WATERSHED

A previous reviewer, a confessed Opeth fan disappointed with this album made the paradoxical comment that it was Opeth's most progressive album. I would have thought this was the point. This album is flawed; echoes of previous Opeth albums come to mind in some songs and there is a definite flashback to anthem rock with the discordant approach to the end of Burden which has obviously antagonised some people, but perhaps we need to look a little deeper at the purpose of the album and the artist. The songs are part of them and reflect their own development and creative concerns. This is an artist who is searching for the boundaries of his creativity and it is a flawed masterpiece as far as I am concerned. Opeth calls on a greater variety of influences and investigations into the genre they have been previously associated with. Akerfeldt is impatient and on his own admission tends to break things that aren't working for him. This is a group in transition and there is a palpable feeling that the gradual metamorphisis of the band will give rise to new superlatives for their music in the future. I do not think that this album has been particularly well understood, possibly because of the attention drawn to it by the artist and the previous work. It causes me to consider a need for a reasonable time of reflection before any album is reviewed.