Right then, time to check up on a prog rock
I'm not really familiar at all with these guys, but apparently this is the point at which they began to diverge from their original sound, which was characterised by death metal leanings, into a more progressive metal and eventually progressive rock vein.
Album title: Blackwater Park
Artist: Opeth
Nationality: Swedish
Year: 2001
Chronology: 5
The Trollheart Factor: 1
Track Listing:The Leper Affinity/Bleak/Harvest/The Drapery Falls/Dirge for November/The Funeral Portrait/Patterns in the Ivy/Blackwater Park
Comments: This is the album that started to polarise fans of the band. Those who had been brought up on pure death metal albums such as
Orchid and
Still Life decried the “watering-down” of Opeth’s sound as the band moved in a more progressive metal, and, as it has developed over the years, almost completely progressive rock direction, while those who wouldn’t have been interested in a death metal band suddenly began to see there might be more to Opeth than at first met the eye. Mikael Åkerfeldt remains unapologetic about the direction his band took, more or less telling fans they can get on board or not, but he has no intention of reverting to their old sound.
Much of the progressive metal/rock sound on this album comes from their first, but not last, collaboration with prog wunderkind Steven Wilson, who produced the album and also plays a little on it. The death metal influences, which would fade as time went on, eventually being ditched altogether, are still strong here especially in the sharp guitar and the growly vocal. This latter soon drops out though and we get the sort of clean vocals which will be the norm for later Opeth albums, but you still kind of get the idea of the one style pushing against the other, each struggling for victory. There can be only one… Nice piano ending. More death vocals in the appropriately-named “Bleak”, with a kind of Egyptian guitar riff running through it and some clean vocals from Wilson. Can’t say I’m that impressed so far though.
“Harvest” is a lot better. I like the acoustic guitar motif, and the vocal is mostly clean, perhaps an indication of the path Opeth were forging into the future? Definitely more of a prog metal than death metal feel to “The Drapery Falls” (hold on: this was a single? It’s over ten minutes long!) and it’s worth every second of its length. Even the few death growls seem not to be out of place, and there’s some great guitar work. “Dirge for November” has an almost blackgaze feel to it, starting acoustic and gentle and then breaking into a hammering riff, the death growls working really well here. I also like the almost medieval acoustic guitar fadeout.
A total change then for the very death metal “The Funeral Portrait”, in your face, aggressive and plenty of growling and snarling. Not mad about this one. The vocal harmonies near the end almost save it, but meh, not quite. Settling down then for a nice little acoustic instrumental before we end with the title track, which is also the longest, over twelve minutes. It has a lot to recommend it, but for the length it is I find my attention drifting and there’s still a little too much of the harsh death metal style guitars to it, plus the death growls.
Track(s) I liked: Harvest/The Drapery Falls/ Dirge for November/Patterns in the Ivy
Track(s) I didn't like: The Leper Affinity/Bleak/The Funeral Portrait/Blackwater Park
One standout: There are some good tracks, some very good tracks, but I can’t pick one that really raises itself to the level of a standout.
One rotten apple: Same here; the amount of bad tracks is low and even they’re not terrible
Overall impression: I think it’s almost a visualisation of a struggle, as I said, between the “old” Opeth (with whom I am not at all familiar) and the new one, as the band attempt to throw off the shackles of the somewhat constricted style they’ve been playing for, at this stage, six years, while still mindful of the fans who got them where they are. It’s a painful birth, but eventually they would pull away from the death metal altogether and head in a progressive rock direction. Here I think we hear the first labour cries, though the baby has yet to be born.
Rating: 7.5/10
Future Plan: I will be listening to more of their music, most likely from this point on. I have heard
Pale Communion and
Heritage I think.