OKComputer1016
07/05/08, 03:22 PM
Opeth - Watershed
Record Label: Roadrunner Records
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Even more than with most long-running metal acts, new Opeth material has to live up to some pretty high standards. Ask any fan: there’s just no way the group could ever top the emotional and technical perfection of their 2001 masterpiece Blackwater Park. It’s just not humanly possible. But even if you wanted to call them “past their prime” in that respect, nobody could argue that Watershed is anything less than amazing; it covers more genre-meshing territory than anything they’ve done up to this point.
Opeth’s catalogue has always had a certain amount of the 1970’s progressive influence that Mikael Akerfeldt cites in interviews as his inspiration for songwriting. Damnation, an entire album devoted to lighter tracks of that nature, succeeded in winning over a new demographic of fans – specifically, dudes who like Porcupine Tree. So, like 2005’s Ghost Reveries, Watershed needs to impress fans of both the classic heavy Opeth style and the newer lighter one. And, through some ridiculous miracle of songwriting, the album blows minds on both sides of the fence.
The group was bold enough to place “Coil,” one of their most progressive tracks to date right at the opening of the album. It’s an acoustic guitar piece that features a female vocal cameo, so it might shock the hell out of the cut off sleeve wearing “Demon of the Fall!” shouter who shows up at Opeth concerts. But as a longtime Opeth fan myself, I’ve got to say they definitely know what they’re doing – they’ve stepped into new and somewhat unfamiliar territory and mastered it like they’d been doing it for years.
“The Lotus Eaters” almost sounds, musically, like newer System of a Down’s “Dreaming” – but don’t worry, the guys haven’t simplified their sound; the drums are just completely insane. Yup, that’s definitely Opeth’s first blastbeat, and you can attribute that to new drummer Martin Axenrot who, in case you were worried, fills the seat of ex-member Martin Lopez excellently.
Axenrot has got the same syncopated, jazzy kind of style as the old drummer but with bits of his own flair to add to the mix. And if one thing is constant about the Opeth sound, it’s the tendency to add new things to the formula. As a result, “Lotus Eaters” stands as one of the best songs they’ve ever made. That’s probably why it’s the “single” (as if radio play were a possibility).
The vocals on the album are catchier than anything on top of such ferocious drums should logically be. Akerfeldt seems incapable of penning anything less than brilliant. Watershed is yet another installment in the flawless Opeth catalogue. Fans and those who have not yet been converted into fans yet shall be, without a doubt, impressed by this release.
Porcupine Tree, Opeth’s Damnation, King Crimson
myspace.com/opeth (http://www.myspace.com/opeth)
Record Label: Roadrunner Records
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Even more than with most long-running metal acts, new Opeth material has to live up to some pretty high standards. Ask any fan: there’s just no way the group could ever top the emotional and technical perfection of their 2001 masterpiece Blackwater Park. It’s just not humanly possible. But even if you wanted to call them “past their prime” in that respect, nobody could argue that Watershed is anything less than amazing; it covers more genre-meshing territory than anything they’ve done up to this point.
Opeth’s catalogue has always had a certain amount of the 1970’s progressive influence that Mikael Akerfeldt cites in interviews as his inspiration for songwriting. Damnation, an entire album devoted to lighter tracks of that nature, succeeded in winning over a new demographic of fans – specifically, dudes who like Porcupine Tree. So, like 2005’s Ghost Reveries, Watershed needs to impress fans of both the classic heavy Opeth style and the newer lighter one. And, through some ridiculous miracle of songwriting, the album blows minds on both sides of the fence.
The group was bold enough to place “Coil,” one of their most progressive tracks to date right at the opening of the album. It’s an acoustic guitar piece that features a female vocal cameo, so it might shock the hell out of the cut off sleeve wearing “Demon of the Fall!” shouter who shows up at Opeth concerts. But as a longtime Opeth fan myself, I’ve got to say they definitely know what they’re doing – they’ve stepped into new and somewhat unfamiliar territory and mastered it like they’d been doing it for years.
“The Lotus Eaters” almost sounds, musically, like newer System of a Down’s “Dreaming” – but don’t worry, the guys haven’t simplified their sound; the drums are just completely insane. Yup, that’s definitely Opeth’s first blastbeat, and you can attribute that to new drummer Martin Axenrot who, in case you were worried, fills the seat of ex-member Martin Lopez excellently.
Axenrot has got the same syncopated, jazzy kind of style as the old drummer but with bits of his own flair to add to the mix. And if one thing is constant about the Opeth sound, it’s the tendency to add new things to the formula. As a result, “Lotus Eaters” stands as one of the best songs they’ve ever made. That’s probably why it’s the “single” (as if radio play were a possibility).
The vocals on the album are catchier than anything on top of such ferocious drums should logically be. Akerfeldt seems incapable of penning anything less than brilliant. Watershed is yet another installment in the flawless Opeth catalogue. Fans and those who have not yet been converted into fans yet shall be, without a doubt, impressed by this release.
Porcupine Tree, Opeth’s Damnation, King Crimson
myspace.com/opeth (http://www.myspace.com/opeth)