WATERSHED

Opeth albums are never terrible. Despite some one- and two-star reviews of this album, it's hard to see how it could be viewed as less than average. It is not, however, a nearly-flawless masterpiece that is implied by a five-star review.

The truth lies somewhere in between, but it is significantly closer to the 5-star side than the 1-star side. I would give it 4.5 stars if I could. Instead I had to give it 4. Here's a breakdown of my opinion of each song:

Coil - A beautiful melodic opener. I personally think that the female vocals work really well.

Heir Apparent - A crushing death metal song with a great acoustic breakdown in the middle.

The Lotus Eater - One of the best Opeth epics ever. As Mikael himself said, this song has pretty much everything that an Opeth song should have in it. The funky riff in the middle is one of my favorite moments on the album.

Burden - A great ballad with nice vocals and good solos. The detuning of the ending, however, is an interesting but failed experiment. It simply is grating on the ears, and I am forced to skip over it when I listen to the album.

Porcelain Heart - Speaking of skipping over parts of the album, I skip this song in its entirety. I really just dislike it. Aside from the great melody of the falsetto-ish part about 2/3 in, it really is just a boring song.

Hessian Peel - I can't really describe this song, but suffice it to say I love it. It is a great, almost Genesis-like prog epic that also includes some brutal death vocals.

Hex Omega - A great closer. This is not a stand-out track, but still it's an above-average Opeth song.

I honestly think Watershed is the best thing from Opeth since Still Life, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has an open mind for music and doesn't cringe at the idea of death metal. Particularly since the death metal aspects of the band's sound have been significantly downplayed on this album.

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