WATERSHED

I was very excited to hear Watershed when it came out. Opeth had previously made an incredible album, Ghost Reveries and taken a significant step forward in writing music. They also had recently made Per Wiberg a fulltime-member of the band, so I expected a more dominant role of the keyboard sound, like in most prog. I was expecting another huge progression. However, I was terribly disappointed, not just by the unfullfilled expectations but also their de-evolved writing skills. They obviously have wanted to do something cool and technical here (even though they are not a very technical band) at the expence of musicality. I sense no soul here. I should have guessed some of this beforehand since Peter Lindgren had just left the band due to lack of energy. Whatever the reason (perhaps the extensive touring after Ghost Reveries?), the same thing was propably affecting the other members of the band. And here we hear the result, a lack of inspiration covered up with a professional sounding heavy/pop record. Not to say I totally dislike it: Heir Apparent includes some decent bashing and there are a few good moments along the album.