Opeth

By Request, Part 1 - Orchid:

  • Total voters
    10
Ad the first 3 vs the last 3 - I thought about it and I think I'd indeed prefer the last three albums.

I think... think that my order would be the following:

Pale Communion / Sorceress > Orchid > Heritage > My Arms > Morningrise

I really don't like Morningrise. It's nice that Mikael tried his own version of a 20-minute epic, but he really didn't need to make it a cut-and-paste collection of leftover ideas reminding more of Fountain of Lamneth than anything truly epic. Parts of it are good (the stuff between the 13th and 14th minute, that part after 7:30-something), but ... overlong. Also, I don't like how the album sounds in general. Sorceress is underrated. My biggest complaint would probably be that Will O the Wisp fellates Jethro Tull way way way too much. The vocals, gee... :rolleyes:


Ad Niall - it's good you're discovering the band and even better that you're discovering them in your own way. I think that Heritage is very underrated and I enjoy the album a lot. I also heard Park very early on and it took me longer to fully appreciate it. I would probably recommend Ghost Reveries if you'd like to get into the heavy stuff, Pale Communion if you want something more Heritage-like. Sorceress is very soft and a lot of people hate it, so probably don't go there yet :D Both Deliverance and Damnation were a bit too monothematic for me to fully enjoy when I first heard them, so probably keep those for later. Orchid has some really interesting guitar work, but it's probably not that representative of the band as a whole nowadays. But Forest of October might be in my top 10.
 
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Also, as the autumn slowly begins to grasp the Northern hemisphere in its cold fingers and taints the trees with blood sweat out during the harvest as well as the gold fallen off the weakening Sun, I've decided to go through the whole discography once again. Now spinning Orchid. Shit, In Mist She Was Standing is really awesome.
 
Cheers all for the recommendations and responses. Heard about 15-20 mins of Pale Communion and liked what I heard but it was kind of in the background. Still, I'll give it a proper go based on what I heard.
Just finished Damnation. Possibly a bit soft overall but still very listenable. The first half was maybe better. Closure was certainly the initial highlight.
I reckon these albums would benefit from more focused attention than I am giving them, one could easily get lost in this shit. Still, glad to have found them.

Just listened to Will O The Wisp. Good tune. Great end instrumental. A definite reach around for Ian Anderson.
 
Niall Kielt said:
To put this in context, progginess and heaviness are not new to me but I certainly do not listen to anything like this kind of stuff with any regularity. After Heritage, the youtube directed me to Steve Wilsons latest one, To The Bone. This was also enjoyable.
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Join our Steven Wilson n00bvivor! :D

Definitely check out the rest of their proggy works, but when you're ready for something heavier go for Watershed or Ghost Reveries. Blackwater Park is a great album but it's also a grower and especially difficult if you're not normally into extreme metal. Still it's worth the effort if you give it multiple chances.

JudasMyGuide said:
I really don't like Morningrise. It's nice that Mikael tried his own version of a 20-minute epic, but he really didn't need to make it a cut-and-paste collection of leftover ideas reminding more of Fountain of Lamneth than anything truly epic. Parts of it are good (the stuff between the 13th and 14th minute, that part after 7:30-something), but ... overlong.
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Interesting comparison, Morningrise and Caress of Steel do have some similarities that I never considered before. Believe it or not, I'd take Morningrise over CoS and Black Rose Immortal over Fountain of Lamneth. Neither are great, but Black Rose Immortal has some really cool parts buried in the clutter. Also love Nektar and Advent.

Niall Kielt said:
Just finished Damnation. Possibly a bit soft overall but still very listenable. The first half was maybe better. Closure was certainly the initial highlight.
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Damnation actually isn't too bad as background music IMO. Pale Communion has more moments that demands the listener's attention but it's one of Opeth's more accessible albums overall.

I think my ranking of the first and last three would be something like this:

Pale Communion

My Arms Your Hearse
Sorceress
Morningrise
Orchid
Heritage
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
recommend Pale Communion next, but then...Jump to something like Ghost Reveries
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(CFH nodding vigorously.) I actually think Pale Communion and Ghost Reveries are the best Opeth albums. Blackwater Park is generally considered their magnum opus, but I do prefer those other two. Keep in mind that Pale Communion is VERY different sounding than Ghost Reveries or Blackwater Park, the latter two are MUCH heavier. I'll say this though: if you don't like any of those three, then you can be pretty confident that Opeth isn't for you.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Also, as the autumn slowly begins to grasp the Northern hemisphere in its cold fingers and taints the trees with blood sweat out during the harvest as well as the gold fallen off the weakening Sun, I've decided to go through the whole discography once again. Now spinning Orchid. Shit, In Mist She Was Standing is really awesome.
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YES. As soon as we get over the next couple of random hot October days, I'll be spinning straight Opeth until Halloween!

Cornfed Hick said:
(CFH nodding vigorously.) I actually think Pale Communion and Ghost Reveries are the best Opeth albums. Blackwater Park is generally considered their magnum opus, but I do prefer those other two. Keep in mind that Pale Communion is VERY different sounding than Ghost Reveries or Blackwater Park, the latter two are MUCH heavier. I'll say this though: if you don't like any of those three, then you can be pretty confident that Opeth isn't for you.
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Agreed. My personal favorite is actually Still Life, but PC and GR make the top three.
 
Can’t speak for whoever brought it up, but those albums are controversial and somewhat removed from the rest of the discography (although it seems like the style of the last three isn’t going to be changing). Opeth purists probably rank those near the bottom six.
 
Just listened to Orchid. It is brilliant. My favourite so far or at least tied with Heritage. Forest of October and The Twilight is My Robe in particular stood out. Twilight had so many class sections. Maybe too many, I will have to listen again to see how it flows but on first listen I'm very impressed.
I may have to invest in a walkman, this stuff seems like it would work well out of doors
 
Night Prowler said:
How hard is it to play Opeth's songs on guitar? Close to Dream Theater or easier?
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I'd say Still Life is the only album that approaches the Dream Theater level of difficulty on guitar. That doesn't mean Opeth songs are easy to play on average though, they usually have some unusual chord progressions and difficult finger picking on them. Even Orchid & Morningrise, which have simple riffs and acoustic patterns, present a difficulty in that the vast amount of ideas make the songs difficult to memorize.
 
Even Still Life doesn’t come close to Dream Theater difficulty IMO. There are some tricky rhythms but they can be figured out pretty quickly. Hardest song is probably Serenity Painted Death.

DT definitely don’t have chord voicings or finger picking passages that are as challenging as some of what you find in Opeth, but those are easier to figure out than the average DT instrumental section.
 
Speaking of Opeth songs on guitar, learned how to play Bleak on guitar today. And what fun it is to play.
 
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