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

[?]

I think it's a nice approach. Overall I think artists should play what they want to play first, but dragging out all heavy songs for only clean is kinda drastic. The best way IMO is to find a balance of having both what you wanna play yourself, and something for the fans. I don't think the fans win if you play only songs they want to hear, and you're clearly not into it during the concert. It always feels better when you can tell the musicians are enjoying themselves as well.

This. I'd be ok with a set without growls, but on the other hand I'm happy that I'll hear a more diverse selection of songs at my first Opeth concert in November.

I hate it when some bands are really lazy at changing their setlist and play the same "hits" year after year and tour after tour. However, Opeth went a bit too far when they ignored all the death metal songs in favor of stuff like The Throat of Winter and Hex Omega, even though songs like Face of Melinda and A Fair Judgement are pretty popular. I think every band needs to find a good balance between crowd pleasers and obscurities to try and make everyone happy: casual fans, diehards and the musicians themselves.

[Mladen]

I like the new album quite a bit, although it's not as exciting as Heritage. It's a bit more refined and it truly sounds like Mikael knows how to approach prog, which isn't surprising knowing the amount of music he listens to and collects. Favorites: Moon above sun below, River, Cusp of eternity.

[RandalGraves]

While I had seen Opeth play live three times before, I really enjoyed the Heritage tour.  I only hope that the next live Blu-ray/DVD includes a lot of Heritage and Pale Communion, because I'm not a big fan of the mixes (kick drum is a little muffled for my taste).  They get the job done in the end, but the Heritage tracks hit much harder live.  Plus, that Folklore jam.   

[Zydar]

A short interview with Mikael and Fredrik.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqTkrijivII

[Phoenix87x]

This new song eternal rains is pretty damn good.

[Podaar]

A short interview with Mikael and Fredrik.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqTkrijivII

But, you know...on second thought...Fredrik did look a bit constipated. Hmmm...

[kirksnosehair]

Ugh. I hate having to stop reading threads because people are too impatient to wait for albums to actually be released. Maybe I'm turning into an old geezer (i.e. Steven Wilson), but it's fucking annoying.

What gets me is if you even mention a leak of a Dream Theater album here you'll get the ban hammer, but it's open season on anything else. 

[ariich]

A short interview with Mikael and Fredrik.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqTkrijivII

Fredrik didn't say a word in this part 1. Hoping he gets to contribute in later sections.

[adace]

Just wanted to point out that the lyrics for this album are fantastic per usual.
https://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/opeth/palecommunion.html

[Buddyhunter1]

Yeah, that's one area that has definitely improved from Heritage.

[?]

I got my CD + T-shirt package in the mail! I'm not able to listen to the album yet, but the back cover looks awesome!

[Tomislav95]

After more than a few listens I really like whole album. Definitely better than Heritage.

[Zantera]

I've only listened once so far, but my thoughts can be summed up as:

1. Overall a pleasant surprise, and I could see this working its way up to being somewhere in the middle of their discography (6 or 7 at best)
2. Much better than Heritage
3. Still not too excited about the 70's direction, so while this was good and better than I thought, I don't see myself going "I wanna listen to some Opeth, I'm gonna put on Pale Communion"

But I'll listen again today for sure.

[Zydar]

There are more songs I like on this one than on Heritage (Eternal Rains Will Come, Cusp Of Eternity, Goblin, and Faith In Others so far).

[PixelDream]

So the album has leaked weeks ago, and Opeth decides to offer a low quality stream.

[Zantera]

So the album has leaked weeks ago, and Opeth decides to offer a low quality stream.

It came out in stores yesterday as far as I know.

[?]

Just got through my first listen and I like the album! Real strings definitely add to the last two songs, River is surprisingly poppy (the first half anyway) and Mikael's raspy vocals are cool in Moon Above, Sun Below.

I got the latest issue of Soundi (a Finnish rock mag) two days ago and there's an interview with Mikael. Some interesting bits:

-The article begins with a conversation between Mikael and Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains) - they were playing at the same festival in Finland in July. Mikael reveals Dirt was the first CD he ever bought, and Cantrell says he saw Opeth live when they were touring with Mastodon and he was hooked immediately.
-Axe and Mendez rehearsed together for two weeks at the latter's home in Barcelona, and they arrived in Wales a couple of days before Mikael. By the time Mikael got into the studio they had recorded their parts for six songs already. As a self-confessed control freak Mike was like "what the hell", but after listening to the tracks he was blown away.
-Mikael and Steven Wilson had a fight over some vocal effects that SW thought would ruin Faith in Others, but they eventually reached a compromise.
-The working title of MA,SB was "Floyd", as the first version of the song was heavily influenced by the first PF album. Fredrik thought the song was fantastic, but Mikael reworked it almost completely, and when Fredrik heard the new version a couple of weeks later, he said "if you can afford to throw melodies of that caliber away, this must be one hell of an album".
-The working title of Eternal Rains was "Scott" (after Scott Walker), while Cusp of Eternity was called "Zep" after a drum beat reminiscent of Immigrant Song.
-Mikael admits he has a tendency to worry too much about all kinds of things, and he jokes that if Manowar are "warriors of the world", then Opeth are "worriers of the world".

[RandalGraves]

I would have liked to have heard the original iteration of MA, SB as I think that songs as is completely kills the momentum of the album.

[PolarizeMe]

My Pale Communion box set arrived today, so it'll be my first time I'll be listening to the album. For anyone who bought the vinyl or box set, are you having trouble with the link to the download code? Whenever I type mine up, all I get is "coupon is invalid".

[Tunnel Vision]

Has anyone purchased Pale Communion on HD Tracks? I'm curious if there is sound differences between the CD, Blu ray, and HDTrack versions.

https://www.hdtracks.com/pale-communion

Edit: This DR Database entry looks the same as the cd version (at least in terms of dynamic range).
https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/72229

[wolfking]

Is the bonus DVD on the deluxe edition just the 5.1 audio?  Is there any video extras?

[PolarizeMe]

Is the bonus DVD on the deluxe edition just the 5.1 audio?  Is there any video extras?

No video extras on the BluRay, just a 5.1 and Stereo mix of the album plus two bonus live tracks recorded during one of their unplugged shows in 2012. One of the live tracks is a cover of Black Sabbath's Solitude and the other is a cover of Var Kommer Barnen In by an obscure (presumably Swedish) band called Hansson de Wolfe.

[PixelDream]

This is a weird album for me. I definitely like it, it's imaginative and musically strong and all that, but somehow I need to force myself to listen to it. The last track is something different though. Faith in Others is very moving and definitely the best track on the album for me.

[PolarizeMe]

Faith In Others is my favorite track off of Pale Communion as well. I definitely like it, and it left me a better impression that Heritage did but it's too early to tell if this will grow on me much more than Heritage did. Maybe repeated listens will help.

[Onno]

Just got my CD today! Will have my first listen this evening

[Zydar]

The album starts off very strong with my two favourite tracks right away.

[Zantera]

I would say the album gets stronger the more it goes on. I like the first track, but the second one is probably the weakest on the album for me. Still, I think this album is really good and much better than I thought it would be.

[Lynxo]

I really like this album. Even though I always thought Heritage was solid, I always felt it lacked direction. I don't get that feeling from this album at all.

I will need more listens before I can provide any deeper analysis though.

[hefdaddy42]

After one listen, I like this album a lot.  Of course, I didn't have as bad a reaction to Heritage as everyone else did, either.

The RORORO is still an acquired taste for me, and although I think Opeth has always done a fantastic job with them, it is most definitely NOT a quality I go in search of in my music, so a lack of them is not a negative with me.

[Riitasointi]

I finally gave this one a listen yesterday. It sounds promising, I'm sure it will grow with repeated listens. I rather enjoyed Heritage as well, even though it's of course not even near the quality of their previous records.

I'll post more after a few more spins.

[ariich]

I really like this album. Even though I always thought Heritage was solid, I always felt it lacked direction. I don't get that feeling from this album at all.

Sums up my feelings exactly. There is some lovely stuff on Heritage, particualrly at the start and end of the album, but it meanders a lot in the middle. Not so on PC.

[?]

Eternal Rains has already become one of my all-time favorite Opeth songs

My Pale Communion box set arrived today, so it'll be my first time I'll be listening to the album. For anyone who bought the vinyl or box set, are you having trouble with the link to the download code? Whenever I type mine up, all I get is "coupon is invalid".

I got the download code with the CD+Bluray as well and it didn't work yesterday, but I just tried it again and I managed to dl the tracks.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I still need to check out this album. I think I liked the song they released, but honestly I can't even remember what it sounded like.

[goo-goo]

I don't see Martin Lopez' name on the credits. I thought I read earlier on this thread that Martin played drums on two tracks.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

OK i'm off the loop...why two threads?