Opeth?

P.H.P. wrote: Ok, from the first time I heard Opeth, I knew they were not the typical metal band, they were very very far from the common metal band... I'm not a metal fan really, I tend to be very selective with metal music, but I'm surprised some people say "No! Opeth is pure death metal", and I don't really found their music to be real death metal, it's with no doubt heavy music, but arguably not death metal, from what I see they only have the typical death metal vocals, and I don't think that's enough to call one band death metal, I think that's being too lazy and doing a very big injustice with the music of Opeth, which is truly Progressive Metal in the original meaning of "Prog", and no, they're not a technical band, they are really bringing back the Prog Rock feeling to Metal, so forget about complex made-up terms like "Progressive Death Metal", or "Technical/Melodic Death Metal" and anything like that, because honestly they don't fit any of those, Opeth's music to me is very rich, one of the best bands of the last time in matters of Progressive Metal, IMO what do you think?  ...comment.

I completely agree, I'm very into extreme metal and Opeth aren't death metal to me, not heavy enough, the vocals are fairly weak for death metal vocals too, metal archives doesn't even list them as death metal.

^ "Gothenburg" means melodic death metal ... and please it's "thrashy" not "trashy" (if you deliberately wrote "trashy" then nevermind).

I've really been there and done that.

Absolutely loved them. Still Life is among my favourites of all times, and I'm assuming that's because of my attachment to it as the first I got into.

I found it fairly difficult to get into them initially, most likely because of the death vocals, which are actually unlike any other in that they're not delivered in monotone.
I'd often listen to a full song and wait for the softer sections because I loved them, and having to put up with the rest of it I ended up loving every part of Opeth equally.

Their structures at first are a novelty.

"oo wow, heavyyy....woow...soffttt.. that was a biggg surprise there...this is so unpredictable"

Then I realised an overall view reveals that's what the main gist of it is and the novelty wears thin.


Edited by Lanor - October 02 2007 at 00:57

Yontar wrote: Firefly wrote: Gothenburg bands do melodies with death metal is a different way, or at least, the mood and vibe are completely different.  There's no Gothenburg in Opeth.  Oh and btw how so are the melodies different because i see several similarities with opeth and dark tranquilities early works (one of the most well known gothenburg bands). And on top of all of that if you have ever heard the album the jester race by in flames although it is slightly lighter than opeth, sonically there are a lot of comparisons i could make.

If you really understand the idea behind Opeth you'll inmediately notice that they just don't play death metal, also you'll understand that they're not just another band, and the melodies and sophistication of Opeth are Prog rock inspired, certainly closer to rock than to metal, and I can really tell you In Flames or Dark Tranquility are not Prog rock inspired at all, those are just metal bands, death metal bands.





Edited by P.H.P. - September 26 2007 at 21:47

P.H.P. wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ I'm aware of the contradiction ... you cannot call their music Death Metal, but listening to it you recognise certain patterns that originate from Death Metal. Of course Opeth are much different from a band like Death, which more appropriately deserves to be called "Progressive Death Metal" (at least their last albums).  I guess these two bands differ in how they changed their style ... Death made their music more complex and technically demanding, while Opeth changed their songwriting while keeping most of the Death Metal trademarks in instrumentation and vocal style. In a way they could be called "Post Death Metal". Exactly, Opeth are very very much different from bands like Death, and I would just call Death a "technical death metal" band, they were one of the first (if not the first) death metal that explored compositional passages and demanding stuff like you said, never seen before in that kind of music, but there's no way I could relate Death with Prog music, and there's no need to use the "Prog" word with them, and because if Death wouldn''t be "technical death metal", which bands are then? remember that this term is old in the metal scene, in the other hand with Opeth we're kind of forced to use the word "Prog" if we want to be accurate, I would just call Opeth Progressive Metal with death metal growls, just that... and by "Post Death Metal" you're talking about Death Metal that doesn't sound very much death metal? well, that's the meaning of the term "post" for me, something that could be, but in the end it's not, so I think the "post" word could be used in a way, a very far way to make clear that Opeth's music contains some Death Metal elements such as the vocals, the term "post" is useful only if the perspective is a metal one (i.e. a metal website) and if you don't know about Prog music, but we're in a prog site, don't forget that. So, Progressive Metal for me.

i think by post he means that it bears similiarities to the founders and leaders of the genre but it is more experimental and couldn't really be lumped into the same category as the band's predecessors. He is basically saying opeth could not be put into the same musical realm as suffocation, nile, death, cannibal corpse, nocturnus, and cryptoposy for example.


Edited by Yontar - September 26 2007 at 20:46

Firefly wrote: Gothenburg bands do melodies with death metal is a different way, or at least, the mood and vibe are completely different.  There's no Gothenburg in Opeth.

um ever heard morning rise or orchid ??? There is plenty . I own three albums by dark tranquility and two early in flames i think i know what im talking about.

MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ Especially Ghost Reveries is quite diverse... I don't follow at all. Of course Deliverance and Damnation are a bit more monotonous if you will - simply because they separated the acoustic parts from the heavy parts.

I just don't quite agree with that, they've been making only good albums, through years; and well if somebody doesn't like Opeth, it's "your own loss" like it's been said, so just relax and enjoy the music.

I got tired of them, basically. I found most of their music to be too repetitive and consequently too boring. MAYH, Still Life and BWP don't suffer too much from these symptoms - they're all quite good albums actually. It's the later albums I don't like at all.


Edited by StarBreaker - September 26 2007 at 11:47

I was a big Opeth fan, a year ago.

I'm not a big Opeth fan anymore.

Opeth? Took me a while to get into, but it probably is among my 5 most listened bands for a whole year and despite their death metal elements, some of the best melodies I can think of are from them.

Still Life is one of the most perfect albums I own and is an obvious 5-star rating. All of the longer songs in this album are incredibly consistent and coherent. Rarely have I heard such brilliant songwriting in a metal band.


Edited by Zitro - September 25 2007 at 11:28