WATERSHED

As the title suggests, the new Opeth album can be considered a watershed in their discography for many reasons. First of all the line-up changes: Martin Axenrot and Friederik Akesson are the new members filling in for Martin Lopez and Peter Lindgren. But the album it's a watershed also from the musical point of view; in fact a lot of new elements have been included, while keeping the tipic Opeth style. Let's analyze it track by track:

- Coil: The first song is a really soft one, featuring also female vocals by Natalie Lorichs (swedish singer and girlfriend of Martin Axenrot). While being short it's a very melancholic and emotional song, and starts the album greatly, giving a feeling of freshness in Opeth music. (8.5/10)

- Heir Apparent: Right when the soft Coil ends, it starts the really heavy Heir Apparent, clearly the heaviest song of the album and one of the heaviest of the entire Opeth's discography (actually it's the only Opeth song with only Death Metal vocals). The song definetely has a lot of very good moments, the best one being the outro part. (8.8/10)

- The Lotus Eater: This is the strangest song of the album; it features blastbeats over clean vocals, a jazzy part and much more! Not connected together perfectly but still very good. (8.5/10)

- Burden: With the 4° track we return on softer sounds, clearly inspired by 70's prog rock. The song is very good itself, but to me it seems not very original (even if I guess it's a wanted thing..). Anyway in this song Mikael Akerfeldt does one of his best clean vocal performances, and there's also a keyboard solo by Per Wiberg! The outro is noticeable too. (8/10)

- Porcelain Heart: In my opinion this song, while still being good, is the worst off the new album. It starts with a doomy guitar riff, and goes on with contrasts between heavy and mellow parts, still never using death metal vocals. It has its moments, but clearly not a masterpiece. (7.5/10)

- Hessian Peel: From the worst song to the best one! Hessian Peel is the longest track of the album and in the first half is a very good and melancholic prog rock song. Then in the middle the Death Metal vocals suddenly come in, and the effect is awesome. After that the songs continues with beatiful atmospheres and again epic heavy parts. Clearly my favourite song of the album! (9.5)

- Hex Omega: This last song has a feeling similar to the previous one, but is much more static and less progressive. Still a very good track and a very good ending for the album. (8.5)

Overall Watershed is Opeth's softest album after Damnation, and features a lot of new elements, so it can be considered also the most experimental album by Opeth. Songwriting and execution are very good as always. Opeth, while not reaching the masterpieces of their career (My Arms Your Hearse, Still Life, Blackwater Park) confirm themselves as an excelent and still in progress band. (global rating: 8.7/10)