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Opeth - Watershed Audio CD

A fair review of the Opeth "Watershed" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Opeth reviews here, or go back to the Opeth tabs.

Opeth Band: Opeth
Title: Watershed
Rating:
Release Date: 2008-06-03
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Coil 2: Heir Apparent 3: The Lotus Eater 4: Burden 5: Porcelain Heart 6: Hessian Peel 7: Hex Omega 8: Rehearsal Tapes 9: Watershed 5.1 Mix 10: Derelict Heads 11: Bridge of Sighs 12: Den Standiga Resan

Michael Åkerfeldt is growing in fast steps.
With Ghost Reveries they achieve something marvelous, from the first song Ghost of perdition to Isolation years, but with this album they did a far more brilliant piece of art, the song "Heir Apparent" is probably the most brutal and complex opeth song of all time, porcelain heart is a piece of art in it's own with a very original melody, so enigmatic and dark but also as beautiful as a lullaby, Per Wiberg is adding a lot of ideas in this album that makes it standout from other opeths releases, the new drummer Martin Axenrot, makes Martin Lopez departure not missed (A lot of people just can't get over it, Martin Lopez is gone and you can accept it or not but Axenrot is a freaking genious with a lot of ability and style) and also a proggresion for the band. In the transaction between delivarence and ghost reveries opeth suffered a big change, their compositions became more ambitious, more complex and more focus on it's approach. In my personal opinion Ghost reveries and Watershed are opeth's best album period.


Good Album
This is the most mature record (musicaly speaking) whit a very good songs like Burden and Porcelain Heart, but is not one of my favorites of them. The lastest record of Opeth.


Cutting edge and fresh as always
After reading a lot of previews and interviews this was supposed to be the heaviest and darkest Opeth album ever, so I was surprised at the amount of mellower material. I'm a huge fan and couldn't wait for this album, but I have to admit it had to grow on me. There are noticeably less of the death vocals even in the heavier songs. As with most of their albums, there's definitely a balance between the heavier and mellower stuff. Nonetheless, this is an album of extremes, and Heir Apparent is one of heaviest and most brutal songs Opeth has ever done. That particular song is just immense in its intensity and its definitely one of my favorites out of their entire catalog. As usual, Opeth throw some curveballs, with the female vocals in the opening song and a jazz breakdown in the middle of the Lotus Eater, which sounds almost like something that could be a on a Mars Volta record. After the Lotus Eater, the album takes a slower turn for a while and then gets pretty interesting toward the end with the last two songs. Hessian Peel is one of those long Opeth tunes that incorporates everything they do (clean and death vocals, mellow and distorted parts) and the heavier parts have some mindblowing riffs around the middle of the song. The last one, Hex Omega, is another sort of different Opeth tune and, to me, has an almost Tool kind of vibe to it. Its a good closer.

The bonus DVD edition is highly recommended. The extra songs are good, especially Derelict Hands, which is an Opeth original that's easily good enough to be on the main album, the Robin Trower cover is very cool, and the scandinavian folk song is kinda neat, but not my favorite. The surround mix of the main album is pretty good and the footage of the band working on the album (with interviews) is definitely worth watching. The fact that you can only play the bonus songs from the DVD is a pain, but you can always download them in mp3 format if you want to listen to the whole thing all the way through. I don't know if this album would be the best introduction to Opeth, and I wouldn't say its their best, but its another awesome addition to their body of work and I doubt there is another metal band as cutting edge. .


Opeth > God
If you buy this album you will be given a gift greater than anything I can possibly put into words. Opeth's albums are the greatest pieces of art to ever come about in the course of human history.


LEADERS OF A NEW ERA
At least since the magnum opus Blackwater Park was released. Thats exactly what Opeth is not only today, but almost a decade now. Akerfeldt is in my opinion if not the biggest, probably one of most talented people in music industry today. And am not talking only about the area of metal, am talking about the whole music scene of the planet. His ability to create sounds that get deep inside of you and always haunt you is absolutely magnificent. His ability to find always the best possible musicians to support him as the vehicle of Opeth is even more magnificent (Martin is a MONSTER behind the drums). And we should not forget Mikael's vocals which remain perfect. His ability to change his vocals in such a level and bacome at one moment a growling monster ready to rip you, and again return in a melodic harmony that makes you dream of other spaces is indeed terryfing.
Above all is the songs of cource and i believe that is a waste of time to repeat all the time tha same again and again. If you think of listening to Watershed just stop thinking. Buy it and you will remember that Opeth is a group of artists that worth their money until the last cent.
We are talking probably about the real meaning of intelligent music here. .


You can see a complete list of all Opeth discography, or go back to the Opeth tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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