MORNINGRISE

The first two Opeth albums are an acquired taste. Two of the most alluring qualities of Opeth were still very under-developed:

First of all the singing. There's almost no clean singing at all here. There's bits and pieces scattered throughout the album but they are still very insecure. Even worse is the fact that Mike's grunting here resembles more a black metal rasp then his full-bellied demon attack we all came to love him for on the later albums.

Secondly, the progressive rock element is still missing. Yes sure, the songs are long and long and long and long, but they're made up of folksy riffs that are just sequenced, rather randomly, one after the other. The intricate epic metal riffs with their jazzy and Camel flavours is still far away.

Even so, this beautiful bleak album, what it that lacks in song mastery of later albums, it makes up with its haunting and chilling atmosphere.