Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Opeth - Lamentations: Live at Shepherd Bush Empire 2003 CD (album) cover

LAMENTATIONS: LIVE AT SHEPHERD BUSH EMPIRE 2003

Opeth

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Bookmark and Share
kluseba
2 stars I really like a few studio albums of this band, especially "Blackwater Park" and "Watershed", so I bought this slipcase compilation by Koch Records with three studio albums and this exclusive live CD. That's why I will just talk about what I hear and not what I see on this release.

And what I hear is not very positive. The band divided its set in two halfs, the first one is based on their acoustic stuff from the "Damnation" album. The acoustic album has a really introspective atmosphere on the album, but it doesn't work at all on stage. Each song seems to be alike, the live versions sound exactly like the studio versions, the band has no contact with the silent and hypnotized crowd and there is no magic in the air. After a few songs, this first part of the album makes you fall asleep because of its infinite boredom. The most interesting song is the only one which is not included on the "Damnation" album, "Harvest", which develops a magic warmth and gives me at least some goose bumps and chills.

The second half of the album is a lot heavier and more progressive and wakes the crowd up a little bit. But the heavier song are performed with a lack of passion and intesity and work less well as the studio versions. The band does some routine work but I can't feel any passion in it. This part is a little bit more enthousiastic than the first part, but not by much.

Another problem of this release is - due to legal problems - that the setlist is mostly limited on the three last albums and not very diversified. That's a sad thing because the early works of the band had some magic moments and something powerful and fresh.

I can't recommend this CD (or even DVD) and would give the advice to listen to the studio albums instead.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on October 6th of the year 2010.

Report this review (#385933)
Posted Monday, January 24, 2011 | Review Permalink
Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars Lamentations captures a truly excellent Opeth live performance. Recorded in September 2003, this meant that the gig took place around a year after the sessions which yielded the Deliverance and Damnation albums. The entirety of Damnation - Opeth's left-turn into quieter progressive rock - is served up here, followed by a selection of six louder tracks, three from Deliverance and three from Blackwater Park, providing a rounded view of Opeth's musical universe as it stood in the early 2000s.

With prior eras of the band's work pushed out of sight entirely, this finds Opeth at the cutting edge of their distinct style of progressive metal, steeped as it is in drawing on progressive rock and extreme metal techniques rather than following the trajectory of past prog metal practitioners such as Dream Theater. This certainly represented a fresh and eye- opening offering for prog and metal fans alike in the early 2000s, and remains potent to this day.

Report this review (#2975308)
Posted Sunday, December 17, 2023 | Review Permalink

OPETH Lamentations: Live at Shepherd Bush Empire 2003 ratings only

chronological order | showing rating only

Post a review of OPETH Lamentations: Live at Shepherd Bush Empire 2003

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.