Shmoolikipod
Stranger to the Light
Finally...
Harlequin Forest
The Grand Conjuration
Closure
Ending Credits
Weakness
Still Day Beneath the Sun
Patterns in the Ivy II
I'm rooting for Death Whispered a Lullaby, Hope Leaves, and To Rid the Disease.
THE OPETH REFERENDUM MMXXI: Results -> Blackwater Park wins again!
- Thread starter Night Prowler
- Start date
Harlequin Forest
The Grand Conjuration
Closure
Ending Credits
Weakness
Still Day Beneath the Sun
Patterns in the Ivy II
I'm rooting for Death Whispered a Lullaby, Hope Leaves, and To Rid the Disease.
Voted for Ghost Of Perdition and Baying, and Ending Credits, Weakness, Still Day Beneath The Sun and Patterns In The Ivy II.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
- Hounds and Mire - good-to-great tunes, but pale in comparison to the better songs here.
- In My Time of Need - hate the Tool verses
- Closure - cool, but meh
- the last three, but especially Weakness
Eliminated after Round 11:
Patterns In The Ivy II - 7 votes
Weakness - 5 votes
Still Day Beneath The Sun - 5 votes
Beneath The Mire - 4 votes
Closure - 4 votes
Deliverance joins the game!
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
Hounds - overrated
Wreath - massively overrated; BTPISIO crushes it
Absent Friends - I like it but it’s an interlude
Crazy to see Closure gone already. Many Opeth fans consider it one of Damnation’s highlights; it’s one of the few progressive moments on the album.
Wreath - massively overrated; BTPISIO crushes it
Absent Friends - I like it but it’s an interlude
Crazy to see Closure gone already. Many Opeth fans consider it one of Damnation’s highlights; it’s one of the few progressive moments on the album.
I agree. Although I'd say that the live version from Lamentations is far superior to the studio version.
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
Thank you for reminding me that I need to watch that DVD again!
@Mosh
What do you not like about Hope Leaves? I'm curious because that song is almost universally loved.
Shmoolikipod
Stranger to the Light
I love Deliverance. I sometimes feel like it's kinda underrated...
Voting for:
Ghost of Perdition (I don't actually want to eliminate it, but there were like 3 fucking votes for Hounds last round and I have a spare vote anyways)
Harlequin Forest
The Grand Conjuration
Windowpane
In My Time of Need
Ending Credits
A Fair Judgement (great, but it's my least favourite full song on the album)
For Absent Friends
Voting for:
Ghost of Perdition (I don't actually want to eliminate it, but there were like 3 fucking votes for Hounds last round and I have a spare vote anyways)
Harlequin Forest
The Grand Conjuration
Windowpane
In My Time of Need
Ending Credits
A Fair Judgement (great, but it's my least favourite full song on the album)
For Absent Friends
Seems like we are finally picking up speed in this game 
Voted for Ghost Of Perdition and The Baying Of The Hounds to protect the other two songs from that album. Then also for Death Whispered A Lullaby, To Rid The Disease and Ending Credits (Closure getting eliminated solved my dilemma when it comes to 3 favorite songs from this album). And also For Absent Friends as I still can't decide on my 3 favorites from Deliverance.
Voted for Ghost Of Perdition and The Baying Of The Hounds to protect the other two songs from that album. Then also for Death Whispered A Lullaby, To Rid The Disease and Ending Credits (Closure getting eliminated solved my dilemma when it comes to 3 favorite songs from this album). And also For Absent Friends as I still can't decide on my 3 favorites from Deliverance.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Hounds because these votes for Ghost of Perdition (the entirety of Opeth's sound in one song) are ridiculous.
Time of Need and Ending Credits, though I do love the melodies in EC.
Wreath is the weakest song on Deliverance and overall pretty middling in terms of Opeth's better long tunes.
For Absent Friends is good, but still an interlude.
By The Pain I See In Others actually grows on me every time, but it is still weaker than the other 3 behemoths on this record.
Time of Need and Ending Credits, though I do love the melodies in EC.
Wreath is the weakest song on Deliverance and overall pretty middling in terms of Opeth's better long tunes.
For Absent Friends is good, but still an interlude.
By The Pain I See In Others actually grows on me every time, but it is still weaker than the other 3 behemoths on this record.
Stardust
Rainmaker
Finally decided to vote in this game. And I'm voting for:
The Baying of the Hounds - Tough competition.
The Grand Conjuration - Don't really get the appeal for this one.
Death Whispered a Lullaby
Ending Credits
Wreath - Clearly the weakest song in the poll.
For Absent Friends - Interlude so it can't really be helped. Sorries.
Master's Apprentices - Was a tough call between this and A Fair Judgement.
The Baying of the Hounds - Tough competition.
The Grand Conjuration - Don't really get the appeal for this one.
Death Whispered a Lullaby
Ending Credits
Wreath - Clearly the weakest song in the poll.
For Absent Friends - Interlude so it can't really be helped. Sorries.
Master's Apprentices - Was a tough call between this and A Fair Judgement.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Welcome back, Dusty!
I have enough voters now but will update on Friday. In the mean time, please go vote in The Crusade of Epics.
Eliminated after Round 12:
For Absent Friends - 8 votes
The Grand Conjuration - 6 votes
Ending Credits - 6 votes
Wreath - 5 votes
Promoted after Round 12:
Ghost Of Perdition
The Baying Of The Hounds
Harlequin Forest
Blackwater Park joins the game!
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
In My Time of Need - Weakest of the remaining Damnation songs
Death Whispered a Lullaby - Creepy tune and slightly better than IMTON, but the remaining three from Damnation are stronger
By the Pain I See in Others - I like it, but it can't compare to the "big three" from Deliverance
Harvest - Overrated and boring compared to the rest of the album
Funeral Portrait - This was tough due to all the sweet riffs, but this song just lacks... something...
Patterns in the Ivy - I love the vibe of this, but at the end of the day it's an interlude
Death Whispered a Lullaby - Creepy tune and slightly better than IMTON, but the remaining three from Damnation are stronger
By the Pain I See in Others - I like it, but it can't compare to the "big three" from Deliverance
Harvest - Overrated and boring compared to the rest of the album
Funeral Portrait - This was tough due to all the sweet riffs, but this song just lacks... something...
Patterns in the Ivy - I love the vibe of this, but at the end of the day it's an interlude
Shmoolikipod
Stranger to the Light
Okay, first of all: Phew! I thought Hounds is done for...
Second of all - Blackwater Park:
This is definitely one of their best albums, though it's a bit uneven, as is the case with a lot of Opeth albums honestly, but here it's most noticeable.
You have two songs that I've considered my favourite Opeth songs (to be fair, a lot of them held this title...)
The Leper Affinity is absolutely chilling and has one of Mikael's best screams on my opinion, at 6:46. I'm also big on the piano outro, it's perfect for the song and I like how you can hear it coming in beneath the final riffing section.
The second one is Blackwater Park. Picking a favourite Opeth song is hard, but this is the one I'm putting in my top 10 songs of all time. It's so. Fucking. Badass!!
It's just an onslaught of riffs, and it never stops! It's as if the atmospheric section (which, by the way, is superb) if there to prepare us for what's to come. But it can't, nothing can prepare you for the next seven minutes.
And yet, somehow, this album also has two of their worst songs! Harvest is like reverse Blackwater Park. It's boring, it goes on for waaaay too long, it doesn't move and it's boring. *guitar solo* Did I already say that it's too long and that it's boring? But other than that, it's like this paragraph: It's repetitive, it took up about 4 minutes too much of my life and it has a nice solo in the middle.
Dirge for November is a little better, but it feels nonsensical. It starts with an acoustic intro. Say far so good. Then we get a heavy bridge, and acoustic outro. Wait, where's the song? Let's try again, it's a heavy black metallish song? So why does the only heavy part sound like a bridge?! It's an acoustic song? So why is the bulk of it heavy?! My conclusion was that Dirge is not a song. It's a heavy bridge bookended by acoustic parts. It's enjoyable, but Harvest clearly overdosed on Dirge's "song pills".
And then there were three. Bleak is the song that got my into Opeth, but I got burned out on it a bit. It's still a good song and I wouldn't be mad if it got through, but it's the one I would prefer the least.
The Funeral Portrait is very underrated. I love the acoustic guitar on top of the electrics, even if it's a little tacky here. The verses are very fun and the riffs are groovy. I probably like it more than The Drapery Falls, don't know why I voted against it.
Speaking of which, The Drapery Falls is... Nice. I don't like it as much as people seem to. It starts terribly slowly, about 4 minutes to do something interesting. After that it gets really good and peaks at the section starting at about 6:50. Those verses, especially the ones when the drums pick up the groove at 7:20 are fucking great. But what have we done that have to sit through the intro for another two minutes? That's about half of the song wasted on nothing...
Also, not voting for Patterns in the Ivy. I like it too much
Votes:
Windowpane
In My Time of Need
A Fair Judgement
Master's Apprentices (I wanted Wreath in, but now that it's gone I'll try to get BtPISiO through. Misunderstood song)
Bleak
Harvest
Dirge for November
The Funeral Portrait
Second of all - Blackwater Park:
This is definitely one of their best albums, though it's a bit uneven, as is the case with a lot of Opeth albums honestly, but here it's most noticeable.
You have two songs that I've considered my favourite Opeth songs (to be fair, a lot of them held this title...)
The Leper Affinity is absolutely chilling and has one of Mikael's best screams on my opinion, at 6:46. I'm also big on the piano outro, it's perfect for the song and I like how you can hear it coming in beneath the final riffing section.
The second one is Blackwater Park. Picking a favourite Opeth song is hard, but this is the one I'm putting in my top 10 songs of all time. It's so. Fucking. Badass!!
It's just an onslaught of riffs, and it never stops! It's as if the atmospheric section (which, by the way, is superb) if there to prepare us for what's to come. But it can't, nothing can prepare you for the next seven minutes.
And yet, somehow, this album also has two of their worst songs! Harvest is like reverse Blackwater Park. It's boring, it goes on for waaaay too long, it doesn't move and it's boring. *guitar solo* Did I already say that it's too long and that it's boring? But other than that, it's like this paragraph: It's repetitive, it took up about 4 minutes too much of my life and it has a nice solo in the middle.
Dirge for November is a little better, but it feels nonsensical. It starts with an acoustic intro. Say far so good. Then we get a heavy bridge, and acoustic outro. Wait, where's the song? Let's try again, it's a heavy black metallish song? So why does the only heavy part sound like a bridge?! It's an acoustic song? So why is the bulk of it heavy?! My conclusion was that Dirge is not a song. It's a heavy bridge bookended by acoustic parts. It's enjoyable, but Harvest clearly overdosed on Dirge's "song pills".
And then there were three. Bleak is the song that got my into Opeth, but I got burned out on it a bit. It's still a good song and I wouldn't be mad if it got through, but it's the one I would prefer the least.
The Funeral Portrait is very underrated. I love the acoustic guitar on top of the electrics, even if it's a little tacky here. The verses are very fun and the riffs are groovy. I probably like it more than The Drapery Falls, don't know why I voted against it.
Speaking of which, The Drapery Falls is... Nice. I don't like it as much as people seem to. It starts terribly slowly, about 4 minutes to do something interesting. After that it gets really good and peaks at the section starting at about 6:50. Those verses, especially the ones when the drums pick up the groove at 7:20 are fucking great. But what have we done that have to sit through the intro for another two minutes? That's about half of the song wasted on nothing...
Also, not voting for Patterns in the Ivy. I like it too much
Votes:
Windowpane
In My Time of Need
A Fair Judgement
Master's Apprentices (I wanted Wreath in, but now that it's gone I'll try to get BtPISiO through. Misunderstood song)
Bleak
Harvest
Dirge for November
The Funeral Portrait
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Time of Need is the weakest song left from that album. Also voting for Disease, though it was a coin flip between that and Lullaby.
BTPISIO should go.
Harvest and Patterns are the very easy votes, Funeral and Dirge are slightly harder. Funeral is very reminiscent of earlier Opeth and has some killer riffs, but pales in comparison to the better songs here. Dirge, though it has some beautifully mournful guitar work, is the beginning of the “copy a random riff idea into a song” style of writing with which Mikael would later become enamored. Next round I’ll be voting for Bleak.
BTPISIO should go.
Harvest and Patterns are the very easy votes, Funeral and Dirge are slightly harder. Funeral is very reminiscent of earlier Opeth and has some killer riffs, but pales in comparison to the better songs here. Dirge, though it has some beautifully mournful guitar work, is the beginning of the “copy a random riff idea into a song” style of writing with which Mikael would later become enamored. Next round I’ll be voting for Bleak.
Voting for Death Whispered A Lullaby and To Rid The Disease to promote the other 3 from that album. Also just The Funeral Portrait and Patterns, as I can't make up my mind about the other 2 albums.
Eliminated after Round 13:
The Funeral Portrait - 7 votes
Patterns In The Ivy - 6 votes
In My Time Of Need - 5 votes
By The Pain I See In Others - 5 votes
Promoted after Round 13:
Deliverance
A Fair Judgement
Master's Apprentices
Still Life joins the game!