STILL LIFE

This is one of the very few albums that felt life-changing to me upon first hearing it. It was like nothing I had ever heard before, and I loved it. Some of the only other albums that were like that for me were Zep I, Ride The Lightning, and Selling England. Rather than dissect this song by song, let me just say that IF metal (or prog-metal) is something you enjoy generally and IF you can stomach the growl-vocals (which I actually like, and think are fitting, but many people hate) then what you will find is some extraordinarily well-written music within this album. There is an unbelievably well-done blend of intense growl/distortion parts mixed with clean-vocal/acoustic-guitar parts. Finally, I'm not sure if I'll get around to reviewing the other Opeth albums, so I just wanted to mention that if you like one of them, you really should get them all. Orchid (and Morningrise to a lesser extent) are a little raw and rough around the edges, but everything that follows is pure gold. Particularly this one, MAYH, and Ghost Reveries.