MORNINGRISE

Opeth's second album finds them taking a big leap forward from their debut. The most obvious aspect of the band's approach on Morningside is the long, epic song structures - there's not one composition here that is less than 10 minutes long, and the standout track Black Rose Immortal is over 20 minutes - and the extensive use of acoustic guitar, unusual in a death metal context. Mikael Åkerfeldt and Peter Lindgren intertwine their guitars and use them both to paint delicate pictures and as weapons of death metal brutality when it's called for; in keeping with this dual approach, Åkerfeldt's vocals are in a mixture of harsh and clean styles.

Do not, however, overlook the band's rhythm section, because they really tie this one together. Anders Nordin's drumming is solid, but for me it's Johan De Farfalla's work on bass which is really Opeth's secret weapon on here, adding textures which are just as important as the delicate acoustic guitar work.

Around a year or so after recording Morningside, Opeth would undergo a shift in lineup with the departure of the rhythm section of De Farfalla and Nordin, leaving Åkerfeldt and Lindgren to rebuild. Of the two albums that this lineup produced (Orchid and this one), I would say that this is clearly the superior effort, with all four band members contributing a career-making performance which really helped to set the tone for Opeth's approach going forwards.