Sorry I'm so late guys. 
My Arms, Your Hearse 1998 (The year I was born
)
1. "Prologue" (instrumental) 0:59
2. "April Ethereal" 8:41
3. "When" 9:14
4. "Madrigal" (instrumental) 1:26
5. "The Amen Corner" 8:43
6. "Demon of the Fall" (Åkerfeldt, Peter Lindgren) 6:13
7. "Credence" 5:26
8. "Karma" 7:52
9. "Epilogue" (instrumental) 3:59
Personnel:Opeth
Mikael Åkerfeldt – vocals, guitars, bass, grand piano
Peter Lindgren – guitars
Martin Lopez – drums, percussion
Additional musicians
Fredrik Nordström – Hammond organ on "Epilogue"
Production
Opeth – production, mixing
Fredrik Nordström – production, engineering, mixing
Anders Fridén – co-production, engineering
Göran Finnberg – mastering
Tom Martinsen – graphic design
Peter Lindgren – photography
Background:My Arms, Your Hearse was the first Opeth album with drummer Martin Lopez, who answered a newspaper ad that Opeth put up searching for this spot to be taken after Anders Nordin left. Shortly thereafter the band also brought in Martin Mendez, a friend and previous band-mate of Lopez. However, Mendez did not have enough time to learn the bass parts for the album, so frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt played bass for the entire recording session.[1] All of the songs on My Arms, Your Hearse are shorter than ten minutes, whereas on Opeth's previous album, Morningrise, every song exceeds this length. The album is dedicated to Lee Barrett (of Candlelight Records). The title of the album is derived from the lyrics of the song "Drip, Drip" by the band Comus.
What is the concept?Concept
Åkerfeldt wrote the lyrics for this album before the music was written, to create Opeth's first concept album.
The album concerns a character who dies and becomes a ghost. The narrative on the ghost's existence revolves around the woman he loved. Frustration and suspicion make the character restless as he watches his loved one after his death, his soul in constant turmoil as he does not believe that she genuinely grieved his passing. Though his ghost's actual presence remains undetected, she feels a great sadness, and remains unwilling to accept his death.
The progression of the album can also be seen as linked to the progression of the seasons, the final song ending with winter, and leading back into the first song with the beginnings of spring. The last word of each song on the album is the name of the following, with the album's final track, "Epilogue", leading back to "Prologue" to complete the cycle. Although the album has three instrumental songs, short stories are still written for those tracks in the form of lyrics, thus fulfilling the naming convention. In some cases, the "silent lyrics" move the plot along, and in others only serve to comment in a passive fashion.
My Arms, Your Hearse is a really interesting album. It is like Scenes From a Memory, only more heavier.
The album gets off to a brilliant start with the songs Prologue, April Ethereal and When, all three linking together perfectly. Any avid listener of Opeth will not be disappointed with these songs. Prologue leads the listener into the epic riff factory that is April Ethereal and that gives a fantastic performance which then carries onto When in which there are even more great riffs and some acoustic guitar work that mesmerise the listener with their tranquillity amongst to usual loudness of death metal.
When then links into Madrigal which basically begins the guitar riff for the next song: The Amen Corner. Along with April Ethereal and When, this song captivates its audience, especially with the acoustic breakdown in the middle of the song. It comes as an unexpected, but nice surprise, and sets the songs tone perfectly. This then leads into the next song worthy of note: Demon Of The Fall. This song is considered by many to be the best song on the album and has been played as an encore at many Opeth concerts. It is well deserved of its title as best song on the album for a variety of reasons, one being that it has one of the greatest riffs of death metal history and that it’s catchy as hell. It flows seamlessly into Credence, which resembles To Bid You Farewell. Completely quiet. Too bad it's not nearly as good as To Bid You Farewell. It gets a bit boring.
Karma brings back the quality, with some bone crushing heaviness complimented by a very long acoustic sections. Luckily, this is one of the best acoustic sections in the album. This is basically the closer, and it ends wit ha brutally long growl and some great riffage, then an acoustic twang...we're done. What a ride. No. Wait. We got one more. But no one cares. Scratch it off. It's worth nothing. Opeth tries a semi- Pink Floyd metal song, and it doesn't work.
Åkerfeldt's clean vocals are another feat on this album, having even more layering than the first two albums and the inclusion of heavy harmonies. Such a suitable vocalist. This is honestly one of the greatest metal albums of all time. I don't need to make a recommendation of this record to you based on what your music taste is for me to retain firm belief that you'll enjoy this record. Even if you listened to this album and don't like it, at least you experienced something which I among several other people consider groundbreaking. If you like music... basically, just listen to this album.
Topic: The Opeth Discography Thread (Read 8568 times)
