Opeth

Opeth

Opeth is a Metal band from Stockholm, Sweden. The music is a mixture of Melodic Death Metal, Progresseive Metal and Progressive Rock. Lately there have been some Folk and Jazz influences in Opeth's music. The music varies between fast deathmetal parts with blastbeat-drums and growling and slow accoustic parts with clean vocals. Guitarist, singer and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt is the driving force behind the band and is the only remaining original member.

Name?!

The unusual Bandname Opeth was propably taken from Wilbur Smiths' book The Sunbird from the year 1972, in which a City in the desserts of Africa was called Opet. In this novel Opet meant City Of The Moon. The bandmembers just added an H to the name to make it look like an English word and therefore it would be pronounced as one. Other rumors say that Opeth is a fictional word, set together from the two single words Opera and Death , some others say that it is short for The Opus Of Death (The Work Of Death). The band has recently confirmed in an Interview that the first version for the bandname is correct.

Band History: Foundation and Early Years

Band History: Breakthrough

Most Important Record: Blackwater Park

Some people say that listening to this exceptional record for the first time was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It is very difficult to find a similiar album with comparable musical skill and emotional expression. A record filled with stomping riffs followed by beautiful melodies, almost every track is longer than 10 minutes but none of them is a single second too long. The Opener The Leper Affinity' alone shows off the remarkable skills of Mikael Akerfeldt and erveryone within Opeth: The brutality of Deathmetal is interrupted by a typical break to make room for accoustical progressive rock with Akerfeldts Angel-like voice on top of it, only to collapse into hellish growls and doublebass-founded riffs. Bleak is the best Mid-tempo track Opeth has ever written, it's melancholic lyrics gives the listener goosebumbs until the breakdown runs a cold shiver down your spine. The whole record is a rollercoaster-ride of emotions. The listener is amazed by the accoustic ballad Harvest only to be frightened by the psychadelic Drapery Falls with it's remarkable chorus and beautiful guitarsolo. The album is finished by the title-track, a track that involves everything that Opeth stands for.

1. The Leper Affinity
2. Bleak
3. Harvest
4. The Drapery Falls
5. Dirge For November
6. The Funeral Portrait
7. Patterns In The Ivy
8. Blackwater Park

Band History: Major Label Deal

Musical Style

Almost 90% of Opeth's Music is written by Michael Akerfeldt alone and therefore dictates the Sound of the Band. Opeth sound is a complex mixture of Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Rock, Folk and Jazz. The early records had twin guitar harmonies in the style of Iron Maiden or Thin Lizzy but the music became to unpredictable for doubled melodies. Nearly all of Opeths songs are longer than 10 minutes, sometimes even over 15 minutes. They feature a lot of time signature changes and switch between heavy distorted and clean guitar parts to create drastic mood changes. The heavy parts are based on doublebass blastbeat drums with deathmetal riffs and gutural growling. The clean parts are supported by keyboards and are sung with a fairly high singing voice; someimes even whispering. Akerfeldt switches between those extremely diffrent vocals styles while he is playing progressive riffs. This skill along with his songwriting abilities had drawn a lot of fans to him. The jump between these two contrast songparts are either done by unpredictable breaks or with a melody and/or guitar solo.

Discography

Studio Records

   * 1995: Orchid
   * 1996: Morningrise
   * 1998: My Arms, Your Hearse
   * 1999: Still Life
   * 2001: Blackwater Park 
   * 2002: Deliverance 
   * 2003: Damnation 
   * 2005: Ghost Reveries 
   * 2007: The Roundhouse Tapes (Live CD 2007)
   * 2008: Watershed

Demo Tapes

   * 1991: Demo '91
   * 1993: Apostle in Triumph
   * 1993: Rehearsal
   * 1994: Promo

Singles

   * 2001: The Drapery Falls
   * 2003: Still Day Beneath The Sun
   * 2005: The Grand Conjuration

DVD-Releases

   * 2004: Lamentations (Live at Shepherd’s Bush Empire 2003)

--ZakkWylde 00:29, 16 June 2008 (CEST)