Reminds me of Thomas Fischer whom I've been discussing - a lot more sophisticated of course.
Fischer had once scorned his own band Hellhammer, to subsequently revise history and praise it again - I suppose he realized the extreme metal audience was where he had any lasting credibility. I'm sure he feels ashamed of the fact to this day.
Similarly, I wonder why Ackerfeldt just does not go on making whatever post-prog music suits him. Or if he indeed does, let go of burdened death-metal comments.
I suspect many of these extreme-metallers are unfulfilled, faux-intellectuals. I had asked Ihsahn what the purpose of a reversed Nietzsche on his cover, but he didn't seem to have an answer, other than it was "aesthetic".
Frost of Satyricon seems to have a whole aesthetic system, and at the same time "Satyricon is at the front of a legion of warriors".
A whole lot of confusion there. Intelligent guys who failed to overcome Manowar, maybe.
One band for whom it works musically, is Enslaved. Brilliant shows.

Hop the fuck off Warrior's nuts. If by chance you still want to swing from them like Stallone in Cliffhanger, take it to the Triptykon thread so people can ignore you in there. Damn. I don't even like Opeth and you got me posting in this thread.

Maybe some Opeth would calm you down, and it justifies the presence of that band in metal.

Warrior's nuts are all yours.


P.S. Playing Heritage. My goodness, what are we even talking about.
Opeth is a great band, whatever they do. God bless.

As far as Warrior, just came across some comment that relates...
"well-adjusted underrated metal genius... i'm not even covering the stellar productions he has done for scores of bands (opeth). the jimmy page of extreme music. he writes better songs than most bands do on toilet paper sitting on the toilet which he then flushes because they aren't up to his standards."

This is not a thread about TGW, Hellhammer or even Sarcofago. Go write some stuff about him in your diary or something. You're pissing off everyone.

I wonder why anyone isn't "pissed off" about me also mentioning Satyricon, Enslaved and Ihsahn in this thread.
Pardon me - didn't see a guideline against comparativism.

You're right, however, I should retreat - simply because I'm not used to anonymous Joe using "fuck off" to someone other than his immediate relatives, and being tolerated. I guess that's "metal".

"4. Don't post anything that makes me write more rules."

It's there now.

I see. The "f*** off" and "p*** off" are okay, however. My bad, I misapprehended this forum. Cheers and farewell.

I haven't seen anything or heard anything that he has said that backs up this claim.

Bye.

Bye, and don't forget that the problems of the annoyed are problems of the annoyed themselves.

Mikael does seem to be very pretentious these days (at least going back a few albums anyway)

Oh look! A thread about Opeth! A perfect venue for me to discuss Cannabis Corpse.

I'm looking forward to Cannabis Corpse's new al...

ahem

I'm looking forward to Opeth's new album just to hear what direction they are taking. I didn't care for Heritage that much, but that doesn't mean Opeth cannot put out a damn fine non-death metal record. Damnation is one of my favorites by them. Heritage was a bit stale, in my opinion, because it lacked a lot of the things that I like about Opeth. It didn't sound like Opeth.

Agree Goatfangs, I think Damnation was close to their best

Not the biggest Opeth fan (they are great live, though), but I thought that their non-prog/death albums were their best (Damnation, Heritage). They wore out their own formula by the time they hit My Arms, Your Hearse in my opinion (and it was a fairly hit-and-miss formula to start with). So I'll probably check out this new album, assuming it continues outside of their standard formula.

What are you talking about? My Arms, Your Hearse is when they changed how they wrote their songs. That's when the truly best part of Opeth came out, in my opinion. They added more atmosphere and good songwriting and took out the garage influences. I agree though, even though I loved Blackwater Park through Watershed, it did get a little stale in Deliverance. The riffs were great, but the more steady atmospheric heavy parts were too bland. "Wreath" for example, had a badass melody between vocal segments, but the vocal segments were boring.

Anyway, I'll be happy so long as this new album isn't Heritage 2. That album was way too hectic in my tastes.

My Arms, Your Hearse was when the band started to get a lot more bearable for me. I love the sound on Orchid and Morningrise, but overall the songs were just way too long on those albums and disjointed for me to get really into them. Blackwater Park I feel was their peak musically, and then they kept it up from Deliverance through Ghost Reveries. I enjoyed the heavy songs on Watershed, especially Heir Apparent and when Hessian Peel goes death metal, but that's about where my interest in the album ends. Heritage was somewhat lame, as the songwriting is all over the place and most of the tunes don't really go anywhere or do anything interesting.

DAMNIT! Now I'm playing Damnation.... Thanks, guys, for making me reminisce.

The single best contribution Damnation gave the world was the extended version of "Closure" from the Lamentations DVD. It is for real one of the most amazing songs I've ever heard.

I haven't really listened to Opeth much since 2001 or even earlier, but Mikael isn't pretentious at all. he's a pretty relaxed, down-to-earth kind of guy whom I had the pleasure to interview on the blackwater Park tour, and we spent most of the time cracking jokes and talking about old bands instead of Opeth. I don't know why people have a hard time figuring out his statements and read all this ridiculous stuff into them. Seems pretty straightforward to me. He's an old-school metaller and likes the purest form of each genre...70s Judas Priest, Bathory, Metphisto and Morbid Angel. He may play in a progressive band but that doesn't mean he wants to listen to other guys do jazz/death metal hybrids or the newest ultra-sophisticated avant garde black metal band, although maybe it would be interesting from a "let's see what these guys will do now?" standpoint...that's just not his thing. And he hasn't felt inspired by a death metal album since 1992 because I guess he feels that it's moved away from that pure aesthetic...hence Bloodbath: his (and some other guys') attempt to recapture that feeling, successful or not (not a fan myself)...but he was saying the same sort of thing back then as he apparently is now, so I don't think it's true that he's somehow changed his perspective or gotten on a high horse of some kind.

Didn't you get the memo, Abominatrix?

Anyone who has a moderate amount of success, shown a modicum of ambition in his music and doesn't give by-the-book answers in interviews is de facto pretentious. That's just how it is.

Riffs....well, with some guys, there might be a modicum of truth to the reactionary statements. Not so much in this case though i think.

Also, and this is maybe moving a bit off topic since I'm not sure Opeth really falls into this category (their songs are just really long and it's hard to find a reason to play an old song when you have so many newer ones out that you're probably more excited about), but I don't think that a songwriter saying that he doesn't really connect that much with the old songs of his own band anymore means that he's taking potshots at the scene as a whole or dismissing a whole swath of music (IE, death metal). Circumstances change, members leave, and people don't feel as they once did, that's all. I think for plenty of artists who have been around a long time, dusting off and playing old material is kind of a service for the fans. It's one a lot of artists are justifiably happy to oblige, and maybe if you're in a good enough mood you still feel some of that fire from ten/twenty/however many years ago on stage to this day, but it's only right that a creator should be most excited and thrilled by his most current work. If it doesn't happen that way, something must be wrong in the process somewhere.

That dude screaming at the end of the song..... 5 years ago, I was doing that same shit, during their tour with Enslaved. Mikael gave me a look like "Dude, shut up...". Fredrick was actually throwing me the horns and shit, but he was probably just excited being back on stage.

I like it, pretty fucking ominous!

Guys at concerts incessantly screaming or yelling trying to get a reaction from the band... ugh. I recall it the most at a Katatonia gig where some guy wouldn't stop yelling "JONAAAAAS!" during the breaks and even when the band left the stage and were done with the show. He had to have yelled it 50 times.

Fuck yeah....I'm digging it too. It has me a bit excited about this album after all.

That's a Steven Wilson picture

This. More specifically, the image is by Lasse Hoile, a phenomenal photographer, for Steven Wilson's Grace for Drowning record deluxe booklet. This fake has been making the rounds for days. But the real cover art should be out next week.

I see the report. Hmm, okay, cover is removed.

Yea, I've come to realize that. Also, a common thing at Opeth shows are the people always asking Mikael "How's your wife?". It almost always gets a response from him. But that's probably every band, I dunno.

Damn. That cover is awesome though. Oh well. I just hope the real cover is a lot better than Heritage (man, nothing came out right on that album).

Agreed. That cover is awesome though. Has the same feel as Ghost Reveries.

I can't wait for the new Opeth.. Heritage was... amazing! I think song-writing wise it's probably their best. It's a very creative album.. Easily in my top 5 Opeth albums..and that's saying something!

Huh?
Opeth has never been very good at making coherent song structures, but imo Heritage was easily their all-time low.

I've actually always thought that coherency was one of their strengths from Morningrise through Damnation. Granted, I started getting into prog when "prog" meant BTBAM wankfests so my perspective may be a little skewed, but I've never understood how Opeth were any less coherent than pretty much any other prog band with long songs. They don't repeat sections very often, but during their peak years everything flowed together well and the mood was fairly consistent.

Ghost Reveries is where it starts to get wonky, but the wonkiness is actually a strength on that album IMO. After that is where they start to fall off the deep end.

No doubt. Tough task trying to best that fine piece of art, but Opeth has a knack for doing just that.

I don't care about coherent/consistent/formulaic song structures to be honest.. The arrangements in Heritage were definitely over the top..but in a good way. I din't like it at all initially.. but with every listen it just got better and better. After a few listens those incoherent song structures actually sounded really refreshing.. plus the album has a very vintage feel to it.

Opeth is definitely a phenomenon in progressive death, the kind of band which really expands your conceptions of 'melody', accessible and yet complex enough for numerous listens. 'Still Life' and 'My Arms, Your Hearse' were significant for me. Just did not completely comprehend the thought behind 'Heritage', may be it's the influence of Steven Wilson which is driving them down this strange path.

Roadrunner Records..........

No kidding. What a joke of a company. Couldn't even issue a statement about the delay. Just let all the people they hope to profit from suffer.

I hope that company folds.