Opeth? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Author

Message

Topic Search

Topic Options

rushfan4

Special Collaborator

Honorary Collaborator

Joined: May 22 2007
Location: Michigan, U.S.
Status: Offline
Points: 66587

Posted: September 20 2007 at 14:18

^ What is melodic about growling vocals?

Visitor13

Forum Senior Member

VIP Member

Joined: February 02 2005
Location: Poland
Status: Offline
Points: 4702

Posted: September 20 2007 at 14:16

rushfan4 wrote:

Opeth is a band that I tried and have moved on. The music was really good, but the cookie monster/death growls are just plain unlistenable for me. Damnation is an excellent album because the vocals are clean, everything else is basically ruined because of the vocals. At least to me, the death growls are completely out of place and don't fit in with the music.

Quite the opposite - most of Opeth's instrumental sections couldn't work with non-growling vocals. Those that go with clean vocals are usually very different from those with growls. Just like growls would sound awkward with an acoustic background, clean vocals would really be out of place with most of the harder stuff.

And

to ProgBagel - Opeth are indeed first and foremost about melody.

rushfan4

Special Collaborator

Honorary Collaborator

Joined: May 22 2007
Location: Michigan, U.S.
Status: Offline
Points: 66587

Posted: September 20 2007 at 14:02

MikeEnRegalia wrote:

^ IMO Opeth are one of very few bands who have growling vocals which actually fit the music. I'd recommend you give them a chance again after some time ... you may come to like them in the end. Like black coffee, dry wine or extremely dark chocolate it's something that takes some time to get used to.

I don't drink coffee nor wine (although sometimes I do whine, but that is another story), but I do like dark chocolate, just not extremely dark chocolate. I don't really think that Opeth will ever grow on me because of the cookie monster growls. That is the one are of heavy metal that I have never been able to get in to.

Growing up I used to watch Headbanger's Ball on MTV. This would have been in the days when it was dominated by Ozzy, Ratt and Motley Crue. Metallica and Megadeth were two of the "heavier" bands that I liked. I was able to get in to some Exodus and some Overkill and I seem to remember there was even a Slayer album that a friend of mine had that was pretty good, although I never really got in to them at all. At any rate, to get to the point of my posting, when I recently upgraded to Hi-Definition cable it came with MTV2 or MTV3 or something and they were showing Headbanger's Ball. For old-times sake I thought I would give it a listen. It was a horrible experience for me. Every band seemed to be either Black Metal or Death Metal. I continued to watch (probably like a car crash) to see if it would get any better; but it didn't. I just can't stomach those type of vocals. To me that is a shame since I did like Opeth's music, but the vocals just make me grimace.

I should also mention that Ayreon's The Human Equation is one of my favorite prog albums. I cringe when Mikael Akerfeldt and Devin Townsend are grunting but because they represent Fear and Rage the grunting does seem to be appropriate in expressing these emotions.

P.H.P.

Forum Senior Member

Joined: September 01 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 334

Posted: September 20 2007 at 13:46

rushfan4 wrote:

Opeth could be a very good Progressive Metal band, but let's not forget they're a metal band, so if you don't tolerate "cookie monster" growls, just don't pay too much attention to that, but you'll end up finding that Opeth wouldn't be Opeth without the growls, and in the end you'll also see that growls fits their music very well. Embarrassed

Edited by P.H.P. - September 20 2007 at 13:46

P.H.P.

Forum Senior Member

Joined: September 01 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 334

Posted: September 20 2007 at 13:41

Yeah, Opeth's music is an acquired taste, as Prog is. Wink

Edited by P.H.P. - September 20 2007 at 13:42

Juliovp

Forum Newbie

Joined: August 18 2007
Location: Peru
Status: Offline
Points: 24

Posted: September 20 2007 at 11:38

Opeth is an amazing band. They can go acoustic (Damnation) and heavy as Still Life, i think they fit in a lot of genres and also their song structures are complex with a lot of changes.
the best thing of hearing Opeth is that you can be surprised a lot of times in a song, can't predict what's coming

MikeEnRegalia View Drop Down

Special Collaborator

Honorary Collaborator

Joined: April 22 2005
Location: Sweden
Status: Online
Points: 21588

Posted: September 20 2007 at 10:28

^ IMO Opeth are one of very few bands who have growling vocals which actually fit the music. I'd recommend you give them a chance again after some time ... you may come to like them in the end. Like black coffee, dry wine or extremely dark chocolate it's something that takes some time to get used to.

Edited by MikeEnRegalia - September 20 2007 at 10:28

Release Polls

Listened to:

rushfan4

Special Collaborator

Honorary Collaborator

Joined: May 22 2007
Location: Michigan, U.S.
Status: Offline
Points: 66587

Posted: September 20 2007 at 10:23

angelmk

Special Collaborator

Honorary Collaborator

Joined: November 22 2006
Location: Netherlands
Status: Offline
Points: 1955

Posted: September 20 2007 at 10:02

i love them. music is original, stunning, captivating, perfect. technical, melodic , akerfeldt is geneous , mastermind writes a mind blowing lyrics that touch your soul deeply. orchid is my favorite album.

www.last.fm/user/angelmk

blaerg

Forum Newbie

Joined: September 07 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 4

Posted: September 20 2007 at 00:44

Opeth is a great band, i've been into them many years altho now their sound is kind of 'safe' for them and i've lost interest in following their new work (i still like my arms thru blackwater records).

as for the genre tagging discussion its pretty much a moot point
but
i'd say they definitely tread on death metal/black metal/prog/folk/psych soils.

P.H.P.

Forum Senior Member

Joined: September 01 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 334

Posted: September 19 2007 at 23:40

el böthy wrote:

Nightfly wrote:

I can understand them getting lumped in with the Death Metal bands on the early albums although far superior to what usually goes as Death Metal.

I think quite a bit of their stuff is more technical than you give them credit for though, especially on Ghost Reveries.

I think complex is more like it, technical doesn´t sound like it has anything to do with Opeth. Complex fits them better.

I think Prog is the right word. Wink

micky

Special Collaborator

Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46838

Posted: September 19 2007 at 19:22

el böthy wrote:

Nightfly wrote:

I can understand them getting lumped in with the Death Metal bands on the early albums although far superior to what usually goes as Death Metal.

I think quite a bit of their stuff is more technical than you give them credit for though, especially on Ghost Reveries.

I think complex is more like it, technical doesn´t sound like it has anything to do with Opeth. Complex fits them better.

exactly..damn..have another clappie Clap

.. maybe that is why I have enjoyed what I have heard from Opeth, diving into their discography as I did this summer.. as opposed to....other.. more technical groups. LOL

The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip

stonebeard View Drop Down

Forum Senior Member

Joined: May 27 2005
Location: NE Indiana
Status: Offline
Points: 28057

Posted: September 19 2007 at 19:13

In a spectrum of death metal, I hear Opeth are definitely on the more complex end. But just because they don't necessarily fit the sterotype of their genre does not mean they're beyond categorization. I'll admit I'm no expert on death metal, and I basically only listen to Opeth from all possible death metal bands, but they seem to be basically not-too-complexx prog metal with death vocals and some acoustic guitar songs, basically. That sums them up pretty well, don't you think?

My soundcloud. Please give feedback if you want!

el böthy

Prog Reviewer

Joined: April 27 2005
Location: Argentina
Status: Offline
Points: 6336

Posted: September 19 2007 at 19:04

Nightfly wrote:

I can understand them getting lumped in with the Death Metal bands on the early albums although far superior to what usually goes as Death Metal.

I think quite a bit of their stuff is more technical than you give them credit for though, especially on Ghost Reveries.

I think complex is more like it, technical doesn´t sound like it has anything to do with Opeth. Complex fits them better.

"You want me to play what, Robert?"

Darklord55 View Drop Down

Forum Senior Member

Joined: September 08 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 357

Posted: September 19 2007 at 18:51

P.H.P. wrote:

Darklord55 wrote:

P.H.P. wrote:

Darklord55 wrote:

Opeth IMHO is a band beyond description. As I said in an earlier post, their music is truly a sonic adventure to the ears. At least to my ears. Because of Opeth, I have also discovered similar bands, Dimmu Borgir, Novembers Doom, In Flames, Immortal and a few others. None of which imho top Opeth, but I still enjoy just the same. I believe a new Opeth DVD is due out soon also. I have read that GoP is on it.

Similar?

...I don't find any of those bands similar to Opeth in any sense, those are just black metal, doom, death metal, not Prog like Opeth.

I didn't say any of those bands were PROG! Labels, labels, labels. What did I do with those

labels.

yeah, what I only say is they're not similar to Opeth in any sense, think about it well, and you'll end up finding they're they don't have anything in common with Opeth, totally opposite musical direction and everything, opposite.

Ok. Maybe I should have said distantly similar. Or maybe nothing at all. But, then again I am over 50 and probably don't know what the

I am talking about. I do know I happen to like those other bands even though everything is entirely opposite of Opeth.

Melomaniac View Drop Down

Prog Reviewer

Joined: May 07 2006
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 4088

Posted: September 19 2007 at 17:00

activetopics wrote:

for all of you idiots, the correct word is "technicality" lol

Bear with us and keep in mind english is not everyone's first language.

"One likes to believe in the freedom of Music" - Neil Peart, The Spirit of Radio

activetopics View Drop Down

Forum Senior Member

Joined: July 29 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 156

Posted: September 19 2007 at 16:57

for all of you idiots, the correct word is "technicality" lol

P.H.P.

Forum Senior Member

Joined: September 01 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 334

Posted: September 19 2007 at 14:49

Melomaniac wrote:

P.H.P. wrote:

In fact, it's wrong to call "Progressive Death Metal" as a genre or style, I think it doesn't exists since there aren't bands that do that, every band that has done more than common death metal bands are just technical or complex like Cynic or Atheist, not really Prog.

Concerning Cynic, they were more of a metal jazz fusion unit than the average technical metal. Too bad they only released one album !

Like you said they are one of the top technical death metal bands, and yes, they explorate sonic landscapes that most of death metal bands never achieved, but I think more than to calling it Jazz Fusion Metal or whatever, because they can't really mix it really well, they only go alternating section by section, there's no single spot in their music that is the perfect mix of totally opposite genres as Metal, Jazz, and Fusion, which I think is almost inconceivable, and never happened in music.

What I find is this: "is it one or the other, but never both"...sometimes I got kind of Fusion oriented sections and then straight metal sections, then back again, and finally metal section again, and that's it, and I don't find that to be really Prog.

Edited by P.H.P. - September 19 2007 at 14:49

P.H.P.

Forum Senior Member

Joined: September 01 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 334

Posted: September 19 2007 at 14:36

Darklord55 wrote:

P.H.P. wrote:

Similar?

...I don't find any of those bands similar to Opeth in any sense, those are just black metal, doom, death metal, not Prog like Opeth.

I didn't say any of those bands were PROG! Labels, labels, labels. What did I do with those

labels.

P.H.P.

Forum Senior Member

Joined: September 01 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 334

Posted: September 19 2007 at 14:31

Melomaniac wrote:

They only get labelled death metal, like you say, because of the vocals, AND the double bass drum beats. But I agree with you, it does injustice to this amazing band, among the best to appear on this music scene in a long, long while, along side bands like Porcupine Tree, The Mars Volta, Tool, etc...

Who knows, maybe one day Mikael will not be able to growl anymore and they'll release albums without the growls, then they will not be labelled death metal.

Exactly my thoughts. LOL

Edited by P.H.P. - September 19 2007 at 14:32