MORNINGRISE

O.k. here we go, Opeth found their Stile for the first time. This is what you get when you listen to Opeth! Melodic Death Metal with prog elements and lots of acoustic breaks. It's fascinating how Mikael can switch from his death metal growls to his warm fine clear voice. And his growls are NOT generated with help of a computer. You get lots of long songs on this album and the highlight for sure is the 20 minute Opeth classic 'Black Rose Immortal', a song that features all of Opeth's elements. But another highlight is 'To bid you farewell' maybe one of Opeth's best songs ever because it is pure Prog, sounding similar to some Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree. Sometimes I consider Morningrise to be Opeth's best album but I think Blackwater Park is still my favorite. Is Morningrise a good one to start with...yes I think it is because this album features Opeth's aggressive and mellow moments, all of this great guitar solos, a 20 minute epic and a song that can be considered to be pure prog, a song that maybe showed their love for prog rock the first time. And there's no boubt that this band has the skill to play good pure prog (what later on will be evidenced when listening to "Damnation"). So go out and buy this record because it is really great and btw, don't mind the death metal growls in most of the songs, I normally don't like them, but when listening to Opeth I can't get enough of them...