Wow that made sense. I mean it, not sarcastic at all, excellent way to look at the entire thing. You/Peter do have a point about the overall failure of internet freedom with these new mega-sites, the most evident being Youtube and the copyright crap. Anyway, back on to the subject, I guess it's possible that the Catch 22 remake isn't really meant as a very serious effort on Peter's part. Actually, I might get to ask him in person since I've got a backstage pass for the Hypocrisy show on May 31st :D.

Equilibrium time! In light of my having reviewed both their first and second album, I thought it'd be interesting to make a detailed comparison between the two "eras" of their career (really the two albums...).

First of all comes the (1) straight Viking metal era of Equilibrium's career. This of course consists in the debut album, Turis Fratyr, and represents their most high quality output as of today (I have my doubts as to whether this'll ever change...). The music here is kept at a very appreciable level of simplicity that they'd later ditch for all kinds of elements in their music. This simplicity, in turn, insures that the debut album is extremely coherent from beginning to end (well, except the shitty Met) and is a very enjoyable record when listened from beginning to end. Naming highlights is rather useless since this is one of those releases where you can take any one song (again, not Met) and love it individually, yet also listen to it with the rest of the album, where it works to make a total greater than the sum of its parts, which is the one thing every good band should strive for in their albums.

Second comes the (2) weightily epic phase, also correspondent to their breakthrough within the greater world of metal (Nuclear Blast has a lot of responsibility in that department). The albums here are the obligatory Sagas and, from the stuff I've heard, almost certainly its follow-up, Rekreatur. The thing to remember is that the music here is still predominantly good and very enjoyable. However, it's inferior to what came before it for a number of reasons. The more epic, advanced Norse/Germanic mythological imagery has been abandoned for a much more pedestrian vulgarization of that same imagery, while the music gains many elements (numerous folk instrumentals, vocal styles, strange song structures). This weighs the entire thing down significantly and makes it considerably less enjoyable and, perhaps just as bad, less original than its predecessor because of the uncanny similarity to what other folk/viking metal bands tend to do these days. Still, I still plan on getting the third album upon its release because I know it'll be enjoyable and good. I'm just not expecting another Turis Fratyr.

Ok, so I've decided to do it about Sabbat (Jpn) this time. Basically their work is separated in 3 distinct periods, although they may very well start a new one with their new album since they have a new guitarist and it's their first full-length in 7 years.

Early Years
Their first period would be the early years, basically all their recordings before their debut - although I'd say this one sits on the edge - and their most stable lineup with the arrival of Temis Osmond on guitar and Zorugelion on drums, making Gezol the only original member. So those early years are marked by their 5 EPs. Musically it goes from some kind of... original heavy metal to getting closer to their evil thrash metal they were known for since Envenom. So their very first release is the legendary self-titled Sabbat EP. This one is something, both songs featured, "Mion's Hill" and "Black Fire" still stand the test of time. They're probably Sabbat's two most important songs, they don't do a gig without playing both, "Black Fire" has been re-recorded several times as well as dozens of versions sung in different languages have been recorded; from French to some African dialect passing by Finnish or Malaysian. And there's of course the epic "Mion's Hill" with some slightly repetitive and almost "nostalgic", haunting maybe (for the lack of better words) riffs and those full of feelings leads. Also a song which has been re-recorded a dozen of times, the original is a little more than 5 minutes, but those often epic or with solo battles versions go up to 18 minutes on the Mion's Hill EP which consists of 5 versions (there's others out there too) of the song. Otherwise it can be kinda hard to appropriately describe Sabbat's sound here other than the riffs are a headbanging heaven (as always). But something you can see here that they always had - Temis just made it more wild and crazy - is the love for leads and kickass riffs detours before catching back the road. Adding some select pieces of keyboard or accoustic guitar intro/outros as well as for atmospheric effects in the songs could be considered a characteristic of the band's sound.

Evil Records mid-period
Then their mid-period would be one of evil black/thrash, with every important release being put out by their label Evil Records, as with their first 5 EPs. I said I'm kind on the edge as for including Envenom; Temis Osmond only contributed solos and he then became Sabbat's more important guitarist being the longest-standing, playing in the band for 14 years. But at the same time, the album isn't to dissimilar to either the lasts of those early EPs or their sophomore Evoke, so I'd consider it on the Evil Records albums block. While the band evolved their sound on each EP, making it maybe more thrashier or more elaborate, more evil too. And that's what I think really separates most this period over the two others beside how it was practically divided by their first album and when they signed to Iron Pegasus, how this period is definitely their darkest and most evil one, refining their songwriting approach. You just have to listen to "Devil Worship" off Envenom, and here, there's no better qualifier than the song title itself. Their first 4 albums are not too dissimilar to the following or preceding one in terms of music, though they manage to get a different production job making them all have a different mood with the more ghastly Disembody or "desecrating" Fetishism for example. Though while maintaining Sabbat's own unique riffing and lead style, Temis bring it a step further, particularly in the lead department. He's got the fingers faster, playing with unusual higher notes, sometimes bending the cords for different effects. But then they end this period with their haunting The Dwelling. One track showcasing all what the band has learned in the past few years with some different aesthetics here and there and song progression, it feels more classical in general.

The Iron Pegasus albums
And now, after releasing themselves their own material for almost 15 years, the band got - or decided - signed to the German underground label Iron Pegasus, offering a wider (and easier) distribution. The first album is the very Japanese Karisma. Here, they dropped the evil sound a notch, opting for one that would accommodate better a more oriental sounding - and epic at times - album, entirely sung in Japanese (there is an English version but it is highly inferior, it's main interest resting in an additional song). While Temis Osmond has always showed himself as a very versatile guitarist, in the last few albums he showed himself on the top of his form, his fingers all over the place, playing riffs and leads for 2 minutes until the band take the song back on track in force. The last 3 songs of Satanasword blow my mind every time I hear them. Since that album they dropped a little the oriental sound on each album, bringing some more evil sounds on Karmagmassacre while maintaining their particular writing and riffing style.

So, they've taken that similar path of strangeness that many of these Japanese bands seem to love so much? Kind of like newer Sigh (at least, Imaginary Soundscape...). Still, cool about the stuff being sung in Japanese.

Not really, this is pretty much... original thrash metal with some oriental sounding melodies. Very thrash but at the same time different from what you're used to hear, nowhere near Imaginary Sonicscape's experimentation.

For some reason I've always had some trouble getting into all these black/thrash + other stuff inserted into the mix Japanese bands.

Since seeing them live I'm interested in writing a text for Dark Tranquillity, despite my partial knowledge of the two albums after The Gallery. Shouldn't be a problem though, I only need to have a breather between work.

Further listens have cemented their newest album as a solid effort with real replay value. It doesn't lose its aura after a few listens, which was what I feared after seeing those three 100% reviews done so soon after the album's release.

Okay, Dark Tranquillity time. I haven't heard every single one of their releases, but I have a pretty precise idea of the band's overall evolution, divided in four phases.

As with many bands, the best way to divide the career is through a combination of fundamental line-up changes and musical variation. Thus, their career began with the (1) pre-Mikael Stanne period, and is basically everything preceding the 1995 Of Chaos and Eternal Night EP. This period consists of a very organic and eclectic take on melodic death metal, with a sound based on mixing death metal with various forms of melody, be it guitar-based or otherwise (clean female and male vocals; strange song structures). The main representative of this sound is of course the Skydancer album, which is good but ultimately immature and imperfect in its rendition of the Gothenburg sound. Of particular note is Anders Fridén's vocal work, which is quite hard to distinguish from Mikael Stanne's work with early In Flames (when compared to their later and current, more individually developed voices).

The emergence of Dark Tranquillity as we know them truly came about during their (2) classic phase, or when the band's individual sound was fully developed. This is a very melodic evolution of the previous phase's sound, primarily apparent on the monumental The Gallery, their finest album and one of melodic death metal's finest as well. The sound just seems so natural and accomplished here, and this is what I'd call the true birth of Dark Tranquillity.

Next up is the band's more curious (3) transition phase, from their old sound towards the more modern Dark Tranquillity of today. However, as suspicious as that sounds, this evolution does in no way compromise the base quality of the music: Dark Tranquillity never ceased to be great. This particular phase consists of two rather different albums: the experimental and rather light Projector and the more modern-sounding Haven (also closer in sound to the next phase). Not much needs to be said here, except that the music is very appreciable and that both albums are key to understanding the band's musical journey.

Finally comes what has rapidly become the longest of their career phases, (4) contemporaneous Dark Tranquillity. It started with 2002's Damage Done and doesn't seem to want to end. This phase largely continues on the path pioneered with Haven and consists of well-produced metal with mostly harsh vocals (with some exceptions, most of them being in the latter half of this phase), less "organic" melodic riffs and heavy reliance on keyboards for additional melody. Unlike bands like Soilwork who seem to deviate into a disheartening metalcore direction, this is pure metal and that truly saves the music from mediocrity. For four albums now they've shown themselves capable of writing catchy and intelligent metal songs, keeping every single ounce of integrity true. For example, the brand-new We Are The Void, despite some filler, is still a high-quality album which absolutely does not compromise to sell more copies. This is an example of modern success in metal from which many bands should take a lesson.

Satyricon

I bet you didn't know that Satyr did not found Satyricon, but it's true. Nevertheless, he joined the band when they were still in development stages and has appeared on every recording and is undoubtedly responsible for why they suck now. Let's take a look back in time...

Apparently when the band first formed they played death metal but quickly decided to change to black metal once Satyr joined (similar to how Euronymous got Immortal into black metal when they began the band as a death metal outfit, and thank goodness for that). I wouldn't say the death metal beginning is anything worth mentioning though (then why did I?), so let's move on to what Satyricon are known for: black metal.

The All Evil demo is a significant release not because of the music, which is only slightly interesting bedroom black metal, but because it's the only Satyricon release not to feature the mighty Frost on drums. Frost would make his first appearence on The Forest is my Throne[/b] demo, which is of much higher quality than the first and is where Satyricon's career really began. The demo features the band's distinctive, low-fi and aggressive sound that would later be present on the debut album, [i]Dark Medeival Times. This album, released in early '94 showcases a much more melodic approach to black metal than what was commonplace at the time, especially with the inclusion of flutes as well as ambient keyboards and acoustic guitars which other bands had dabbled with. Just four months after the release of this seminal album, comes the second full length, The Shadowthrone. Most would point to the subsequent album, but this is my personal favourite Satyricon offering. The band was still young, but their maturity is at its peak with songs like Hvite Krists Død and In The Mist By The Hills (one of my favourite black metal songs). The music is varied with blistering black metal merged with tranquil melodies as well as grandious epics (Dominions of Satyricon). It even shows Satyricon experimenting with Viking metal (Vikingland), very successfully, too. There's something very mystical about this album, I can't quite place it, but I haven't heard very many others quite like it. Samoth also plays on this one. In the fine year of 1996, Satyricon released the album that they will probably be most remembered for, and one that you listen to frequently: Nemesis Divina. The style is similar to its predecessor but more concentrated, yielding shorter songs but retaining and epic quality. Frost is absolutely nuts on this one, and Nocturno Culto is a very welcome addition to the band.

Something must have happened after the release of this album because, for whatever reason, Satyricon decided to abandon their "True Norwegian Black Metal" style for a much different approach to extreme music. Rebel Extravenganza is a pretty stand-alone Satyricon release in that it doesn't sound very much like anything else they've done. It's still black metal, but with a very modern overhaul and some experimental/industrial influences. It's not terrible, with songs like Filthgrinder being nice and vicious, but overall it's pretty damned forgettable. On their website, the band describe it as "the most Black Metal album we’ve ever made" which is a blatant lie. 2002's Volcano, however, is when most consider the band to have completely sold out into the slick, modern black metal scene and is the album that really divided their fan base. Some saw Now, Diabolical as a return, of sorts. It's still cleanly produced and fairly forced, but the songs are better than on Volcano. The Age of Nero is unfortunately not a good sign of things to come. It's simply boring, predictable, and lacking in the passion that so effortlessly fueled their early material. Oh well, at least Frost is still kicking ass in 1349.

Satyricon

I bet you didn't know that Satyr did not found Satyricon, but it's true. Nevertheless, he joined the band when they were still in development stages and has appeared on every recording and is undoubtedly responsible for why they suck now. Let's take a look back in time...

Apparently when the band first formed they played death metal but quickly decided to change to black metal once Satyr joined (similar to how Euronymous got Immortal into black metal when they began the band as a death metal outfit, and thank goodness for that). I wouldn't say the death metal beginning is anything worth mentioning though (then why did I?), so let's move on to what Satyricon are known for: black metal.

The All Evil demo is a significant release not because of the music, which is only slightly interesting bedroom black metal, but because it's the only Satyricon release not to feature the mighty Frost on drums. Frost would make his first appearence on The Forest is my Throne demo, which is of much higher quality than the first and is where Satyricon's career really began. The demo features the band's distinctive, low-fi and aggressive sound that would later be present on the debut album, Dark Medeival Times. This album, released in early '94 showcases a much more melodic approach to black metal than what was commonplace at the time, especially with the inclusion of flutes as well as ambient keyboards and acoustic guitars which other bands had dabbled with. Just four months after the release of this seminal album, comes the second full length, The Shadowthrone. Most would point to the subsequent album, but this is my personal favourite Satyricon offering. The band was still young, but their maturity is at its peak with songs like Hvite Krists Død and In The Mist By The Hills (one of my favourite black metal songs). The music is varied with blistering black metal merged with tranquil melodies as well as grandious epics (Dominions of Satyricon). It even shows Satyricon experimenting with Viking metal (Vikingland), very successfully, too. There's something very mystical about this album, I can't quite place it, but I haven't heard very many others quite like it. Samoth also plays on this one. In the fine year of 1996, Satyricon released the album that they will probably be most remembered for, and one that you listen to frequently: Nemesis Divina. The style is similar to its predecessor but more concentrated, yielding shorter songs but retaining and epic quality. Frost is absolutely nuts on this one, and Nocturno Culto is a very welcome addition to the band.

Something must have happened after the release of this album because, for whatever reason, Satyricon decided to abandon their "True Norwegian Black Metal" style for a much different approach to extreme music. Rebel Extravenganza is a pretty stand-alone Satyricon release in that it doesn't sound very much like anything else they've done. It's still black metal, but with a very modern overhaul and some experimental/industrial influences. It's not terrible, with songs like Filthgrinder being nice and vicious, but overall it's pretty damned forgettable. On their website, the band describe it as "the most Black Metal album we’ve ever made" which is a blatant lie. 2002's Volcano, however, is when most consider the band to have completely sold out into the slick, modern black metal scene and is the album that really divided their fan base. Some saw Now, Diabolical as a return, of sorts. It's still cleanly produced and fairly forced, but the songs are better than on Volcano. The Age of Nero is unfortunately not a good sign of things to come. It's simply boring, predictable, and lacking in the passion that so effortlessly fueled their early material. Oh well, at least Frost is still kicking ass in 1349.

I think the Boss should make the review for this band..

Also for someone who would like to get into celtic frost... Could any one make a decent elaborated analisis

I was a little hesitant to take on a band as popular and well known as Celtic Frost, because it is sure to generate some controversy given how many strong opinions people have over this band. Also, because Celtic Frost essentially formed out of the ashes of Hellhammer, no "analisis" would be complete without delving into the history of that band as well. So I will make an honest attempt at it, starting from the beginnings.

1982-1984- HELLHAMMER
To BRIEFLY summarize the history of this band, Hellhammer evolved out of Tom Warrior's love for the newly emerging and rapidly evolving heavy metal scene coming out of England. The earliest recordings were heavily inspired by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal but with a particular emphasis on Venom, and as Tom was drawn towards the dark side of human nature and sought to create the heaviest, darkest, and most extreme metal possible, like so many other young bands at the time. Thus after a couple crude garage-level demos, Hellhammer evolved into the blackened, evil sound that characterized early Celtic Frost and released a full length D.I.Y release (Satanic Rites) and a four track "official" release.

1984-1986- Early Black/Death metal.
The official statement has always been that Hellhammer's sound and ideas were too static, too narrow in scope and did not allow for enough experimentation within the sound. Thus Tom and Martin (who comprised the core of Celtic Frost throuought their history, despite the fact that Martin was in and out of the band on more than one occasion) decided to basically start over. In truth, a heap of negative reviews from the mainstream music press may have ultimately convinced them to end Hellhammer. But what emerged still sounded uniquely different and was hugely influential- no other band at that time sounded like this. Dark, aggressive and uniquely heavy, Celtic Frost merged punk-like simplicity, morbid, dirty sounding evil riffs, and thrashing aggression with themes of doom, sadness, and the occult, creating something that would be called Black Metal today albiet without the pagan/anti-Christian themes people commonly associate with that genre. Two full albums and a couple EP's were released during this time.

1987-1988 Experimental Rock/Metal.
Martin Ain rejoins the band after a 1 year absense. He and Tom decide that the early sound was too rigid and want to expand the concepts and themes of the band into other genres of music beyond the simple blackened metal of previous releases. After all, that was one of the main reasons they had created a "new" band was that they had wanted this freedom to explore new sounds and concepts. The resulting album, "Into The Pandemonium" had a mixed reception, with many fans critical of the new sound while the more open-minded among them praising the band for their experimental and bold approach. Stylistically it is all over the place; with gothic rock, instrumental dub music, pop, and a few tracks reminiscent of their earlier material all making an appearance on the record. After it's release, in-fighting among band members and bickering with the record label cause the band to essentially dissolve.

1988-1990 Wierd Grunge-Pop/Glam
The "Cold Lake" era. Unlike the previous record, this one was almost universally panned by critics. Basically it is just Tom Warrior and three "hired guns" trying to fulfill a record contract for Noise- they still owed them a couple albums but the band itself was pretty much in limbo at this stage. The music- well, the less said about it the better but the consensus is that this probably should not have been released as a Celtic Frost record- it just didnt work. Had it been released under a different name, it probably still would have been given low reviews but maybe fans would have been more forgiving, perhaps.

1990-1993 Too Little, Too Late Perhaps.
Tom and Martin reconcile their differences and record one last album, "Vanity Nemesis" which fails to impress even themselves. It is somewhat a return to their earlier sound, but it is uninspired and lacking in intensity. Part of the problem was the band's reputation had been hurt by the Cold Lake record, and the other part was that music had evolved at this point, with many of the bands they once influenced now taking the lead as the cutting edge of the underground music scene- this was right about the time the Scandanavian Black Metal scene started taking off. While the likes of Dark Throne and Mayhem sounded fresh and inspiring, Celtic Frost's album sounded somewhat dated- and it didnt help that they were still at odds with the record label and had seemingly lost their passion for creating music. They split up not long after this release.

1994-2003. Split up.
Not too much you can say about this- no band, no music, no releases- but lots of nostalgic fans still crank their old albums and lots of new bands still try to sound like them.

2003-2008. "Monatheist" and The Final Split.
After 10 years of silence, punctuated by a couple short-lived project bands, Tom and Martin decide to reunite and rekindle their passion for music. They hire a new drummer, Franco Sesa, along with a couple "Hired gun" guitarists (who mainly appear only during live performances) and after a couple years of work, finally release thier first recording in almost 14 years. The new record evokes the bleakness and heaviness of their earliest work but is less thrashy, and slightly more experimental and doom-ish. The themes of despair, and a newfound hostility towards religion (not just Christianity per se) are prevalent here. The band seems to have a newfound passion for creating music but alas, it does not last; in 2008 the band announces they have split up once again. The reasons are never quite clear, although interviews hint at interpersonal band conflicts. But the bottom line is, after a promising comeback album, the band seems to be done for good.

This is perhaps the most accurate description I've heard of the era itself, especially that "should have been released under another name" portion. I agree, much like I think that Dissection's Reinkaos should have been considered a Jon Nödtviedt side-project album.



The Triptykon project seems to be the primary successor to Celtic Frost. Sure it's not the same name, but the quality seems to have largely passed on to this new band. Not everything is lost.

I have to say though, The Forest is my Throne was kind of disappointing to me after a few listens. The whole thing seemed like awfully generic black metal, no distinctive feel whatsoever. And some retarded chick moaning part which gave the whole thing a horrid CoF edge.

Still, perhaps a couple more listens will allow the recording to reveal itself as something truly good. We shall see.

To nit-pick those guys weren't really hired guns as you say. Stephen Priestly played in Hellhammer and Morbid Tales, and the others contributed to songwriting - particularly Oliver Amberg if I remember correctly.

Subsequent listens (a month and a half later), however, have proven this opinion to be a bit flawed/premature. The album's subtle little qualities are starting to surface here and there. I might choose to explore the rest of the band's dicography in the not-so-distant future.

Yes, you did read way too much into it. You can't actually believe that Peter actually put that much thought into it all. Catch 22 is a common term and the version 2.0.08, while relating to computer programs' version numbers, certainly bears no reflection on web 2.0 or its shortcomings or any hypocrisy. It's just an update (a 2.0 version, the 08 at the end is just the year) from the original.

Well it kind of does all fit together nicely. I personally like LegendMaker's whole interpretation of the whole thing, complicated though it may be. Either way, C22 is a good album whose several faults were unfortunately almost left untouched in the new version.

According to Tom, they technically were "hired guns," regardless of who they were as contributors. He just hired some guys to do something (anything) so that he didn't have to.

I'll try Black Sabbath.

1970-1971: Formation. The band unleashes their first three albums and pretty much finish the job that Blue Cheer started in creating Metal.

1972-1975: Heavy with some experiments. The band gets deeper into drugs and the music gets a little more experimental as a result. Some songs even tread into hard rock territory more than metal.

1976-1978: The band is in full-on drug mode and pretty much drop the heavy metal in favor of everything from hard rock to jazzy experiments.

1980-1982: Dio comes in and rescues the band. They switch to a proto-power metal/doom hybrid.

1983: Ian Gillan comes in and the band records Born Again, which is fast and heavy but has shades of Deep Purple on it.

1986: Iommi tries making a solo album, but is forced into making it a Sabbath record. Most of it is straight forward hard rock with some metal slipping through.

1987-1991: Tony Martin comes aboard and the band records three albums back to back to back that range from straight forward metal to power metal to hard rock.

1992: Dio returns and the band releases their heaviest, most evil sounding record yet in Dehumanizer.

1994-1995: Tony comes back and the band releases the more traditional metal sounding Cross Purposes and follows it with the doomy/grungey Forbidden.

1997-2004: Ozzy returns and they release a total of two new songs that sound more like modern Ozzy than Sabbath.

2007-2010: Dio makes his triumphant return, but the band changes their name to Heaven and Hell. They unleash The Devil You Know, which picks up where Dehumanizer left off.

So do things for the 2012ers. They still can't convince me that the world is going to end in 2012. It's easy to find patterns in things when you want to find it.

Perhaps. But at least Catch 22 isn't going to harm anyone anytime soon, nor is it as prone to creating massive wastes of time, money and effort on bogus ideas. At best it's just a couple of guys wasting a bit of bandwidth on Metal-Archives.

Either way, Peter Tägtgren is a man who's smart enough to make up something this complicated.

Harmful or not, it doesn't make it anymore likely that he made the album title thinking of Web 2.0. Besides, Catch 22 has been harmful to me already by forcing me to listen and review the promo when it came out. About as much a waste of time and plastic as the promo of Bludgeon's Crucify the Priest.

Smart at selling and marketing himself and his band maybe. Smart enough at that to know that he doesn't need to do that much thinking on coming up with album titles or how they relate to internet phenomenas.

This. I think Tom himself said "Much like Celtic Frost was a continuation of Hellhammer, Triptykon is a continuation of Celtic Frost"

So Triptykon is essentially a continuation of Hellhammer?

It's like Celtic Frost never happened...

Alright i'll do my favorite band, Opeth.

1) Variations in quality

Opeth's discography consists of nine albums, which can be divided into 3 pairs and a triplet. The first pair consists of Orchid and Morningrise. These albums are highly death metal influenced with long mellow acoustic sections. The songs are extraordinarily long, especially on Morningrise. Production on these albums is a little unclear but for the most part is pretty good and these debut albums really show a raw form of the sound the band would then cultivate with it's next three releases. Next we have the triplet, which consists of Opeth's three best albums in my opinion and many fans opinions. These albums are My Arms, Your Hearse, Still Life, and Blackwater Park. My Arms, Your Hearse (my personal favorite album of all time) is in actuality one song divided into nine parts. There next album Still Life exhibits the same sound just as well. The final album of the triplet, Blackwater Park continues the traditional Opeth sound with crystal clear production, abandoning the dark sound used in the first four releases. Next we have Deliverance and Damnation. This is when Opeth earned the title of that super proggy overly intelligent death metal band that many elitists refer to them as. Deliverance is supposed to be the heaviest album Opeth ever did, however, without the crystal clear production, I would put it behind Orchid and Morningrise. Damnation is an all acoustic album, which turned many traditional fans away. Next we have Ghost Reveries and Watershed. Critics raved over Ghost Reveries, a solid Opeth album but certainly nowhere near the classic three. With rave reviews came critical success and Opeth's followup and most recent album, Watershed, is their best selling ever. Watershed is also their most experimental, progressive release, dabbling in lots of different genres from death metal to blues.

2) Arrival or departure of various important band members

The departure of Peter Lindgren in 2007 was a major loss for the Opeth crew, and although they have been through numerous lineup changes they have managed to keep it pretty consistent skill and style wise. Axe is without a doubt the best drummer in Opeth history, and Fredrik Akesson was a good replacement for Peter.

3) Variations in genre, both within metal and otherwise

As of late the Opeth guys have been experimenting with a lot of blues and weird acoustic melodies, however metal has always been their roots and experimenting has always been their game.

4) Association with various labels, or lack thereof (independent bands, ones which work with mostly metal labels, ones which go to major record labels, etc)

When Opeth moved from Music for Nations to Roadrunner for their 2005 album Ghost Reveries many fans called sellout however stylistically Opeth have not done so.

6) Exposure (underground or more mainstream, commercialism)

More mainstream as of late, although I can't say it isn't deserved (atleast in my biased opinion)

7) Lyrical themes/concepts

Opeth cover topics such as relationships, internal struggles, backwards society (see "Still Life"), ghosts, people coming back from hell to rape their former girlfriends (see "My Arms, Your Hearse"), stuff like that.

9) Variations concerning the songwriter(s)

Mikael Akerfeldt has remained the band's primary songwriter throughout most of the band's history.

I'm going to do Emperor. I might do Therion later, if I remember to, or want to, or what not. Either way, I'm more familiar with Emperor's works.

So our story probably begins in an interesting fashion when Ihsahn and Samoth met, and produced various band names, leading to our first section:

DEATH METAL (-1991):
Probably up to the point of "Thou Shalt Suffer", which seemingly illustrates transition. I'm not very familiar with this phase of Ihsahn/Samoth, but I have heard bits of Thou Shalt Suffer's early demos/EP. If anything, I'd say it's relatively atmospheric death metal, and that Ihsahn does suprising death growls. Black metal influence crept in with time, potentially having something to do with the presence of Ildjarn, who played on some recordings. Then again, correlation doesn't neccesarily imply causation. Anyways, we were finding our way into the...

BLACK METAL (1992-3/4)
... period. Finally, we saw band take up the name Emperor. Again with the correlation but unconfirmed causation we see Mortiis join to play bass and write some lyrics, starting with the "Wrath of the Tyrant" demo. I hear tinges of Celtic Frost influence, and the music is not quite as melodic as it will be. There's an interesting bootlegged rehearsal tape (Call from the Grave) that sheds some light on the influences, and at this point there appears to be tension between raw, primitive firstwave black metal of the more epic vein, and more melodic tendencies that show up later. There's some residual death metal, but then again, lots of black metal takes its techniques, if not aesthetics, from death metal.

EPIC BLACK METAL
Rerecordings of the songs, plus the newer songs on the self-titled EP show more prominient synth use plus the melodic tendencies. "In the Nightside Eclipse" is muddier and almost eroded around the edges in terms of sound, suggesting the ruins and old medieval tendencies that the album cover shows. Definitely very accurate of a cover. At this point, most people seem to think they've peaked. We see mild experimentation in the form of "Inno a Satana", which showcases Ihsahn's clean singing for the first time (I think), and fairly complex instrumental parts.

Faust and Tchort are worth noting, but I'm not sure how to describe their contributions to the band. Faust is able and produces a mix of fury and atmospheric drumming, but Tchort, the bassist doesn't tend to be very audible.

BLACKENED DEATH METAL
Unfortunately for Ihsahn, his buddies all got arrested for crimes after the recording. When the band reformed, the main personnel change of note was of Trym Torson - Ihsahn/Samoth/Trym would form the core of Emperor until its demise. Trym came from Enslaved, another band producing epic atmospheric black metal, but due to various reasons - I assume Trym's propensity for blasting, Ihsahn's increased ambition after his session work in 1995 and when the hell did he marry his wife, as well as what I assume to be improved musicianship wrought massive changes on Emperor. "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" is far more violent than anything since "Wrath of the Tyrant", which might suggest a nod to death metal roots. The production is clearer, the musicianship is more advanced, but more than producing mood, this recording seems to be about musical prowness. Ihsahn multitracks more harmonized singing, and the result is hard to shoehorn into any one genre, especially with the keyboards jamming themselves into the attempts at musical taxonomy.

Then, in 1998, Ihsahn and Samoth formed their own side projects - Peccatum and Zyklon, respectively. Arguably, this might've diminished the quality of "IX Equilibrium", but I personally like it more than anything Emperor has done except for their first full length. It's also arguable that they might've fallen back on the compositional techniques of their past, as well as referencing traditional and thrashier sorts of metal, but the compositions and instrumentation is about on track. There are bits that sound like the previous two emperor albums, and bits that sound like what Zyklon would do, considering the precision and intensity that this album achieves at times. There's also some degree of dissonance that pops up on a few tracks, most notably in the middle of "An Elegy of Icaros"

Then there's "The Warriors of Modern Death", which is quite the anomaly in Emperor's discography. It starts with the bell sample used in Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls", has the first proper guitar solo in any Emperor song (i think), has a verse/chorus structure, and is relatively slow for this album. In short, THE overt reference to the music they grew up with.

IHSAHN'S SOLO DEBUT:
While the heading of this section is an oversimplification, it is true that Ihsahn did almost all the work on "Prometheus: The Disciple of Fire and Demise". If the previous works were an odd fusion of various extreme metal subgenres and symphonic elements, this is a completely unclassifiable mess in which you can clearly pick out various elements, but can't apply a simple name to the entire concoction, short of calling this "Ihsahn metal".

Apparently, at this time, Emperor was just about split up, to the point that his former "buddies" ended up providing some extra instrumental work. The thing suggests extreme ambition - this is supposed to be a concept album, but the concept's very vague. Real instruments are used instead of synths in some cases. Basically, this is the sort of album that confuses a lot of people, and puts me in mind of Shelly's "Ozymandias", in the sense that it's like looking at the wreckage of an empire. Except instead of there being a statue with an ephitet, Ozymandias is Ihsahn, who is awake in the modern day and completely confused by what's going on. The music seems to back that up, showing more dissonance and insanity than later Emperor albums. Despite having listened to this one for some time, I really haven't thought of this in context of Emperor/Ihsahn's state at the time.


FIN
It's the wee hours of the morning at the time of writing, so I'll try to wrap this up with a few notes:

"Anthems" is probably the weakest thing Emperor did - while I still think it's a good work, it lacks the versatility and virtuosity of IX, the apparent self-commentary of Prometheus, the epic atmospheres of Nightside, and so forth.

Emperor is quite underground, but had they continued, they might've formulated a sound somewhere between Zyklon's fury, Dimmu Borgir's accessibility, and Opeth's (or some other "progressive extreme metal" band) complexity, and probably become somewhat trendy. I was basically a child and unaware of metal at all from 1994-2001, so I can't say for myself what Emperor's fandom was like.

Ihsahn seems to have been the primary songwriter throughout the band's career. Samoth probably had the most influence around the time of IX Equilibrium, and fellows like Mortiis and Ildjarn must've had some role in Emperor's early sound.

RIOT~!

Not my absolute favorite, but they're at least top 5.

Riot is mainly centered around guitarist Mark Reale, founder and principle songwriter. The band suffers a bit from Mustaine syndrome with a revolving cast of musicians, but considering the length of their 34(!) year long career, it's a little expected. Also worth noting are the drastic style changes the band has undergone.

Heavy metal/Hard rock: With vocalist Guy Sperenza, someone a lot of fans consider the voice of Riot and I'm hard-pressed to disagree, the band recorded three studio albums. Rock City and Fire Down Under are the most notable. RC has the proto-power metal anthem Warrior with its soaring chorus, palm-muted riffs and harmony leads. FDU is seen as the high point of this line-up's existence with an album full of hard-rocking heavy hitters. Guy leaves after this album due to some silly reasons (basically being pussy whipped) and the band welcomes Rhett Forester to the ranks.

Heavy metal: Honestly, I can't give this era much coverage. They became more of a full fledged metal band at this point, but also became a bit more generic. Forester is a decent vocalist, but the two albums recorded just don't do anything for me. Reale eventually gets sick of being yanked around by management and disbands the group for two years.

Power/speed metal: Reale forms Narita, but eventually moves back to New York to reform Riot and brings along Narita bassist Don Van Stavern. Reale recruits the current day line-up for the classic Thundersteel and Privilege of Power albums. The band includes drummer extraordinaire Bobby Jarzombek and vocalist Tony Moore. Moore is probably my second favorite vocalist and I'm pumped to see them back in the band. Thundersteel is straight ahead USPM, with highlights being the title track with its awesome intro riff and the 9 minute long epic Buried Alive (Telltale Heart). PoP is a bit more varied with ballads, epics and speed metal crunchers. There are two flaws: a fucking horn section and pointless interludes attached to the beginning of some songs that last upwards to a minute and a half. The bands manager apparently included the latter under the noses of the band. The horn section is bearable, but is awkward at times. The band falls apart again after PoP and reorganization opens the door for the next stylistic change.

Power metal/hard rock: Reale brings in vocalist Mike DiMeo, a man with a croon comparable to latter day Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. Incidentally enough, this is the direction Reale steers the band to, but without the AOR wretchedness of those later albums. Initially the Rainbow influence is shared with a heavy Iron Maiden influence but later albums drop the latter aspect considerably. These albums aren't for everyone, but I love them for the most part. Army of One showed the band running out of steam so hopefully the Thundersteel reunion will breathe some life into the group. Moore recently re-rejoined and he still seems to have it if the Faith and Fire album is anything to go by. Fingers crossed!

I was going to say that Moore left the band last year after Reale fulfilled the short-term classic line-up, but apparently he's back in the band. What the hell was he gone for?

I have to say, Opeth's entire discography varies quite little in terms of quality for me. I can listen to either the debut album or Watershed (or anything in between) and have essentially the same feelings. I need patience to sit through the album and, while I do find all and any of them enjoyable with the right mood, I rarely find myself spinning any of them. However, My Arms Your Hearse and Blackwater Park are quite impressive and probably the albums which have me returning to them the most often.

I find Watershed to be suffering from a "getting lost in the woods" syndrome. there is absolutely no sense of direction and progression. It feels very disconnected and almost random, it's very tedious in the end.

Hmm I definitely am going to have to disagree with this. The first three albums are the best, and though Orchid and Morningrise are indeed a logical pair (wouldn't say their HIGHLY death metal influenced, but theyre certainly the most deathy things Opeth ever released), My Arms, Your Hearse has absolutely nothing to do with the following two albums, in my opinion. To say that Still Life and Blackwater Park has anything similar to their third album other than the general blueprint of Opeth's sound is completely inane to me. My Arms is a wholly transitional album, effectively separating their Swedeathy past from the progressive nonsense that they've been writing since 1999. Seriously, I can't stress enough how absurd it seems to me to claim Still Life "exhibits the same sound" as the previous album; you could say that about Blackwater Park and its predecessor, but the riffs, melodies and songwriting style of the more modest My Arms is more or less abandoned in all following albums. Also, even though I agree it's Opeth's best album, I couldn't disagree more with the "one song in nine parts" idea: just Mikael really wants it to be that way doesn't make it so.

Anyways, you don't really comment on the quality of any of their other albums. The idea of Deliverance being Opeth's "heaviest" album is complete utter balls. It sounds just like every other damn album from that era: there is no change in the songwriting style and certainly is no sudden majority of heavy parts over the quiet ones. Even though the title track is one of the band's best songs from this period, Deliverance is a very hit or miss album that I hardly ever listen to. Not recommended. Damnation, on the other hand, is much better: eschewing the metal parts definitely makes for the best post 1998 Opeth album, along with The Roundhouse Tapes of course. It's definitely the studio album I've listened to the most from this period.

Ghost Reveries is a welcome sign to fans that Opeth isn't messing with their flawed formula. The only reasons for getting this album are pretty much "Ghost of Perdition" and "The Grand Conjuration", and the former is on the live album anyways. The opening of "Atonement" is the only other part of this album I legitimately enjoy, and the rest bogs it down to the level of Still Life and Deliverance. Watershed is very similar, except even less enjoyable. There are a few cool riffs on "Heir Apparent" and "The Lotus Eater" (along with a part in the latter that sounds straight out of a Talking Heads song), and I've always had a thing for "Coil", but other than that... fuck. This is bad. Really, really bad, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Sure, at their worst Opeth had merely been bland and mostly inoffensive, and even managed to make this formula mostly work on Blackwater Park, but Watershed is full of actively bad music. This was my first Opeth album, and I haven't been able to stomach it's full duration since those days. Yikes.

Coil is the biggest reason behind every single time I decide to actually spin Watershed (well, that and trying to remember what they hell the rest of the album contains). I love it, it's acoustic Opeth at their very best and an album with that kind of stuff would actually be pretty fucking good (Damnation's a bit different). This conversation actually makes me want to revisit Watershed (and the others) to explore the discography a bit. It's kind of all a blur to me to this day, with the exception of some parts of My Arms Your Hearse and Deliverance.

Hey, Still Life is pretty fucking good. The songs are actually written intelligently and give off a solid atmosphere. Deliverance has some important highlights as well.

This is pretty arguably. I disagree, and if I have to pick just one album of them it would be between Anthems or Prometheus (which for me is an hymn of blackened/extreme symphonic metal).

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Now, well, I wanna request something, I would be pretty interested in reading a carreer analysis of Zarach Baal Taragh, anybody can write on that?

(:lol::wink:)

I don't think even Noktorn or OzzyApu were able to go through his painful discography. It'd probably have to be a (large) team project.

What can I say, I'm not a fan of those two. Still Life has a few solid cuts like most of "The Moor" and "Serenity Painted Death", but "Face of Melinda" is the only song on their that is actively great all the way through. The quiet noodly bits are quite enjoyable, and those riffs and melodies at the end... fantastic! But the whole album simply isn't up to that standard: "Benighted", "Godhead's Lament," "White Cluster", and "Moonlapse Vertigo" simply don't do anything for me. And I certainly don't get any sort of "solid atmosphere" out of Still Life. It's reading music at best. Like nearly all Opeth, it isn't outright BAD and it doesn't aggravate or annoy me very much. It simply fails to do very much at all, which is practically what I expect of them. I'd probably rate it in the 40-50% range, above the last two albums and possibly Deliverance as well. I suppose I should give that one a bit more attention, because I can remember distinct highlights, like "Wreath" and the opening of "Master's Apprentices". Just nothing that really propelled it beyond Still Life or Blackwater Park.

I see where you're coming from. They generally don't do all that much for me neither... I begin an album and it's cool enough metal, then at some point I generally begin to drift away. You seem to be more knowledgeable in terms of Opeth songs too.