotions in the other songs. For example, while they use the same kind of technique in the song Blackwater Park, one feels like raging and headbanging rather than closing eyes. It all works perfectly.

Another thing that I like a lot about Opeth is how they use vocals. On one hand you have the heavy growls and on the other you have the soft, clean, melodic, beautiful (I can't stop praising Mikael Akerfeldt's clean vocals - they are the best) singing. The way Akerfeldt switches from one to the other creates a very cool effect - sort of a Jekyll and Hyde thing. Too bad the lyrics (which are pretty average on this album) don't reflect this very much.

Another thing I absolutely love about this album is its sort of thematic. The intricate drawing on the cover suggests a bleak, grey autumn day. The picture of the band in the middle of the booklet shows them standing in a autumnal forest, looking thoughtfully. Every song is bleak, grey, autumnal as well - you will find no happiness listening to Opeth. The lyrics sometimes reflect this but mostly, and unfortunately, fall short.

Having said all this, I highly recommend that everyone listen to this album at least several times before judging it too harshly. I also highly recommend it to anyone vaguely interested in progressive music - as well as anyone vaguely interested in music...