The official Opeth thread v. Bring on the new album!

[Mosh]

I agree with Steven Wilson's opinion on not having opening acts, because Katatonia was abysmal. No stage presence and their sound was really off. Didn't care for much of their songs either. Opeth sounded much better thankfully, and Mikael's jokes were terrific. I think I'm getting too old for concerts though, standing an hour with good spots and then an hour and a half through Katanonia/more waiting sucked.

Oh well, I love hating on opening acts

I did want to check this band out though before the show, from reading the comments it doesn't sound like my thing, so I guess I'll pass. Anyway, tuesday can't come soon enough! 

[seasonsinthesky]

i was half there for Katatonia, so they blew me away — but i readily admit they loaded the set with a lot of material from Dead End Kings and Night is the New Day, two albums that i'd call "too samey too often." i can understand the boredom for people unfamiliar. with that said, they completely slayed "Teargas" and "July," so i was a happy camper

plus i think they're deliberately mixing the band 'unwell' so Opeth sound better, which is fairly typical practice now (sadly). their guitars were practically white noise.

[black_biff_stadler]

i think they're deliberately mixing the band 'unwell' so Opeth sound better, which is fairly typical practice now

I've never heard of this anywhere until now. Please elaborate. I'm not doubting you either but, if this is an actual thing, I'm shocked I've never heard of it until now.

[?]

I love Katatonia, but I agree that they don't sound similar to Opeth at all. However, their music is more diverse than you might think - as SITS mentioned, the setlist focuses heavily on the new stuff, so this is like going to see an Opeth gig with few to no songs with growls and judging their music based on that.

[black_biff_stadler]

Fair enough.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

plus i think they're deliberately mixing the band 'unwell' so Opeth sound better, which is fairly typical practice now (sadly). their guitars were practically white noise.

Well i kind of agree with you atleast on bigger arenas the opening act usually gets less PAs and limited resources for the sound to make the main act go out in a blaze basically. But in this case with Opeth and Katatonia i'm not entirely sure that's the case though.

[KevShmev]

Awesome show last night.  Of course.  Akerfeldt was funny as usual, the set list was the same as it has been at other shows on this tour and Haxprocess was a better live song that I thought it would be, so my previous "it seems like an odd choice to play live" comment was proven incorrect.

[seasonsinthesky]

i think they're deliberately mixing the band 'unwell' so Opeth sound better, which is fairly typical practice now

I've never heard of this anywhere until now. Please elaborate. I'm not doubting you either but, if this is an actual thing, I'm shocked I've never heard of it until now.

yep, it's been practice for... well, ever, i am supposing. it's much, much more pronounced when you have a truly gigantic band headlining, and unknowns/locals opening. obviously there are always exceptions, and festivals have a lot more subtlety/shading; but, overall, the headliner is always, always given the best and the openers are lesser.

it's not just sound, either — Katatonia used the same lighting rig as Opeth at the show i saw, but most of Katatonia's effects were late even though they play every song to a click (for backing tracks). lights are always timed to the click, so either they programmed them late on purpose to make Opeth look better, or the lighting guy flew solo without the timed programming (a decision i'd weigh toward the 'making the band look less great' since human error would be obvious with lights; not to mention i doubt Opeth play to a click and the lights were spot on, so if the lighting guy was hitting cues by hand for Opeth, he clearly had great timing).

if they were co-headlining, i'm sure it'd be a different story!

[skydivingninja]

I think opening bands get screwed over like that simply because all the pre-show stuff is getting the headliners sounding perfect so there's not much wait between bands and not a lot of mic checking.  So once all that's done, the openers have very little time to make sure they sound just as great.  The headliners the star of the show, of course they get the most attention. 

Katatonia sounded pretty good in Raleigh though, so maybe they had extra time. 

[Ben_Jamin]

This sucks, my ride bailed on me so I might not be able to make the Boulder show. I am planning on attending, but no ride makes it a problem

[Big Hath]

just got back to Dallas after watching the show in Tulsa last night.

I'm a fan of Katatonia's last four albums, so it was cool to see them live, especially with this set.  The highlights from their set were "My Twin", "Burn the Remembrance", "Soil's Song", "July", and "Forsaker".

Opeth was awesome, as expected.  They traded out "Hessian Peel" in favor of "Heir Apparant" which was cool, but to my disappointment they also traded out "Reverie/Harlequin Forest" for "The Lines in my Hand" which I saw last year in Dallas.  "White Cluster", "Deliverance" and "Blackwater Park" were amazing.  The acoustic "Demon of the Fall" was really cool.  I never noticed before but Opeth has some pretty stellar live backing vocals with Fredrik and now Joakim.  The idiot moshers brought the experience down a bit, but it was great overall.

[black_biff_stadler]

I really wish Mike hadn't lost his ability to tell when using a phase shifter ain't necessary (i.e. replacing parts that were recorded with an acoustic with it like the middle acoustic section of Blackwater Park or Demon of the Fall) or also when enough effect is being used (White Cluster's verses sounded like he was playing a didgeridoo.)

[Big Hath]

ha! I know exactly what you're talking about with the studio acoustic/live electric stuff.  It sounds so weird the way he's doing it live.

[Mosh]

Just got back from Opeth! Was fucking awesome. Because they did 2 nights here, we got a two song encore. Here's the setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/opeth/2013/fox-theatre-boulder-co-6bd9be6a.html

[Sketchy]

I got hold of Morningrise. The drums are pretty thin sounding, but I'm really enjoying the album itself.

[BlackInk]

So far Morningrise is surprising me. Out of the 3 I've heard 2 have made "the list" when I thought none would make it. Opeth is actually doing better than expected in generall, 22/37 songs have so far made my list.

[black_biff_stadler]

Eh Blackie, what's this list you speak of?

[BlackInk]

I listen through every song of every progressive band I can find and put the songs I think are good enough on a list from best to "least best". I will probably make a thread about it sometime when I'm done with the current 32 bands I'm working through. Opeth included.

Not that it's the most interesting stuff ever, but when I'm done it will have taken me a lot of time and I'll probably want to put it somewhere.

[DebraKadabra]

DTFers and their lists

[aprilethereal]

I got hold of Morningrise. The drums are pretty thin sounding, but I'm really enjoying the album itself.

It's a fucking great album.

DTFers and their lists

[seasonsinthesky]

I got hold of Morningrise. The drums are pretty thin sounding, but I'm really enjoying the album itself.

you know, the more i listen to those first two records, the more it sounds like they used triggered drums. honestly, all of Morningrise sounds straight up programmed to me, but i'd be willing to concede to the scenario of Anders Nordin playing an e-kit (or having his drums replaced). the technology was primitive at the time but was around, and the Swedes have always been at the edge of new recording and mixing techniques.

obviously, Dan Swäno and Edge of Sanity made Crimson the same year, so he was into using real drums in the records he produced at the time — anybody know of any other mid-'90s Swäno-produced albums that have fake-sounding drums besides Morningrise? does anyone else even think the same way about them here?

[Jaq]

Morningrise period sounds like a demo compared to a lot of mid-90s metal albums, as much as I like it. I never really thought in terms of replaced drums or programmed drums, I just thought in terms of "incredibly low recording budget." 

[?]

Dan talks about the making of Morningrise here: https://unisound.se/book/black/#7 He isn't pleased with the drum sound, either. The same year he engineered and mixed Brave Murder Day by Katatonia, and that album has a pretty artificial drum sound too, but it fits the music perfectly IMO.

Regarding triggers, I remember reading a post by Mikael from the Watershed era on the old official Opeth forum and I think he said Damnation is the only Opeth album on which the drums weren't triggered (obviously they've released Heritage since then). I can post the link later if I find it.

[Scrub206]

Ok so I've been just getting into the growly kind of vocals and I'm starting to appreciate some. I still LOVE heritage and its the only Opeth album I own. I want to expand my Opeth library. Where should I go from Heritage? Preferably less growly first? Then I'll build up.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Ok so I've been just getting into the growly kind of vocals and I'm starting to appreciate some. I still LOVE heritage and its the only Opeth album I own. I want to expand my Opeth library. Where should I go from Heritage? Preferably less growly first? Then I'll build up.

Damnation doesn't have any growls, so that's probably a good choice.

[Buddyhunter1]

Ok so I've been just getting into the growly kind of vocals and I'm starting to appreciate some. I still LOVE heritage and its the only Opeth album I own. I want to expand my Opeth library. Where should I go from Heritage? Preferably less growly first? Then I'll build up.

Go with Watershed. Out of all their non-Heritage/Damnation albums, it features the least amount of growls and the most prog influences. After that, check out Ghost Reveries.

[Scrub206]

Thanks Shadow and Buddyhunter. Ill check those out!

[Limelight]

Echoing what's already been said, with Ghost Reveries and Watershed they really started pushing the progrock influence alot more. More keys, mellotron, clean vocals etc.

With Deliverance and Damnation they went in opposite directions, so Damnation is the light album (only clean vox, no metal at all) and Deliverance is dark, brutal and heavy.

Before that, they pretty much kept refining, diversifying and nailing down their sound with each album, up to and including Blackwater Park.

[Scrub206]

Damnation is actually sex to my ears +________+ where the fuck has Opeth been my whole life?

[Lynxo]

One does not simply listen to Windowpane without an erection.

[Zydar]

Death Whispered A Lullaby

"Oooooh, sleep my chiiiild"

[black_biff_stadler]

One does not simply listen to Windowpane without an erection.

Just be careful what you do with that erection. I hear it ain't so easy to rid the disease.

[Buddyhunter1]

One does not simply listen to Windowpane without an erection.

Just be careful what you do with that erection. I hear it ain't so easy to rid the disease.

[Big Hath]

One does not simply listen to Windowpane without an erection.

Just be careful what you do with that erection. I hear it ain't so easy to rid the disease.

it depends on if it's a morningrise or not.  It takes a while to get deliverance with one of those.  It seems bleak at first, but eventually you have a grand conjuration.

[black_biff_stadler]

 

Culminating in a white cluster on the face of Melinda?