MORNINGRISE

Morningrise ? 1996 (2.8/5) 10 ? Best Song: 'To Bid You Farewell Surely enough, I can readily assess how and why the band was saddled with the (in my view) demeaning title of melodic death metal. The folks who attributed this style to them probably did more harm than good, but Opeth eventually managed to rise above that muck. The mistake the ignorant classifiers made was assuming that because the guitars have the same tone, and the singer has the throat of a hell-hound, and that sometimes they have soft segments, that the band must be a clone of In Flames, which is hardly the truth. In Flames never had the chops and playing ability Opeth had, who, despite their abrasive demeanor, have been plunging deep into progressive territory. Morningrise has fewer songs than Orchid and it's longer, which only accentuates their aims. The band has become more accessibly fluid in their soft-to-hard transitions, and songs like 'Advent' can only reap the benefit. It more prominently features clean singing (a whole once!) The same flaws that plagued Orchid are present here. The songs are too long for their arduous death metal purposes, and the band hasn't reached full maturity. It's still exciting when it wants to be. I suppose the album's centerpiece is the epic, 20 minute 'Black Rose Immortal', but it comes off sounding like any other song off the record?just twice as long. There's a greater importance placed on the softer element, and I suppose the band is slowly evening things out.