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

[?]

According to some reports Mikael has been ill lately, so they've changed the setlist a little bit: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/opeth/2013/the-norva-norfolk-va-53d81365.html

[aprilethereal]

According to some reports Mikael has been ill lately, so they've changed the setlist a little bit: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/opeth/2013/the-norva-norfolk-va-53d81365.html

i'm so jealous ..

[black_biff_stadler]

The addition of Atonement is only atoned for by the fact that they're also playing Rev/Har.

[Rattlehead]

Atonement is awesome though...  Then again everything by Opeth is 

[black_biff_stadler]

_floyd, senecadawg2, TheOutlawXanadu

[Silver Tears]

Awesome!

[BlackInk]

 

[skydivingninja]

According to some reports Mikael has been ill lately, so they've changed the setlist a little bit: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/opeth/2013/the-norva-norfolk-va-53d81365.html

Wouldn't it make more sense to take out a growly song if he wasn't feeling well?

Oh well.  Glad I got to see Hope Leaves last night in addition to all that!

[?]

According to some reports Mikael has been ill lately, so they've changed the setlist a little bit: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/opeth/2013/the-norva-norfolk-va-53d81365.html

Wouldn't it make more sense to take out a growly song if he wasn't feeling well?

Mikael recorded the vocal tracks for MAYH when he had a cold, so it doesn't prevent him from growling. Actually growling may be easier, because you don't have to struggle to stay in tune.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I think growling (if you're doing it right) puts less strain on your voice than actual singing does. Of course, I could be wrong about that.

[black_biff_stadler]

Regardless, his clean voice was superb last night. No noticeable struggling on high notes, seemingly perfect pitch, and his vibrato is amazingly good these days.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

What songs did they play?

[?]

Regardless, his clean voice was superb last night. No noticeable struggling on high notes, seemingly perfect pitch, and his vibrato is amazingly good these days.

He has probably recovered then At least the recent setlists have been longer again.

[black_biff_stadler]

What songs did they play?

Off the top of my head:

The Devil's Orchard
Ghost of Perdition
White Cluster
Hope Leaves
Atonement
Deliverance
Häxprocess
Hessian Peel
Demon of the Fall (acoustic obviously these days)
Harlequin Forest
Blackwater Park

Definitely not that exact order, but that's the closest I could recall.

Edit: I filled in the setlist at setlist.fm but, while I'm completely certain that all eleven tracks I added were actually played, I'm very iffy on the order in which they were played and just wanna make sure I didn't leave out any tracks.

Here's the link: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/opeth/2013/lincoln-theatre-raleigh-nc-2bd800de.html

[KevShmev]

Haxprocess looks like a bizarre set list choice, but the rest of it looks great.  Five days to go!!

[jammindude]

I think growling (if you're doing it right) puts less strain on your voice than actual singing does. Of course, I could be wrong about that.

I've heard this...but I think it involves doing it really gently and letting the microphone do all the work...I think people would be surprised how softly you can growl and really make it sound cool with your mouth *directly* on the mic (provided it's clean).   You don't have to "push it to the limit" to get a good growl.

[?]

^That's exactly how Mikael growls (and me too): the output volume isn't loud but you can do some deep grunts with ease. I remember Mikael once said that clean vocals are harder for him, because he has to sing louder than when growling.

[skydivingninja]

Haxprocess looks like a bizarre set list choice, but the rest of it looks great.  Five days to go!!

It was very cool live.  I'm sure I would have liked it more had people not been talking about how they were going to get beer just five feet from me.  That was annoying .

I think B_F was pretty spot on with the setlist order except Haxprocess was after Hessian Peel, not before.  Its pretty much identical to the other shows they've played this tour.

[Zydar]

Opeth Making 'Good Progress' On New Album

Akerfeldt says one song called "Goblin" colds like the band Goblin as a tribute. Another is a 70s-sounding ballad with a string vocal. "It doesn't have any super-technical riffs, it's just a strong vocal melody and a pretty sad-sounding song," he says.

The third new song harks back to Opeth's early style. "I was just lumping riffs on top of each other, arrangements, and it's all over the place. I've kind of outgrown that style of writing, because that's the way I used to write on the first, say, two records. And I was like, I have to stop myself here and arrange this a little bit. But then I was, like, 'Why?' OK, I'm just gonna let this song be the schizophrenic, kind of, it-doesn't-make-much-sense-but-I-kind-of-like-it-type song. So it's really long."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/upcoming_releases/opeth_making_good_progress_on_new_album.html

[black_biff_stadler]

I'd be very surprised if the third song he mentioned bears any remote similarity to the earlier style. I say this because I have trouble seeing him writing anything like that given his current tiring of metal combined with how much of a stretch it was when he compared Heritage to 70s prog.

[aprilethereal]

^^ this

[ColdFireYYZ]

I'm really looking forward to hearing the new album now after reading those descriptions. Goblin (the band) is great, so hopefully the song will be good without being too derivative. The other two sound interesting too. As a huge Heritage fan, I hope this album will be an evolution of that sound.

[BlackInk]

Sounds good, that'll be one of my most anticipated albums of whatever year it'll come out.

[adace]

Sounds good, that'll be one of my most anticipated albums of whatever year it'll come out.

This.

[Dark Castle]

Sounds like more Heritage, and I agree with what Black Floyd said.

[Pyroph]

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.

[KevShmev]

Interesting.  Our show tomorrow night is doors open at 7 and show starts at 8, so how long is Katatonia playing?  Just wondering what time Opeth will hit the stage.

[Pyroph]

They played for an hour for me from 8-9, then Opeth didn't get on stage until 9:30.

[KevShmev]

Okay, that sounds about right.  The friend who is going with me is returning from a business trip late afternoon tomorrow, so there is no way we can be there by 7, but we saw Opeth at that same venue back in '05 and getting a good spot to see everything was easy, and I doubt he cares much about seeing Katatonia either (I liked some of their stuff I heard years ago, but none of it made a lasting impact), so we can probably get there right before Opeth hits the stage and be fine.

[Pyroph]

Yeah it was nowhere near as difficult getting a spot as it was for SW's show.

[black_biff_stadler]

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.

I agree with all of this. I will say I very slightly enjoyed Katatonia for a little while but a lot of that probably had to do with the excitement of being closer to the stage (10 feet, dead center in this case) than I'd been for any show since being maybe 7 or 8 feet from Michael Romeo when I saw Symphony X in 2002 as well as the anticipation of Opeth lifting my spirits and also just being happy to meet up with senecadawg and TOX.

Beyond this, the music was (imo) dreadfully samey and monotonous plus the singer had worse stage presence than any singer I've seen in my life and I've seen Stroke 9 (horrible "Little Black Backpack" song from around '99/'00) against my will so the bar for that honor was already raised scarily high.

[?]

Lack of love for Katatonia always makes me go

To get this thread back on track, I have to say I'm eagerly looking forward to the new album, because it seems that not even Mikael himself has a proper idea of what's coming up yet. The comment about one song being written in the vein of Orchid/MR structurally sounds interesting, but I thought Heritage was a step back in that direction already because of some abrupt transitions. I had no problem with them (or Heritage itself, for that matter), but I hope the song won't sound too disjointed.

[aprilethereal]

Good to see I'm not the only one disliking Katatonia

[black_biff_stadler]

My biggest problem is how they've somehow become the most frequently mentioned band when the question is "I like Opeth a bunch. What band(s) do you know of that sound(s) like them?" Considering how Opeth is, for the most part, extremely heavier than them with far more varied song writing, largely based on roaring, and have way longer songs, I've never understood how that sentiment gained any momentum.

[senecadawg2]

Besides the fact that Mikael has been vocal about his support for Katatonia, I also don't get the comparisons. Compared to Opeth, as has been mentioned a few times already, Katatonia's music is incredibly dull and doesn't offer a very wide range of sounds. It's awfully samey.

As for the comments about the upcoming album, count me among those anxiously awaiting more. Heritage gave off such different vibes than any of their previous albums, so I'm very interested to see the direction they take with this one.