OPETH DISCOGRAPHY RANKING GAME - Still Life wins!

Don't have much to say about My Arms, Your Hearse. The first few songs were fine but unremarkable. "Demon of the Fall" and "Karma" really brought the quality up from a C+ to a B-. Great songs there. Mikael's vocals on "Demon" are insane. Also gotta say that the clean vocals on this record and pretty strong and "Epilogue" has some great melodies. Solid album but frankly I think I enjoyed Sorceress more overall.
 
I’ve always seen Watershed as a bit of a polarizing album, as it began the period of random out-of-place interludes being strewn about each song like they were going out of style. Nothing on this album sucks, but very little of contains the best Opeth has to offer. From worst to best:

7. Burden. Come at me, bros. I know this song is well-liked, but it does very little for me. It’s a fine ballad with some heartfeldt parts (see what I did there?), but the band has far better in this style. Also, the ending may be the single most terrible moment in the discography. It would suck on its own, but being attached to an emotive ballad ruins the song for me (especially when you consider how many great outros the band has).
6. Coil. Ranked higher than Burden because at least it does something unique. It’s a pleasant little intro to the album and a great contrast to the album's heaviest track, and I love the bass that semi-follows the vocals.
5. Hex Omega. This song is fine. I can’t help but feel that it’s too long considering that it only has like three sections. It has an eerie and ominous vibe that I like, and the ending is powerful. As far as album closers go, though, it’s one of the weaker ones.
Derelict Herds. This song should have been on the album proper, and would have fit in great after Burden. The intro and opening verses are unsettling and groovy, and the part at 2:13 sounds like something from the Blackwater Park era. The growly parts here are pretty average, but the main groove and cool Eastern-ish leads make up for it.
4. Porcelain Heart. This is basically The Grand Conjuration without growls, and I would’ve ranked it lower if it wasn’t for the middle lullaby part, which is simply beautiful. I love that polymetric drum fill, too.
3. Hessian Peel. I’ll always love this song for the false sense of security fake-out at 5:44, which makes me laugh every time. Absolutely brutal, and I love his tortured screams here. The track’s first half is all about mood, and Mikael’s soulful voice carries it perfectly. The riff at 4:14 is pure emotion and I love every second of it, especially when the harmony is added. Super groove metal at 6:32, and the chunky buildups afterward are glorious. Love the groovier quieter part afterwards, and that riff at 7:44 is something else. “Seeking tenderness with a dagger,” lol. I’ll admit that the song’s ending (from 9:15 on) isn’t great, though.
2. The Lotus Eater. This track is a bit too disjointed at times, but the quality sections are strong. The intro is such a great contrast between clean and growly, and the riffs that follow are a high-octane good time. The quiet part in the middle isn’t my thing, but the best part of the album strikes at 5:48. Can’t top this weirdness. This section was my ringtone for years; I can’t get over that sick bass groove and kooky keyboard. The last two sections are killer, too. OVERHEARD US TALKING!!!1
1. Heir Apparent. What a monster. No pansy clean vocals here, folks. As soon as the song starts with that diminished chord you know what you’re getting yourself into, but they still use dynamics masterfully to draw you in further. That first verse is massive, especially with how the riff “overhangs” a bit after the first note. The riff in between is so Still Life, and the section after (solo riff) also conjures up that album with its complexity. Fantastic solo! While I’m not a huge fan of the “constant open E” sound of the intense section in the middle, it‘s pulled off so well. Finally, the ending is classic Opeth, and sounds straight off Blackwater Park or Deliverance. Amazing bass here, too!

Mosh said:
Ironically, the final track, Hex Omega, feels like the closest relative to Heritage to me.
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Very much agreed, although I'd take it over almost anything on Heritage due to the far stronger production. I saw them play this track on the travesty that was the growlless Heritage tour, and it fit right in.
 
Something interesting to me about Opeth is how each and every song is its own beast, yet at the same time they're still formulaic in a sense. Which is again a little weird to say, but when you think of classic Opeth you think of the heavy/clean contrast, and when you think of the heavy/clean contrast, you have a 4/5 chance to think about the one kind and 1/5 to think about Watershed. So that's what really sets it apart for me, the weird atmosphere in Hessian Peel, the insane everything in The Lotus Eater, even Heir Apparent is not exactly run-of-the-mill for them.

Does that make it better than the others? No, shockingly I like Opeth, Watershed got #4 from me. Though, the oddness never detracted from its quality. Right from the get-go, Coil is likely my favourite acoustic Opeth track. It's really beautiful and I like the second singer. Putting Heir Apparent behind it is almost as good as putting the final 10:21 minutes of Ghost of Perdition after the first 8 seconds of Ghost of Perdition. I do think the outro is way too long.

The Lotus Eater is probably a top 5 song of the band. I find it funny that Heir Apparent steals the show in the heaviness competitions, when the heavy sections of The Lotus Eater are heavier than Heir Apparent's if you ask me. Well, it gets the crown of weird, and deservedly. It's already confusing for the first 3 minutes, and then, of all the exit conditions, we have this clean section morph into a funky keyboard bit for some reason. Good stuff! Burden is another highlight, absolute gold writing and leads.

Porcelain Heart and Hex Omega are quite similar to each other structurally, and I like Hex Omega a good bit more, but neither of them are great. Porcelain Heart's verses are almost eye-rollers, and the change to the Grand Conjuration comes out of nowhere, in a bad way. It's a good riff I guess. Hex Omega grew on me lately. It is less edgy than Porcelain Heart, but not very exciting, and you can hear the bad times ahead in that quiet section. Hessian Peel is super cool and unique, and has one of the best flows in this discography. Dig everything about it.
 
Morningrise is more really good early Opeth that doesn’t quite get where you want it to go. “Nectar” doesn’t do much for me and the best part of the song (the pretty acoustic bit around the 7 minute mark) really should’ve been expanded upon instead of just being tossed out like this. “To Bid Your Farewell” has some good melodies but I don’t think the song works as well as it’s intending to.

The other three songs however are where it’s at. What I love about them is that despite not feeling like cohesive songs per se, they DO feel like grand journeys that do have a throughline from one piece to the next. The acoustic parts are awesome and when the heavy parts get going, they really get going. Shoutout to the final two minutes in “Black Rose Immortal” especially. Worth all 18 minutes that came before, holy shit.

I would say this is a solid B. I think I liked Orchid a little more but this is still really enjoyable overall and its best moments are really starting to show what this band is capable of.
 
Going to provide my thoughts on the list thus far. MAYH fluctuates between #1 and #2 depending on the day, I appreciate the raw nature of it without the songs being too long although I do acknowledge Still Life is probably the better album. Demon Of The Fall, When and April Ethereal are my go to songs. I wish it was higher but aside from the bottom 2 I'd say all albums are good to great. ICV is my most listened of the new era although that really isn't saying much, I love Lovelorn Crime and All Things Shall Pass, both are brilliant and songs I'd put up against their best death metal era. Orchid is an excellent debut, such raw power and the album cover is brilliant. Morningrise is good, but I don't revist it much. Watershed I used to go back to the opening 3 songs frequently but haven't as of late. Pale Communion is another good one from the new era, although like the other new era albums I don't reach for them. That being said all 5 of the remaining albums IMO deserve top 5 placements, and with their newsest album I personally based on initial listens would say it would be a stong contender to place around this point in future games (if not better but that could be just because the growls return.)

S
1. My Arms Your Hearse
2. Still Life
3. Blackwater Park

A
4. Ghost Reveries
5. Damnation
6. Deliverance
7. In Cauda Venenum

B
8. Pale Communion
9. Morningrise
10. Orchid
11. Watershed

C
12. Heritage
13. Sorceress
 
Pale Communion is solid. It's probably got the most cohesive songs from Opeth thus far in the game. "Eternal Rains Will Come" is a cool opener. "Cusp of Eternity" is awesome, love the eastern melodies and I only wish it lasted longer. "Moon Above, Sun Below" has some cool parts (especially the ending) but I think it runs a little long. "Elysian Woes" is pretty cool but just as it really gets going it ends. "Goblin" is a solid instrumental. Love the southern-tinged intro to "River", rest of the song is alright. "Voice of Treason" is fine. "Faith in Others" has some good parts.

This is another album where I'm not really wowed by Mikael's clean vocals except in certain parts. The good stuff on here is good, but a lot of it just isn't really connecting with me, and notably I don't necessarily think that this one is better than "Sorceress". Going with a B- here.
 
Watershed is the first album we've had where I think every song is great and I like it pretty much the whole way through. It's also got the most death metal elements out of any album so far which I'm liking. Don't really need to go into individual tracks much but "Burden" is a really cool ballad and "Hessian Peel" is probably my favorite of the songs from the albums up to this point, despite being comprised of really distinct parts, it feels like everything I love about Halloween distilled into eleven minutes. The quiet moments work just as well as the balls-out chaotic heavy ones.

Tentative A- from me.
 
1:
2:
3:
4:
5: Deliverance
6: Watershed
7: Morningrise (tie)
7: Pale Communion (tie)
8: My Arms Your Hearse
9: In Cauda Venenum
10: Orchid
11: Sorceress
12: Heritage

Total score - 76

Highest score - 12 (@JudasMyGuide)
Lowest score - 7 (@MrKnickerbocker @Mosh)

This has to be the closest thing to a unanimous rating as we've seen in this game: all but four lists put this one right at #5. The rehabilitation of this album has been interesting. I feel like this album was once seen as one of Opeth's weakest, largely because of Mikael's public comments about it. I think a couple things have made fans reconsider it. The remix/remaster and subsequent mini-touring was kinda perfectly timed. We were deep in the Nupeth and fans were particularly nostalgic for Opeth at its heaviest, and this album in many ways is Opeth at its heaviest. They never really made another album that was so relentlessly heavy while still having plenty of the signature progressive influences. With heavy Opeth being a thing of the past, it makes sense that there would be more appreciation for Deliverance and less appreciation for Watershed, for example. Although I think the two albums are on similar footing and Watershed is slightly better. I also think, on a similar level, there is less of an impression of Deliverance being Damnation's poor cousin.

It never helped that Deliverance is bookended by two of the most contentious Opeth songs, but for different reasons. If the technology had existed back then, I imagine people would describe Wreath as if ChatGPT wrote an Opeth song. It sounds like Opeth and hits all the beats you would expect, but something about it feels off. It doesn't seem to go anywhere, the riffs are overly repetitive, and it just comes off as forced/uninspired. On the other end of the spectrum, By the Pain I See In Others is trying a lot of different things and seems to come off as a bit of a mess to a lot of listeners. Playing By the Pain live for the anniversary really helped this song's reputation and I think it is seen as a lot stronger now than it was in the past. I still maintain that Wreath is one of Opeth's weakest tracks and it seems that it has largely been forgotten by time.

That leaves the rest of the album, which I strongly believe is among Opeth's strongest material. The title track has been solidified as perhaps the classic Opeth song. A Fair Judgment is hauntingly beautiful, and Master's Apprentices will forever be my first choice for Opeth to bring back to the live set. What a cool track. These three songs alone make Deliverance worthy of the #5 slot, even if it's a little higher than I would have placed it personally.

Regardless of what you think of Deliverance, it's still part of Opeth's golden era. It's no Blackwater Park or Ghost Reveries, but it's that same fantastic fusion of death metal and prog and overall I consider it a joy to listen to and enjoy going back to it from time to time if I want to hear some Opeth that is classic sounding but a bit more under the radar.
 
I agree with everything you've said and I also think I rated this too lowly.

On one hand, the tracklist greatly hurts the flow of this album as you mentioned. Wreath is everything you said. BTPISIO gets better every time I hear it, but it will never be a top Opeth track. I do love the creepy carnival vibe, though. The middle, though, is absolutely stellar.

Deliverance honestly flip-flops places with Watershed for me on nearly every listen. They're polar opposite listening experiences, with Watershed being a massively heavy hitter from the start that then dives off a cliff in the second half, but both represent Opeth at their most tired and try-hard.

Still, it's a classic era Opeth record and it mostly rules.
 
While Deliverance is mostly overshadowed by its mellower and stronger sister album, it is a solid record in its own right. It contains only one song that I'm not a big fan of, while the others fit right into the classic Still Life/Blackwater Park sound. My rankings:

5. Wreath. No surprise here. I'm sure some rank this track higher than BTPISIO, but I disagree. Yeah, the intro (and outro) is aggressively fun, but there's not much else in the song that sticks with me. The part at 1:46 isn't bad, but they've done this style so much better, and the growling verses afterwards are completely forgettable. Excellent bass work here, though. The clean interlude and solo around 8 minutes is kinda neat, but having to power through all the fluff before is a chore. The quiet part just before 10 minutes is also great, and should have been extended instead of repeating uncatchy meandering growly verses ad infinitum. I'll take this track over most Nupeth, but damn if it isn't a relatively weak effort.
4. By the Pain I See in Others. I've always liked this tune, from the brutally aggressive "rise to submission" chorus to the hilarious carnival interlude in the middle. Mikael always disliked the track, but once the album was remastered he took more of a shine to it. Really unique idea to have a clean section with growls, and while I don't think it hits the mark all the time, I give them credit for trying something so radically different. I also adore the part from 8:07 on, with that ascending diminished line leading way to clean funkiness followed by that guitar wail and brutal riff. All in all I think this is an underrated tune that may not hit the highs of the three strongest tracks on the album, but is a far more rewarding listen than Wreath.
3. A Fair Judgment. Good tune with an intro that goes on for far too long without variation. I have to be in a mood for this piece, and if I am it's amazing. The buildup at 3:38 reminds me of Oldpeth (first two albums) and I love it! In fact, the whole middle section of this song is excellent. Absolutely killer solos here (I'm assuming the quiet one is Mikael's and the second heavier one Peter's). So much feeling in these guys' playing; so much that I don't even care if they're doing any fancy pyrotechnics (I think Fredrik sometimes overplays in this department). Finally, that outro is iceberg metal at its finest; such a killer ending out of nowhere!
2. Deliverance. Look... this is a great song. I'm just sick of it. Yes, the outro is amazing. Yes, the intro riff and verses are amazing. The growly middle parts lose me a little, but the "piercing sounds you make" section (is this the chorus?) is great. Once the "devil guides the wayaaaay" section begins it's pure gold. I know most people would put this in their top 10 or even top 5 Opeth songs, but I'm simply worn out by it at this point. It's almost like it's their Enter Sandman.
1. For Absent Friends / Master's Apprentices. I'm throwing the instrumental in here because in a way it's a prelude to Master's Apprentices, and a nice little autumnal acoustic piece. When the song proper kicks in, we're treated to a massive riff and Mikael sounding like a Tyrannosaur. I love all of this! The riffs that follow (especially that odd-meter one) groove like no other, and the middle section with acoustic strumming and layered vocals is such a nice treat. I actually think the song's outro is the weakest part, though, suffering from Opeth paint-by-numbers. Still, this is my clear winner here.

Mosh said:
Playing By the Pain live for the anniversary really helped this song's reputation and I think it is seen as a lot stronger now than it was in the past.
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I was at a show once where they played one of the song's riff to tease it, but I never knew they played the whole thing! Video for those who are interested:


Mosh said:
I still maintain that Wreath is one of Opeth's weakest tracks and it seems that it has largely been forgotten by time.
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I completely agree, and I still don't understand why they played it over BTPISIO at the Royal Albert Hall concert.

Mosh said:
Master's Apprentices will forever be my first choice for Opeth to bring back to the live set.
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I'm all for this. Deliverance is cool and all, but I truly think it's overplayed to the point where it's no longer special. They close with it at almost every show!
 
Detective Beauregard said:
I completely agree, and I still don't understand why they played it over BTPISIO at the Royal Albert Hall concert.
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Man I forgot about that, what a missed opportunity. Pretty much any other song besides the title track would have been a better choice.

IIRC they did shows celebrating the Deliverance album in select cities (maybe NYC/LA and somewhere in Europe) but it was never a full-scale tour sadly.

My ranking of the album:

1: Deliverance
2: Master's Apprentices
3: A Fair Judgment
4: By the Pain I See in Others
5: Wreath

Even though it's #4, By the Pain has grown on me quite a bit and at least has some interesting stuff. The top three are all time classics though.
 
Mosh said:
1: Deliverance
2: Master's Apprentices
3: A Fair Judgment
4: By the Pain I See in Others
5: Wreath

Even though it's #4, By the Pain has grown on me quite a bit and at least has some interesting stuff. The top three are all time classics though.
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100% same.
 
1:
2:
3:
4: Damnation
5: Deliverance
6: Watershed
7: Morningrise (tie)
7: Pale Communion (tie)
8: My Arms Your Hearse
9: In Cauda Venenum
10: Orchid
11: Sorceress
12: Heritage

Total score - 81

Highest score - 13 (@Detective Beauregard)
Lowest score - 5 (@KiDDo)

Not only was I a bit surprised by Damnation's strong performance, I was actually surprised by my own list when I ended up placing it at #3. Looking at this ranking and Opeth's discography as a whole, it absolutely makes sense, but I still find it quite remarkable that this decidedly un-Metal ode to progressive rock knocked out a few classic Metal albums. Not to harp too much on Newpeth, but I think this album is the answer to those who wonder why the newer albums are so contentious. Despite being all clean vocals, the vibe is still very much in line with other Opeth albums. The sinister and sorrowful tone is still in tact, the band's penchant for haunting melodies and riff writing. This album also gets quite heavy at times. Unlike the Newpeth albums, it doesn't actually feel like there's anything missing here, despite the prog rock sound. It mostly just shows the band's high level of creativity at this time.

The other interesting factor is that Damnation and Deliverance scored very close to each other. I feel like there was a point where these albums would be ranked at opposite sides of the discography, so it's interesting to see them close to converging. This says more about the rehabilitation of Deliverance I think, but especially since the albums were released as a single package the way it was originally intended. The albums actually do work very well together and I think both are improved by being a double album. Deliverance is so relentlessly heavy that Damnation works very well as a comedown. At any rate, these days I consider both albums a part of Opeth's golden era without the asterisk I may have applied to Deliverance before.

I also highly recommend the Lamentations live album to get more from this period. It has the entire Damnation album plus a second set of heavier material. A nice "best of" that covers Deliverance, Damnation, and Blackwater Park when these albums were fresh. Also a great glimpse at how bad Mikael's stage presence was back then. :D
 
Had Deliverance at #6. Title track and Master's Apprentices are great, actually I didn't like Master's Apprentices all that much until recently. I thought the intro riff was too cliche, but it works for me nowadays. It gets even better after them, though I have to say, the scream at the end of the acoustic section is maybe my least favourite part out of any great Opeth song. Wreath is a very strange one, it's relatively weak and uninteresting for so long, but from right after the solo, when that reverby guitar comes in, it just oozes with emotion and reaches the highs of Deliverance and MA.
That leaves By the Pain and A Fair Judgement. I have a lot of love for By the Pain: the chorus drum variation, the piano middle, the strumming fakeout. It's a cool experimental piece, but honestly, the experimentation doesn't help it ascend beyond mediocrity. It's just a mediocre song with cool quirks. A Fair Judgement is a more popular song, but it's not great imo. The quiet parts are lackluster, especially the bit just before the bridge. Beautiful? Yes, not compared to the melodic guitar parts. The outro is decent. It's a very mixed bag that doesn't fit well in Deliverance (it gives me Orchid/Morningrise vibes actually).

I'll let you in on a secret: I like metal. In fact, I like it so much that it's almost all I listen to. Not that I have a problem with other genres, but I'm just sayin', if it's heavy I'm more likely to like it more than if it's not heavy. And that's why I had Damnation DEAD LAST on my list. And then I added the other albums and it ended up at #8 :). But yeah, it's true. I just like metal more. Not much bad to say about Damnation, it has one real weakness but it counts about as much as the 4 minutes of nothing in By the Pain I See in Others. Or should I say, "By the Pane I See Others In"??? Windowpane is the masterpiece of the album, and the only thing I don't like about it is the final verse. But To Rid the Disease and In My Time of Need are very worth too. In My Time of Need's chorus is so not Opeth that it's kinda cool they made it work so well. The rest are wonderful too. I never saw much talk of Death Whispered a Lullaby, but it's another very unique one.
Generally I think purely not-heavy Opeth is exceptionally weak (that is, Harvest looks worse next to Blackwater Park than Disappear does next to The Glass Prison), but Damnation is all killers and one weakness.
 
As you can see from @Mosh post, I ranked Damnation at number one. I adore this album. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, which isn’t something normally associated with Opeth, but I don’t care. It also gives me a cold, isolated feeling inside, which us Opeth fans crave. There’s just something special about it, and I view it as a quintessential winter album. It’s difficult to rank these songs since I love them all, but here goes.

8. Weakness. This is obvious, since compared to the rest of the record it’s a bit of a nothingburger. However, I think it works well as a somber ending to the album.
7. Death Whispered a Lullaby. This is a creepy song with some great bass in the interlude/outro. I also love Mikael’s haunting voice in the verses.
6. Ending Credits. Fantastic little instrumental with a Latin flavor that I love. Top-notch bass here, too.
5. Closure. I love the grooves in this one, and that cool multi-layered vocal part in the middle. It lacks the emotion of most of the rest of the album, though.
4. In My Time of Need. This song is pure feels, from the barren pre-chorus to the massive heartfelt chorus proper. I love the simple verses and the unique vocal pattern, especially when it’s harmonized. Very simple but effective solo, too.
3. To Rid the Disease. What a dark, eerie song. I picture a cold, rainy village in the middle of nowhere when I listen to this, with parasite-infected villagers hunting me down. Pretty sure I was playing Resident Evil when I first heard this way back in the day. The piano here is haunting.
2. Windowpane. This is such a wonderful piece of music, and one of the proggier ones on the record. The way the main groove switches between 6/8 and 3/4 is delightful, and the keyboard before the final verse adds a lot. I love the solos in this track, as they’re both very soulful. Great creepy middle section, too.
1. Hope Leaves. I don’t know why I love this song so much, considering it’s one of the simplest Opeth tunes. But it’s just so… chill. Åkerfeldt’s voice is so delicate, and it fits the loneliness of the song perfectly.

I was hoping this album would’ve been ranked third overall, but I can live with fourth.
 
Hope Leaves also seems to be Mikael's favorite Damnation tune as well. I think it's a good song but I never really quite got why that one gets singled out. I prefer Windowpane, To Rid the Disease, In My Time of Need, and even Death Whispered a Lullaby. I also love Ending Credits, great Camel worship.
 
Mosh said:
Hope Leaves also seems to be Mikael's favorite Damnation tune as well. I think it's a good song but I never really quite got why that one gets singled out.
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I believe he wrote the song about his grandmother’s death. I love the live version where it ends with an ass-kicking Fredrik solo.
 
The solos on Windowpane are near impossible to replicate. They’re not hard technically, but the phrasing is one of a kind.

Anyway, yeah, Damnation is a great record. I think it’s stronger taken as a whole (minus Weakness) than when you break down the songs individually. It deserves a spot in the Top 5 for sure.
 
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