WATERSHED

I thought that Opeth had reached their peak with the magnificient "Ghost Reveries", but once again they proved me wrong. With Watershed, the Swedes have released their most experimental, dynamic and versatile album yet. And last but not least, one of the most inspired.

I see the album opening as a very strong stamement about Opeth's versatility. "Coil" is an extremely beautiful short, acoustic track with some uncommon musical elements for Opeth such as female vocals (sung by lovely Natalie Lorichs) and oboe. The oboe makes a great effect playing a backing melody in the chorus. But right after it there's "Heir Apparent", which might be the most aggressive song they've ever done. It starts with a dissonant doom metal riff, and after a short piano interlude it turns into technical death metal. Great riffing, growls and also some short acoustic interludes that remind me of Anglagard (use of flute and overall atmosphere). No clean vocals at all, by the way.

"The Lotus Eater" is quite an uncommon track for Opeth, with ultra-fast blast-beats supporting Akerfeldt's clean vocals and then slower parts with growls. The soft, eerie interlude with clean guitars before a brilliant jazz-flavoured break seems to be inspired by the album "The Drift" (Scott Walker), an important source of inspiration for "Watershed", according to Akerfeldt. Fantastic song!

"Burden" is a proggy, epic ballad a bit in the vein of early King Crimson ("Epitaph", "The Court of the Crimson King) featuring an amazing Hammond organ solo by Per Wiberg and emotional leads from both guitarists. This is one of the best vocal performances Mikael Akerfeldt has ever done when it comes to clean singing. "Porcelain Heart" has the most classic Opeth sound from the whole album, being mostly acoustic and mellow, plus some metal riffs with a doomy feel.

The longest song here is "Hessian Peel". It starts mellow, with acoustic guitars and then we get some real strings (violin and cello) playing a beautiful melody between the verses. The track becomes more agressive towards the middle, and a brief growling part appear before a fantastic guitar solo. Some impressive riffing follows and then it fades out into a mellow passage, similar to the first part of the song. This is one of the best Opeth tracks ever, with cool dynamics and lots of creativity. "Hex Omega" ends the album and it's my favourite song. Not a typical Opeth song indeed, even though it's as dark and haunting as the rest of the album. The atmosphere has somewhat a Middle-Eastern feel which I really love. Clean vocals, keyboards a la Porcupine Tree and finally an incredibly bleak, desolating (in a positive way) guitar riff. Nice ending.

The special edition contains 3 bonus tracks: "Derelict Herds", which reminds me a lot of Riverside, "Bridge of Sighs", a dark, bluesy Robin Trower cover, and "Den Ständiga Resan", Marie Fredriksson cover that suits Opeth's style very well. They're all worth listening. Furthermore, that edition includes a 5.1 mix of the album. It's well done (by Jens Bogren) and it really enhances the listening experience, especially the dynamics and some arrangements that are hardly heard in the stereo version.

"Watershed" is not only the best Opeth album in my opinion, but also one of the, if not THE, best progressive releases of this decade. Essential.