This is the fourth album I’ve listened to from them, but the band still hasn’t fully captivated me. That said, it’s a very good listen. I’d give it a 7/10 (3.5/5. Rounded up to 4 stars).

What do you think of the album?

It happens all the time with new albums from famous bands, the same thing elsewhere (124 ratings on metalstorm). We have to watch out for abuse I guess. 

Not just high rating, but i imagine low ratings as well (which Opeth does not deserve anyway). Possibly extremes, only highs and only lows. 

3 stars makes sense, you think the album is good but not essential. 

Hi,

I find this over rated. Depending on your listening ability, you don't need to have the music "age" in your mind or heart AT ALL ... and for me, sometimes, I wonder how much of that comment is an issue with folks having to compare things in their mind prior to making a decision on the whole thing ... that takes a bit of time, before one can make up a comment.

It's rather bizarre notion to me ... at 74, I have not had to wait 60 years in order to listen to and review "Le Sacre du Printemps", or "Sgt Pepper's" ... or "DSOTM", or the brand new bruhaha alsum by Ahahurb and the Left Overs! I was already on "DSOTM" way before KMET and KLOS made a huge thing about it in LA, and Southern California ... and by the time they got to it, many of us PF fans were already laughing at their inability to make up their minds ... and one person at KMET had asked ... what song do we play? They're all too long! ... and this was 50 years ago, folks!!!! I had already heard a lot of DSOTM from bootlegs for at least 6 months!!!!!

Even more difficult to disseminate, is that we have to wait for reviews from the better known websites where the music shows up, so we can FINALLY evaluate things on our own.

The release day reviews are over blown ... let's say that a record group/company mails out 100 copies to 100 folks ... and you and I are in that list. I get the album Wednesday, listen to it and Thursday write the review. At least 90 other mailings got to a group that has to create a web entry for the album, and due to large lists (as would be the case in several website) the chance of it not being mentioned or reviews won't be around for several more days ... all of a sudden THAT IS NOT RELEASE DAY qualified reviews at all.

I simply wonder how much is so many of us waiting for someone else to say it, so we don't feel left out and way out in the Sahara Desert with our opinion and view!

I'm not exactly an OPETH listener, or fan, but I will take a look that at that album ... although a lot of their material is not quite my thing. I'll opine on the rest later if necessary.

Hi,

Mike, don't change my comments, please ... the idea/opinion was over rated, not the album or the band. That's very different.

Hi,

I can not say that this is an issue for me ... as I mentioned, a lot of the music is "visual" for me, and when you "see it" ... somehow, that seems to be the idea/thought that is associated with that music for me, and even listening to it later, it hasn't changed. I often thought that it should change since the person today is not the same as yesterdays, but I can go back and listen to Sgt Pepper's (a good example for me), and I still see many of the things I saw then.

I have been, and studied, a lot of psychic stuff for a long time, and a lot of my work with actors and improvisation includes a lot of what some folks might think is "psychic" material, which for me it ISN'T ... it's simply a matter/function of the way we are and work ... and most important of all ... there is a thing called "one moment in time", and for me, the different listens, will break up that moment in time, and devalue it. I, honestly, do not see why/how we devalue our own perception, and that it can not be trusted, but what happened in that ONE SECOND of time, can not be repeated, though you might be able to see it again, many times.

Again, to me, it is all about the depth of your listening ... and a lot of listens, tend to confuse me, as the experience at that specific moment will be different than another moment ... and while that should be considered valuable ... as is the case in your listens ... for me, it is not necessary as far as I can tell and know.

The thing about music, and the arts for me, and the work I do with Improvisation, is about ... a second in time ... and how one can use that second to interpret and develop the acting idea for a character, or get a stronger understanding for a play ... at that point it's not about the author, but how the actor wakes up to the possibilities of the work ... and again ... changing it every night is not something that often helps, though it's really hard to see an actor do King Lear, and repeat the same line in a soliloquy at least 200 times, and the director Peter Brook (in his book) says he never saw, or heard the same thing in all of those moments ... and that would be about the specific moment in time ... and not the "listens" ... 

I think we are both caught in two different areas, mine is about "being there" at that moment in time ... and I think that different listens, in my experience, have changed the focus to something else, that is not a part of my "seeing". 

I have not, as weird as that may sound, found a song, or piece of music to be totally different ... with one exception that we do not care about these days ... in the 1950's and 1960's, it was the time of the CONDUCTOR of an orchestra and some renditions of the same thing are really different ... and take you to a different place ... and it's the same "music" ... but one could never deny the strong difference between a German Conductor, and an Italian Conductor ... I see this today, btw, in the remember when bands, like Musical Box, Cloudbusting, and many others ... and it's not better or worse ... but it does feel very different even though almost all of them are being as faithful as they can about the music!

I agree. The Vocals are in the way for this listener.