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Marwin View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 08:28
After listening to the album for a few days many times i can say i love it and if i were to review it right now i would definately give it 5 starsThumbs%20Up
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 08:31
Originally posted by laplace laplace wrote:

plan to two-star this.
yeah i know i always two-star metal but Dark Suns and this year's Meshuggah fared better and so will To-Mera
the album just isn't very exciting
 
I'm with this, but I'd give it three.
 
I'm an opeth fan for sure, but this album doesn't stand out for me.  I miss the atmosphere of earlier albums.  It's a solid record, I enjoy it, but I can say that the honeymoon is already over between me and this album and I like pretty much all the others better than this one.
 
As a rule, never believe the 5 star reviews.  It's good that we have 5 star and one star reviews so you know which ones NOT to read.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 08:55
Originally posted by Golden Spiral Golden Spiral wrote:

Originally posted by Laplace Laplace wrote:

plan to two-star this.
yeah i know i always two-star metal but Dark Suns and this year's Meshuggah fared better and so will To-Mera
the album just isn't very exciting
 
I'm with this, but I'd give it three.
 
I'm an opeth fan for sure, but this album doesn't stand out for me.  I miss the atmosphere of earlier albums.  It's a solid record, I enjoy it, but I can say that the honeymoon is already over between me and this album and I like pretty much all the others better than this one.
 
As a rule, never believe the 5 star reviews.  It's good that we have 5 star and one star reviews so you know which ones NOT to read.
When somebody from prog archives says 5 star or 1 star I normally can see where they are coming from depending on their point of view,  Certif1ed did an excellent review and validated his point of view very well I though to that person its 1 star doesn't mean to the next person it is though . 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 09:18
I heard the album as a whole at least 10 times, and some tracks individually. I just feel that this album is as enjoyable as "Still Life" which was my favorite from them. As I stated in the review, I feel it is not as coherent as Still Life (and actually a few others) and they could improve on that aspect in the future. Nevertheless, the album's songwriting/arrangement bring some of Opeth's most exciting and beautiful songs to date.

to Certified:
did you just listen to the album once and reviewed it? you got the album and reviewed it on the same day. Give it more time, like I did with some albums I initially disliked and after several listens grew on me. Of course, sometimes they get even worse after more listens like the last album from Mars Volta *sigh*


Edited by Zitro - June 10 2008 at 09:21
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 10:15
Originally posted by GoldenSpiral
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>and I like pretty much all the others better than this one.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>[/QUOTE GoldenSpiral
 
and I like pretty much all the others better than this one.
 
[/QUOTE wrote:


 
Correction:  I like this one better than Ghost Reveries, but I like the older albums better. 
 
Correction:  I like this one better than Ghost Reveries, but I like the older albums better.  Just a matter of personal preference.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 11:22
Originally posted by laplace laplace wrote:

plan to two-star this.
yeah i know i always two-star metal but Dark Suns and this year's Meshuggah fared better and so will To-Mera
the album just isn't very exciting

I wouldnt have thought you liked To-Mera, what did you think?

Its a good album, better than Ghost Reveries, Damnation and Deliverance, but not as good as their mid period albums, it doesnt quite have the atmosphere of those albums, 4 stars.

As for Cert1fieds review, well any review made on the same day as perchase is useless IMO and Cert's a well known prog metal hater so I ignore his comments on anything to do with this genre.

 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 11:42
Based on the opinion in this thread, it seems like this album should probably have a 3.5 rating Tongue
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 11:43
It's pretty simple - if you like Opeth, in general, you'll probably like Watershed.
If you hate on them and seem to be on a quest to prove that they are not prog - not to name any names - then surprise surprise, the album won't sound good to you.
I personally think it's one of their best albums. I like it better than anything they've done, actually, except for My Arms, Your Hearse and Still Life. But I think Watershed is almost equal to those in quality.

I don't like the ending of Burden, or the entire Porcelain Heart song (except for the beautiful folky almost-falsetto part about 2/3 in), but aside from that, the album is comprised of some of the best music I've heard in a while. In particular, Heir Apparent, The Lotus Eater, and Hessian Peel rank up there with the best of Opeth's epics.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 12:22
If writing a pretentious review was your goal by the way, gg.  I can understand you not liking it, but your compraisons to Nickelback (as someone else mentioned) just stripped any of the credibility you had, imo.

Edited by Genesister - June 10 2008 at 12:41
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 13:04

Actually, the Nickelback comparison is strangely reasonable. It's laughable, but when you step back and look at some of Mikael's vocals...

When he gets a bit throatty I can see the connection. Of course, he's much better, as is the music. But of course reviewing the album after one day is probably a poor idea. It's clear that he was bias against the band before the review, though, so as long as the bias isn't loosened a bit the review probably wouldn't be different if he listened a few more times. The album definitely isn't worth five stars so for the time being the ridiculous score evens out the average.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 14:34
As disappointed as I feel about this record, I still can't help but like it a lot.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 14:34
I think it´s a definitve 4 star album. It is very good but I wouldn´t say it´s anywhere near 5 stars.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 14:47
I've only listened to the two Myspace songs thus far, and the music is strange. Simpler than usual, I guess, but with a fresh, distinctively new flavour, quite unlike past Opeth or anything else I'm familiar with. This bodes very, very well indeed.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 16:48

I think that Cert1fied's review is a disgrace to this site, it's unbelievably biased, he heard it only once and wrote here (in the middle of listening to this album) that he is bored by it... this is not serious. I think that his review should be deleted and also that he should be removed from the collaborator position, because this review affects the credibily of this site and it's colloborators.

And I'm not saying that because I'm insulted by his bad review and rating, I don't think it's a great album, I would give it 3 stars, but at least I came to this desicion after at least 10 spins.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 16:51
I can "play" a lot of prog songs in my head from end-to-end. I remember so many things about so many bands and songs.
And I was a metal kid. Grew up on metal. Which should lead you to believe I'd be in love with this band.

But to this day I cannot remember anything done by Opeth as soon as I'm done hearing it. They've got the talent, but something about them is seriously lacking if I can't really recall a thing about their music once the echo dies away.

I've listened to 'Watershed' several times now, and it's good. But again, it just doesn't stick.
And I think it's high time Akerfeldt drops the hamburger vocals (hamburger vox = sounds like gargling meat Wink). It weakens what I think he's trying to achieve at this point with Opeth. They're trying so hard to be a new branch of progressive music, but they've got a serious anchor holding them back.

In the end. I like the new album well enough, and I might finally find some bits I'll remember later. But I don't see that it's anywhere near the definition of 'masterpiece'. Fans will love it, but it's still not likely to win new ones over.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 17:09
I think it's a very good album, but not on the same level of "Ghost reveries" or "Still Life"... At times it sounds simpler.. but my biggest problem is that even after repeted listens the songs still fail to leave a durable impression on my mind.... I can't see the same magic that I found in "Ghost of Perdition"  the third time I heard it...
 
About the mentioned review, it's quite ridiculous to say things like "review should be deleted" or even more to say that the reviewer shall be demoted... Especially when the person asking this is a new member with no history of collaboration and the reviewer is a long-time member here with a vast amount of collaboration for this site...
 
I disagree with that review as I do with most of his prog-metal reviews. He can't see the prog in prog-metal, well I (we) can't do nothing about it but respect. I'd say that one listen is not enough to be able to write a fair review, but it's the reviewer's right in the end, isn't it? Of course saying that "the cd would end in Ebay like the rest of Opeth cds" doesn't really help the credibility of the review, but again, the right to express his opinion shouldn't be harmed by that statement, especially when it was done in the forum, not in the review itself.
 
 


Edited by The T - June 10 2008 at 18:10
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 17:10
Originally posted by Baza Baza wrote:

I think that Cert1fied's review is a disgrace to this site, it's unbelievably biased, he heard it only once and wrote here (in the middle of listening to this album) that he is bored by it... this is not serious. I think that his review should be deleted and also that he should be removed from the collaborator position, because this review affects the credibily of this site and it's colloborators.

And I'm not saying that because I'm insulted by his bad review and rating, I don't think it's a great album, I would give it 3 stars, but at least I came to this desicion after at least 10 spins.


It's not a "disgrace", he's entitled to give it 1 star if he gives reasons. However, if he really only did listen to it once then it's not really a valid point of view and the fact that he said "I truly expect it to end up on eBay like the other Opeth albums I bought." makes me wonder (a) why he bothered to buy it and (b) why he bothered to review it when he'd already made his mind up about it.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 17:22
I feel like it was totally biased from the beginning, made his mind up before reviewing, and tried to go the most negative he could. People gotta give prog albums more than a couple of listens.

_claiming it's not prog: I've read that in almost all his prog metal reviews (dream theater's concept album not prog?)
_writing 2 paragraphs over one note which I think fits the harmony. If I'm wrong, then Opeth is known for disharmonic writing.
_saying it's not prog then complaining about certain complexities and unusual song structures (tho I admit is a bit disjointed in a couple of places), things that get better after several listens. I actually thought that the last album from the Flower Kings was a mess, but now it feels adequately coherent.

EDIT: there are a few occasions where I really really disliked a prog album and didn't want to listen to it several times so that I could review it. I just abstained from giving a 1-star review. An example is Ayreon's "Into the Electric Castle" which I think is one of the dullest albums I have in my collection.




Edited by Zitro - June 10 2008 at 17:29
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 18:15
Why is everyone jumping on certif1ed's back for giving the album 1 star instead of the 30 people who are already calling it a prog masterpiece? Surely if you are all claiming reviewers need more than a couple listens to give an album 1 star, you need to listen to the album much more to claim it is worthy of the title "masterpiece." Yes, certif1ed's review may have been written too quickly and with bias, but there is no more bias in his review than the others.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 10 2008 at 19:27
Well, I think the point that most were making is that certif1ed is a collaborator.

I am well aware of the over/under rating from non-collaborators on an album that just came out. Usually the ratings are higher at first. I remember Beyond Twilight's flawed opus having a 5-star average for quite a bit.

I think Watershed would deserve a rating closer to My Arms Your Hearse, Still Life, or Blackwater Park. Something like 4.2 - 4.3 once the ratings even themselves out.
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