# Opeth- Sorceress due Sept 30



## Rock4ever (Jul 18, 2016)

http://www.opeth.com/news/item/271-sorceress-to-be-released-on-september-30th


_The new album »Sorceress« is our 12th studio album since our beginnings in 1990, _says Åkerfeldt. _I find it difficult to understand that weve been going on for 26 years, let alone that weve made 12 records now, all of which I am very proud of. Sorceress is no exception. I love this album, as does the whole band. I wrote the music during 5-6 months and we spent only 12 days recording it at Rockfield studios in Wales. I find that once again weve taken a step forward. Or sideways, Or backwards. Somewhere!? Its different! Its extremely diverse. And if I may say so myself, extremely good. I feel the right to say that since I like to think I know this band better than anyone on the planet. Also, I always manage to detach myself from the record and listen as a fan. Its a fine little record. My favorite in our discography right now. Of course. Thats how it should be, right? Its both fresh and old, both progressive and rehashed. Heavy and calm. Just the way we like it. Hopefully therell be others around the globe sharing this opinion. It was a joy to make it. A ....ing joy to record it, and a sheer joy listening to it. So there you have it!_

Doesn't say alot. I've heard a very brief sample from the album that didn't give anything away. I'm curious if it will continue from heritage/pc or do something else. Would like to go see them in Seattle but after DT's last release I'm not buying tickets until I hear the album being supported.


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## jerm (Jul 18, 2016)

Please let there be growls.


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## TedEH (Jul 18, 2016)

I suspect it'll be pretty good whatever direction they take it.


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## MFB (Jul 18, 2016)

Here's the two teasers for those curious, seems to be more 70's prog rock then old school Opeth. Take that as you will.


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## VBCheeseGrater (Jul 18, 2016)

in clip 1, there is more guitar in the mix, which I like

in clip 2, the ballady section sounds closer to still life than say Heritage

I liked Pale Communion, but never latched onto it. Same with Heritage - i liked PC better. Last album I really thought was top quality start to end was Watershed. To me that was the logical pinnacle of the old style - the Black Album of Opeth.


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## ArtDecade (Jul 18, 2016)

TedEH said:


> I suspect it'll be pretty good whatever direction they take it.



Personally, I haven't liked the direction they've gone since Ghost Reveries...


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## Esp Griffyn (Jul 18, 2016)

Sounds like more of Akerfeldt living his prog rock fantasies. I won't be buying.


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## CaptainD00M (Jul 18, 2016)

I listen to doom, so for me a band singing about a witch, wizard, sorcerer or sorceress is pretty much par for the course and may or may not be the hallmark of a decent album.

That synth clip is not a hallmark of a decent album.


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## Zalbu (Jul 18, 2016)

Why would they suddenly go back to playing death metal when they've been straying further and further away from it ever since Watershed? 

I'm just hoping that it's going to be like Pale Communion but with production more similar to Heritage. Pale Communion is a great album but the production is a bit too bland and uninspired with the cheesy 70's prog rock synths and guitars that are too low in the mix. A bit more modern and crisp production would be amazing


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## oompa (Jul 18, 2016)

ArtDecade said:


> Personally, I haven't liked the direction they've gone since Ghost Reveries...



Same here mate. It's the dilemma where I want any artist to do whatever they damn well please, but I also want them to do stuff I like  Happy for him at the same time I am sad that I won't get another older style Opeth album. Same thing with a horde of bands, and I'm sure I'm not the only one


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## wankerness (Jul 18, 2016)

CaptainD00M said:


> I listen to doom, so for me a band singing about a witch, wizard, sorcerer or sorceress is pretty much par for the course and may or may not be the hallmark of a decent album.
> 
> That synth clip is not a hallmark of a decent album.



Sorceress is very much a 70s prog album title. As would be wizard or witch! Doom people might do it too, but my immediate thought when seeing an album is called "Sorceress" is 70s prog. My dad used to be in a dorky 70s fusion/prog band, with an album called WIZARD, so I think of that immediately as well.





ArtDecade said:


> Personally, I haven't liked the direction they've gone since Ghost Reveries...



Me neither. I listened to Watershed all the way through maybe 4 times over the years and never liked it. There are a couple decent tracks on there (Hessian Peel probably standing alongside older, good Opeth songs, the others merely being "pretty good"), but the album as a whole just bores me.



Zalbu said:


> Why would they suddenly go back to playing death metal when they've been straying further and further away from it ever since Watershed?
> 
> I'm just hoping that it's going to be like Pale Communion but with production more similar to Heritage. Pale Communion is a great album but the production is a bit too bland and uninspired with the cheesy 70's prog rock synths and guitars that are too low in the mix. A bit more modern and crisp production would be amazing



I would assume it will sound like the last two albums. I didn't mind Pale Communion, but after two listens, I never again got any urge to listen to it. Heritage was an empty, meandering mess. I liked Morningrise and Orchid for being meandering, but Heritage was like synth boops and empty sections with the actual guitar playing/singing taking up MAYBE 2/3 of the runtime, if that. There were some great sections here and there, but I think maybe one or two of the songs were actually good all the way through. The ratio of transition noises to songs was the highest I've heard since Chumbawamba's Tubthumper, and even has that one beat!

I did get the 5.1 mixes of them, so maybe I'll listen to those sometime and see if they're any better in surround sound.

I'll listen to this, too, but my expectations are low.


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## ArtDecade (Jul 18, 2016)

wankerness said:


> I'll listen to this, too, but my expectations are low.



Same. I respect Åkerfeldt so much and it actually irks me how little I enjoy his current musical direction. I love prog, but everything Opeth is doing is so tediously derivative that I don't find anything redeeming in it. I'm not saying that he has to reinvent the wheel when he heads into the studio, but he shouldn't even bother if he is just going to tread where other bands have already been a million times before.


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## TedEH (Jul 18, 2016)

ArtDecade said:


> he shouldn't even bother



I don't think it's what you meant to say, but I'd never tell a musician, artist, etc. to "not even bother". You should always even bother.

If I was in a position where I could express myself, knowing that lots of people would give it a listen even if they're expecting not to like it- there's no good reason not to.


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## ArtDecade (Jul 18, 2016)

Maybe I was being too harsh in telling him not to bother, but nowadays Opeth sounds like a Camel cover band. And to me, that's not expressing yourself. I want Michael to go back to the drawing board and come up with something fantastic. Until then, I don't want him bother going back into the studio and putting out more sad Opeth albums. I want him to woodshed and find a unique voice again.


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## TedEH (Jul 18, 2016)

ArtDecade said:


> I want [...] I don't want



My point was, what about what he wants? Does it not bother you when someone tells you not to play what you want because it doesn't cater to their tastes?

For the record, I like all the recent Opeth stuff. I listen to the two most recent albums pretty frequently.


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## ArtDecade (Jul 18, 2016)

Well, yeah it bothers me. Michael doesn't operate in a vacuum. He is where he is because fans supported him - bought his music, his shirts, tickets to his concerts, his endorsed products, etc etc. Michael doesn't owe me anything, but having spent enough money to provide him with those artistic freedoms that he enjoys, I can sure as hell hold an opinion about what I want from him.


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## CaptainD00M (Jul 18, 2016)

wankerness said:


> Sorceress is very much a 70s prog album title. As would be wizard or witch!  but my immediate thought when seeing an album is called "Sorceress" is 70s prog. My dad used to be in a dorky 70s fusion/prog band, with an album called WIZARD, so I think of that immediately as well.



Yeah agreed, and were it not that my immortal soul were stained with the taint of Sacrificing Riffs on the altar of Doom I'd probably have come to that conclusion first, too. But I've sacrificed one to many virginities to old gods for that 




wankerness said:


> Doom people might do it too...



Doom people do it all the time. Take for example the following band names:

Navajo Witch, Acid Witch, Witch Hoarder, Witchboro, Electric Wizard, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, Mountain Witch, Witch Mountain et cetera et cetera. Thats just a drop in the bucket, which is also why my band is named Jizz Witch - because we were both celebrating and taking the piss out of the informal naming conventions.

Sure not so many bands with names like Sorceress in it, but plenty of songs with seer's, wizards and people doing all kinds of arcane rituals. Hell Electric Wizard wrote a whole album about the Witch Cult theory (a discredited academic theory I may add) not so surprisingly called 'Witchcult today' not to mention album artwork with all the occult wizard tropes and 70's fantasy stuff that they share with 70's Prog.

Hell 70's prog isn't all bad either, I love me some Hawkwind or Yes when the mood strikes. But that synth represents the worst end of said prog.

So anyway - thats how I came to the conclusions within that comment.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Jul 18, 2016)

The point of making music is to express yourself, not to appease fans and consumers. Opeth can do whatever the hell they want.


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## ArtDecade (Jul 18, 2016)

leftyguitarjoe said:


> The point of making music is to express yourself, not to appease fans and consumers. Opeth can do whatever the hell they want.



Dude.... obvious statement is obvious. But that also means fans can have opinions and discuss them. I'm a fan of Opeth, but that doesn't mean I have to quietly accept whatever they crap out in a studio. We are Opeth fans - not Radiohead fans.


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## Sikthness (Jul 18, 2016)

ArtDecade said:


> Dude.... obvious statement is obvious. But that also means fans can have opinions and discuss them. I'm a fan of Opeth, but that doesn't mean I have to quietly accept whatever they crap out in a studio. We are Opeth fans - not Radiohead fans.



This...People getting their panties in a bunch when someone doesn't dig their fav band anymore is too silly..Yes of course Mikael can play whatever music he wants, that doesn't mean I have to praise it and love it as much as classic Opeth, its simply not my preference. Sometimes I watch a movie, and believe its nots as good as the director's last effort. Sometimes I watch a TV show, and preferred the first couple seasons, sometimes I feel it got better as it went on. The point being, this is a DISCUSSION forum, not a mindless praise forum. We all have opinions, no need to get hurt on the internet over it.


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## Double A (Jul 18, 2016)

leftyguitarjoe said:


> The point of making music is to express yourself, not to appease fans and consumers. Opeth can do whatever the hell they want.


 I don't get this. Yeah Opeth can do whatever they want. They worked hard enough to get to that point... through album sales/succesful tours. Let's not pretend making unique music that builds a fan base because they worked their asses off creating something that unique and different did not have something to do with their success. Like ArtDecade said, this band doesn't exist in some sort of artist vacuum where only art is art for art's art art art art art. People had to buy their music.

Anyways, I meandered so I will get back to my main point. 

Yeah, Opeth can seriously do whatever the hell they want. That doesn't mean that the whatever the hell they want to do is any good. 

I am sure they have their fans of this style but let's not pretend they are doing anything new or original. In fact, they ape Camel so hard it is pretty embarrassing. That is my opinion. If you like this style, well good for you but we are all well aware that Opeth can do whatever the hell they want already.


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## mongey (Jul 18, 2016)

I saw them on tour for heritage and the songs were great live, they did also play a bunch of old stuff , but i have listened to the album like 3 times . just doesn't do it for me like Ghost reveries or deliverance. Hell I even love damnation . its not metal but its cool 

. the 70's thing , not really into it


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## AmoryB (Jul 18, 2016)

Probably the album I'm looking forward to the most this year. I loved the writing and production on Heritage and favor it to Pale Communion. Bought tickets to see them, can't believe they're coming to my city!


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## InfinityCollision (Jul 18, 2016)

jerm said:


> Please let there be growls.



We all know that's not going to happen. It's taken a toll on his voice, and I'm not sure he's even interested at this point anyway.



ArtDecade said:


> Maybe I was being too harsh in telling him not to bother, but nowadays Opeth sounds like a Camel cover band. And to me, that's not expressing yourself. I want Michael to go back to the drawing board and come up with something fantastic. Until then, I don't want him bother going back into the studio and putting out more sad Opeth albums. I want him to woodshed and find a unique voice again.



Mikael has always been a huge 70s prog nut, so it's not surprising that he's fallen back so heavily on his roots in recent albums. I do think it's a shame though - not so much for the stylistic shift itself, but that he hasn't done anything especially interesting with it. This is a man who gave use several legendary albums in a continuously evolving style over a ~10 year period. Following that with a series of albums that have merely been "okay" and haven't maintained that strong sense of forward progression is a let-down when for most bands it would barely garner notice.


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## Casper777 (Jul 19, 2016)

won't buy either...

Their last album got 2-3 listen and is now taking dust somewhere in my house. Won't waste the money this time.

I like Opeth and respect Mikael A. but his Steven-Wilson-wannabe trip is quite embarassing. Do what you're good at! Hey, you will never be another Steven Wilson, wake up!!!!


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## DLG (Jul 19, 2016)

CaptainD00M said:


> Sure not so many bands with names like Sorceress in it


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## SD83 (Jul 19, 2016)

InfinityCollision said:


> We all know that's not going to happen. It's taken a toll on his voice



I read that over and over again, and then I see their setlists and half of it is old songs with growling and that just doesn't make that much sense to me. Not that way around. In studio, you can do growl two lines, then go back to guitars or whatever, and do the next two lines the other day... (and from what I heard, he still sounds great growling). That said, going through some of their setlists & live videos from recent years, I don't care about the new record, but I'd love to see them live again.


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## chopeth (Jul 19, 2016)

Strange art cover for Opeth


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## Blood Tempest (Jul 19, 2016)

Esp Griffyn said:


> Sounds like more of Akerfeldt living his prog rock fantasies.





leftyguitarjoe said:


> The point of making music is to express yourself, not to appease fans and consumers. Opeth can do whatever the hell they want.



Came here to say this. The whole point of creating music is to make what YOU want. Either solo or with a group of like minded musicians. That doesn't mean we all have to like it. Vote with your dollars. Personally, I enjoy the old and the new regarding Opeth. While "Heritage" was probably my least favorite of theirs, I LOVED "Pale Communion."


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## chopeth (Jul 20, 2016)

»Sorceress« Track List:
1. Persephone
2. Sorceress
3. The Wilde Flowers
4. Will O The Wisp
5. Chrysalis
6. Sorceress 2
7. The Seventh Sojourn
8. Strange Brew
9. A Fleeting Glance
10. Era
11. Persephone (Slight Return)


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Jul 20, 2016)

More 70's sounding stuff? I'l pass. Thats not why I come to Opeth.


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## VBCheeseGrater (Jul 20, 2016)

7 Strings of Hate said:


> More 70's sounding stuff? I'l pass. Thats not why I come to Opeth.



Perfectly reasonable critique IMO - we like what we like.

So i see on the track listing "(Slight Return)" - Must be a Hendrix tribute, or maybe (hopefully) just some tongue in cheek humor.

I get the impression from the track listing there is a cohesive theme going on? Wishful thinking perhaps.


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## Sang-Drax (Jul 20, 2016)

Blood Tempest said:


> While "Heritage" was probably my least favorite of theirs, I LOVED "Pale Communion."



Same here - although I'm somewhat annoyed by the cheesy 70's synths, as someone pointed out. I don't mind the lack of growls, but I'd like to hear some more modern production.

At least Pain of Salvation seems to have decided to leave _their_ 70's-prog trip behind.


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## Dwellingers (Jul 20, 2016)

Sang-Drax said:


> Same here - although I'm somewhat annoyed by the cheesy 70's synths, as someone pointed out. I don't mind the lack of growls, but I'd like to hear some more modern production.
> 
> At least Pain of Salvation seems to have decided to leave _their_ 70's-prog trip behind.


On which album? Latest PoS I heard was drenched in nostalgia  sad and boring.


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## chewpac (Jul 20, 2016)

I really liked pale communion. heritage is ok. I'm interested to hear the new one...new opeth is always a good thing. 

I used to love Pain of Salvation...during TPE1 and Remedy Lane. Since then, I can't really do it. BE had a couple songs that were killer and the rest were just over-the-top. Since then...yikes.


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## Adam Of Angels (Jul 20, 2016)

I kind of hope "Strange Brew" isn't a cover of the Cream song.


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## Blood Tempest (Jul 20, 2016)

Sang-Drax said:


> Same here - although I'm somewhat annoyed by the cheesy 70's synths, as someone pointed out. I don't mind the lack of growls, but I'd like to hear some more modern production.
> 
> At least Pain of Salvation seems to have decided to leave _their_ 70's-prog trip behind.



I feel that "Pale Communion" perfected what they set out to do on "Heritage."


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## chewpac (Jul 20, 2016)

Adam Of Angels said:


> I kind of hope "Strange Brew" isn't a cover of the Cream song.



yeah "seventh sojourn" is the title of a Moody Blues record, I believe...they're hitting the 60s/70s thing pretty hard. And yet I'm still excited.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Jul 20, 2016)

I am so excited for this, I love Opeth, pale communion was the first record I heard from them so it holds a special place in my heart. Blackwater Park is my favorite record from them and they'll never top it but still, i'm excited to see where the band is going next


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## FILTHnFEAR (Jul 20, 2016)

I've been around long enough to know that eventually, the vast majority of bands I'm into, will start releasing material I won't care for.

Opeth is no different. 

15 years ago I would have ragged on Akerfeldt for releasing Pale Communion or Heritage. But now, it's like, ehh, oh well, had to happen sooner or later. 

People get older, they're the ones playing their music, taste changes, and I can't expect them to keep to one style. Doesn't mean I have to like what they come up with, or not give my opinion on it though.

To me, Ghost Reveries was the pinnacle of Opeth's music. After that, I haven't bought anything from them. His Steven Wilson impression has long since gotten old. Like 7StringsofHate said, I don't come to Opeth to hear the 70's.


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## Pav (Jul 21, 2016)

FILTHnFEAR said:


> To me, Ghost Reveries was the pinnacle of Opeth's music for me. After that, I haven't bought anything from them. His Steven Wilson impression has long since gotten old. Like 7StringsofHate said, I don't come to Opeth to hear the 70's.



Really?!?! I thought Watershed was ....ing great, certainly as heavy as anything else they've done. 

Also, not that my opinion is worth anything, but I absolutely love the new cover art!


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## wankerness (Jul 21, 2016)

Watershed is dull and bland. I LOVED Ghost Reveries, I think it might be their second best album after MAYH. Watershed, though, just went in one ear and out the other every time I tried to make it through. I never much liked D1/D2, D1 for excessive repetition on Wreath/Deliverance/AFJ/BTPISIO and D2 for being too short and with too many filler tracks (particularly Weakness), but I at least thought they both had a few really memorable songs on them. I've listened to them a LOT of times over the years (while usually skipping Weakness). Watershed didn't really have much that grabbed my attention besides that one awesome riff in the middle of Hessian Peel. It seemed to undo what they did with Ghost Reveries and just kinda combine the worst traits of D1/D2.


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## estabon37 (Jul 21, 2016)

I'm definitely a weird Opeth 'fan' in that I became interested in them through a mate who is REALLY into metal, where I'm a casually interested metal fan that loves progressive and alternative rock (Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam). Blackwater Park through Ghost Reveries interests me (I love a lot of the songs, but I can't say I know them all well), but Watershed and Pale Communion are absolutely my favourite Opeth albums, because they are just amazing rock albums. 

It's the same reason I love Mastodon; everything that my favourite 90s bands did well (and they all seem to have stopped doing it) is stamped all over the most recent Mastodon and Opeth albums. 

I know the new stuff is alienating a lot of long-time fans, but it's right up my alley. Pretty sure Pale Communion is the album I've played most often in the last 12 months.


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## Opion (Jul 21, 2016)

I got into Opeth with Ghost Reveries and I have to agree that that was their last "Opeth-sounding" album. Ghost of Perdition? The Baying of the Hounds? Those songs alone IMO are better than Pale Communion and Heritage combined. There are a few cool songs on those records though - Eternal Rains will Come is a rad opener. I don't think anything on Heritage stuck with me. That might be why people feel the way they do - nothing from those records "stick". I get a different feeling from this record though, Mikael's gotten a lot of that stuff out of his system now, so hopefully he'll return to a more heavy angle...fingers crossed...


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## Black_Sheep (Jul 21, 2016)

I have lost hope. 

I love Opeth, one of the best bands out there, they still kick ass live but their two recent albums... not so much. Watershed was great, Heritage had a few good moments... Pale Communion? nah.... 

...One thing I really don't get, is that the band had an awesome unique style of music combining death metal with a wide range of other influences, and they went from that to imitating every 70's prog rock band there is or was. Yeah of course bands and their music evolves and it's better than making the same album over and over again... but sometimes they just take the wrong turn.


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## setsuna7 (Jul 21, 2016)

I hated everything post Watershed. Mike need to respect what we fans want sometimes, if he really need to get that 70's prog itch going, gone or whatever, do a solo stint like Steve Wilson, get it out of his system, come back to Opeth, give us Opeth back. Not a Camel cover band. I know I will get some hate for saying these things, but I'm disappointed. 

My 2 cents anyway..


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## Razerjack (Jul 21, 2016)

The album cover pretty much represents what Opeth is about: Odd beauty founded upon utter brutality. 
However, can't bank on this album being any of those things. The material will undoubtedly be good, because, well, Mikael is a genius, but it just won't come together as Opeth.
As progressive as they may be, Opeth had somewhat of a songwriting 'formula' that makes them unique. Advent, The Moor, Ghost Of Predition.... These classics all belong in the same heir.
Now, without the massive sounding riffs, without the epic song structures, and of course the growls...They kind of lost their magic.
Judging by the song titles, this album will be pretty similar to PC in terms of songwriting approach, maybe a tad more heavy metal but still not what Opeth truly needs.


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## MattThePenguin (Jul 21, 2016)

I don't think there's a single Opeth song I don't like soooo

When you hear the songs live, they stand up there right with the old songs.. because it's Opeth. Opeth sounds like Opeth. I never got the hate honestly. The first two albums I heard were Blackwater Park and Heritage, and I loved them both equally. Come to find out, everyone hates Heritage lol

Only thing that pisses me off is that the closest show is like 10 hours away from me D=


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## Zalbu (Jul 21, 2016)

And it's not like Opeth have any one sound you can point to either, Orchid doesn't sound like Still Life doesn't sound like Blackwater Park doesn't sound like Watershed doesn't sound like Ghost Reveries doesn't sound like Heritage... 

All their albums are distinct from each other and I'll take that over not trying to do anything different for 25 years any day of the week


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## Pav (Jul 22, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> And it's not like Opeth have any one sound you can point to either, Orchid doesn't sound like Still Life doesn't sound like Blackwater Park doesn't sound like Watershed doesn't sound like Ghost Reveries doesn't sound like Heritage...
> 
> All their albums are distinct from each other and I'll take that over not trying to do anything different for 25 years any day of the week


I agree completely. Even if people don't like what they're doing now, I don't think anyone can deny that they've continually grown and evolved since Orchid. Mikael has never been one to write stagnate, repetitive music and I can't help but respect that regardless of what direction Opeth heads.


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## Xaios (Jul 22, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> And it's not like Opeth have any one sound you can point to either, Orchid doesn't sound like Still Life doesn't sound like Blackwater Park doesn't sound like Watershed doesn't sound like Ghost Reveries doesn't sound like Heritage...
> 
> All their albums are distinct from each other and I'll take that over not trying to do anything different for 25 years any day of the week



While this is true, basically every album from Morningrise through Watershed sounded like a natural evolution of their sound, so fans were still able to enjoy it. Heritage, however, was a complete left turn. Into a black hole.


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## Pav (Jul 22, 2016)

Do we know for sure that Sorceress will be another prog rock album or is everyone just speculating?


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## Sunyata (Jul 22, 2016)

Mikael is now completely incapable of doing passable death metal vocals. If anyone has seen a live video from 2013 onwards you will know. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2miZD4e_ct8

This obviously has a huge impact on the type of music a "death metal" band can make. It's better for them to move on to something else than badly attempt to do something they can't do anymore.


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## chewpac (Jul 22, 2016)

Sunyata said:


> Mikael is now completely incapable of doing passable death metal vocals. If anyone has seen a live video from 2013 onwards you will know.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2miZD4e_ct8
> 
> This obviously has a huge impact on the type of music a "death metal" band can make. It's better for them to move on to something else than badly attempt to do something they can't do anymore.




i didn't know it had gotten to that point. puts the last couple albums into perspective, for sure.


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## mike0 (Jul 22, 2016)

Xaios said:


> While this is true, basically every album from Morningrise through Watershed sounded like a natural evolution of their sound, so fans were still able to enjoy it. Heritage, however, was a complete left turn. Into a black hole.



was going to say exactly this. i still enjoy some songs off of heritage (i feel the dark particularly, reminds me of something off damnation), but it was a drastic departure from their original sound, whereas everything before followed a logical progression and built upon what their previous albums had sounded like.

i'm still going to listen to the new album with an open mind, but i'm interpreting the fact that they're touring with the sword to mean that it's more of what we've been hearing from them for the past few years. the main thing i'm excited for is that this tour has them coming within reasonable distance of where i live, meaning i'll be able to see them for the first time. whether mikael still has his growls or not, i'll still enjoy the opportunity to see them play


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## AmoryB (Jul 22, 2016)

I actually saw them live roughly a year ago. They played songs off their older albums and the growling was on point.


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## MattThePenguin (Jul 22, 2016)

AmoryB said:


> I actually saw them live roughly a year ago. They played songs off their older albums and the growling was on point.



In a live scenario they really aren't that noticeable unless you really pay attention. He has lost his voice though. I say them in December 2014, and he sounded fine in a live setting but it wasn't much of a death metal voice like back in the day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGIf0L_Fc6w

This performance is the most accurate representation of what his voice is like live right now


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## oompa (Jul 22, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> And it's not like Opeth have any one sound you can point to either, Orchid doesn't sound like Still Life doesn't sound like Blackwater Park doesn't sound like Watershed doesn't sound like Ghost Reveries doesn't sound like Heritage...
> 
> All their albums are distinct from each other and I'll take that over not trying to do anything different for 25 years any day of the week



Well in a sense I agree, or I think I know what you mean. I do however think that 99.9% of the music world would say that Orchid through Watershed sounds exactly the same bar perhaps production quality, the last .1% would be us people who are into the narrow and tiny region of the musical map called prog and or death metal  Heritage and forwards however I am sure even my mum could tell they've changed direction.

Agree with whomever else it was that said that up to Ghost Reveries they were peachy but they lost their mojo with Watershed, my feelings exactly.


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## MattThePenguin (Jul 22, 2016)

It's funny how much everyone likes Ghost Reveries and how many people dislike Watershed. I think Watershed was much more entertaining and dramatic, and I almost never really listen to Ghost Reveries.. even though I like it.. idk. It seems like the most "commercial" sounding Opeth record.


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## MFB (Jul 22, 2016)

Same here, pretty sure I've spun Ghost Reveries maybe a handful of times and the only tracks I really tend to enjoy are Grand Conjuration and Baying of the Hounds. Watershed on the other hand? I ate that .... up.

Watching the live show and hearing him sing Deliverance is pretty eye opening. The vocals just don't have that edge to them, they sound rather hollow when he does his 'death metal' style.


----------



## Pav (Jul 22, 2016)

I just watched a variety of live videos from 2015 and he sounds just fine to me.  I really don't think he's incapable of doing it, I'm inclined to believe him when he says he just doesn't want to anymore


----------



## Sunyata (Jul 23, 2016)

Pav said:


> I just watched a variety of live videos from 2015 and he sounds just fine to me.  I really don't think he's incapable of doing it, I'm inclined to believe him when he says he just doesn't want to anymore





Does this sound fine to you?


----------



## chopeth (Jul 23, 2016)

I saw them a couple of weeks ago and played songs as brutal as The Lepper Affinity, Godhead's Lament, Heir Apparent or Demon of the Fall. Mike made a fine performance, though he admitted his voice wasn't in his best moment.


----------



## Double A (Jul 23, 2016)

Sunyata said:


> Mikael is now completely incapable of doing passable death metal vocals. If anyone has seen a live video from 2013 onwards you will know.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2miZD4e_ct8


Who cares about death metal vocals? People seem fixated on Opeth having growls. All I want is for them to go back to writing good music.


----------



## Esp Griffyn (Jul 23, 2016)

Opeth peaked with Morningrise, they've been on a downhill quality slide ever since.


----------



## Zalbu (Jul 23, 2016)

Hold on, there are people who don't like Watershed?  That's easily one of my favorite Opeth albums, I wish Micke would do more songs in Swedish like their cover of Den Ständiga Resan. 

And yeah, Opeth does have their own signature sound that no other band have been able to reproduce but that's largely thanks to the songwriting. Their songwriting is always on point even though I'm not a huge fan of the more black metal inspired albums.


----------



## Behindthesun (Jul 23, 2016)

ArtDecade said:


> Personally, I haven't liked the direction they've gone since Ghost Reveries...



I'll never understand this, I thought Watershed was a logical continuation of Ghost Reveries.

I remember reading about how people felt like it was rushed and half-hearted, but I loved it.

I could be deaf, or retarded, but that's how I feel about that.


----------



## Behindthesun (Jul 23, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> Hold on, there are people who don't like Watershed?



Finally, somebody as bewildered as I am!


----------



## oompa (Jul 23, 2016)

Behindthesun said:


> I'll never understand this, I thought Watershed was a logical continuation of Ghost Reveries.
> 
> I remember reading about how people felt like it was rushed and half-hearted, but I loved it.
> 
> I could be deaf, or retarded, but that's how I feel about that.



I am one of those who thought all magic ended after Ghost Reveries. But I'm certain you are neither deaf nor retarded, it is all just taste and opinions


----------



## AmoryB (Jul 23, 2016)

MattThePenguin said:


> In a live scenario they really aren't that noticeable unless you really pay attention. He has lost his voice though. I say them in December 2014, and he sounded fine in a live setting but it wasn't much of a death metal voice like back in the day
> 
> 
> 
> This performance is the most accurate representation of what his voice is like live right now




I was paying attention, his vocals are fine. I also saw them December 2014 and a few times since then. At some point people grow out of harsh vocals and prefer a more melodic approach. That being said, a lot of the newer stuff hits harder when seen live I can admit.


----------



## olejason (Jul 23, 2016)

If its another prog rock snoozefest I have no interest but if it is metal I'll give it a shot. I'd prefer all harsh vocals but I know that isn't going to happen.


----------



## SD83 (Jul 24, 2016)

The Bloodstock growls are indeed horrible. Motorcult... Grand Conjuration isn't perfect, but far from bad. Gets a bit worse during Deliverance though. But as Double_A said, it's not so much the growls. I tried to give Pale Communion a try again lately after reading many good opinions on it here... stopped halfway through the first song. Maybe my father would find it "a bit weird, but otherwise likeable" and as with pretty much everything Opeth released, it does sound like they are having fun playing it. Now if they would mix the new stuff with some of the old stuffs, riffs and such... we'll see 
Btw, about the vocals... this is actually the first time I hear that someone has supposedly ruined his voice in a way that he lost the ability to growl, but clean singing works perfectly. I only ever thought it would be the other way around, or both ruined.


----------



## Dyingsea (Jul 24, 2016)

Double A said:


> Who cares about death metal vocals? People seem fixated on Opeth having growls. All I want is for them to go back to writing good music.



Agreed, Damnation is a good album. All the clean parts in their other albums are great and if the entire album was those it would still be great. It's a square peg round hole situation currently that doesn't work.


----------



## wankerness (Jul 24, 2016)

Dyingsea said:


> Agreed, Damnation is a good album. All the clean parts in their other albums are great and if the entire album was those it would still be great. It's a square peg round hole situation currently that doesn't work.



I even thought Damnation was a huge step down from some of the ballads on the previous albums. There's nothing on there half as intricate as "To Bid You Farewell" or "Benighted." I was expecting something like that, and instead got a lot of greatly simplified acoustic parts, way-too-smooth vocals, and mellow keyboards. I eventually warmed up to it a bit (I regularly listen to Closure and To Rid the Disease and Hope Leaves), but there's no arguing that anything on there comes close to the intricacy of the aforementioned songs, or even most of the acoustic breaks on their "heavy songs" from Orchid through BWP (ex, on Moonlapse Vertigo, or Serenity Painted Death, or Nectar, etcetcetc). Even those two acoustic songs from the BWP special edition that didn't make the cut have more interesting guitar parts. 

It was a huge relief when Ghost Reveries came out and some of the acoustic breaks were back to the standard of the pre-Damnation albums. Stuff like the whole bridge of Baying of the Hounds is just as wonky as ever before.

The new stuff takes all the worst aspects of damnation and marries them to a bunch of lame distorted rock riffs, none of which have that personal touch where you'd go "OK, ONLY Opeth would ever write this riff!!!" Like say, most of Leper Affinity, or that awesome riff at 6:35 of Hessian Peel. Or the slithery riffs towards the end of By the Pain I See in Others or Harlequin Forest.


----------



## fps (Jul 24, 2016)

Mikael & The Akerfeldts produce another album of other people's music from the 70s. Great. Dammit. This band used to be extraordinary.


----------



## fps (Jul 24, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> Hold on, there are people who don't like Watershed?  That's easily one of my favorite Opeth albums, I wish Micke would do more songs in Swedish like their cover of Den Ständiga Resan.



Didn't like Watershed, didn't like Ghost Reveries. The addition of synths and keys took away a tonne of the magic for me.


----------



## InFlames235 (Jul 25, 2016)

Sunyata said:


> Does this sound fine to you?




He sounds much better in this other video also from 2015:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VXEvwKt68o

When I saw them live in 2014 I didn't notice them sounding as bad as your video but obviously you'd probably REALLY tell on an album so he just goes the way of singing now which is perfectly fine IMO because I've enjoyed a lot of their singing-only stuff.


----------



## Zalbu (Jul 25, 2016)

Snippet of new music at the end, downtuned guitars spotted!


----------



## chewpac (Jul 25, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> Snippet of new music at the end, downtuned guitars spotted!




the tiny bit at the end makes me pretty psyched...that sounds super freaking cool.


----------



## Behindthesun (Jul 25, 2016)

oompa said:


> I am one of those who thought all magic ended after Ghost Reveries. But I'm certain you are neither deaf nor retarded, it is all just taste and opinions



No, I'm definitely retarded, but you're bang on about preference and taste and what not.

Did you like any tracks from Watershed? What about Burden? That was fantastic!


----------



## TedEH (Jul 25, 2016)

Yup. I dig the little bit at the end. Hype confirmed.


----------



## Double A (Jul 25, 2016)

Still the terrible sounding guitars though. I just don't get it. I don't think I would mind the new stuff if the production wasn't total ass.


----------



## Cnev (Jul 25, 2016)

The production isn't "total ass". You may not care for it, but they obviously have clear artistic intentions and I personally like the sound irrespective of the band.

The new riff sounds pretty cool, but even after two albums I'm still pretty whatever about their post-Watershed sound. Very much looking forward to it, though.


----------



## Double A (Jul 25, 2016)

The guitars sound like total crap on the new style albums. I know some people probably like the St. Anger snare sound, but I don't know anyone personally that doesn't laugh at it. This guitar sound is almost to that point. I know they are trying to make a point, but it is a stupid point and not one that needs to be made.

That said, I like the riffage at the end but I stand by my statement, the guitars sound like ass.


----------



## Winspear (Jul 25, 2016)

I often let production spoil albums for me. That short clip at the end sounds perfectly fine to me though. Guitar sounds great


----------



## ArtDecade (Jul 25, 2016)

I love a solidly produced album... but I also love old school Black Metal albums. Music first, production second.


----------



## oompa (Jul 25, 2016)

Behindthesun said:


> No, I'm definitely retarded, but you're bang on about preference and taste and what not.
> 
> Did you like any tracks from Watershed? What about Burden? That was fantastic!



I liked Coil the way I liked Metallica's Black Album when I first heard it, the "this is good, different but good, but sadly this is also the end" kind of way 

most of The Lotus Eater good. The rest is not bad, the whole album is alright, definitely Opethesque, it is just.. the mojo thing. Like it is great in theory.. just not in practise.. or something. nvm. Just taste!


----------



## leftyguitarjoe (Jul 25, 2016)

Adam Of Angels said:


> I kind of hope "Strange Brew" isn't a cover of the Cream song.



I hope it is though.


----------



## wankerness (Jul 25, 2016)

Adam Of Angels said:


> I kind of hope "Strange Brew" isn't a cover of the Cream song.



I hope it's a cover of the movie's theme song:


----------



## MattThePenguin (Jul 31, 2016)

OHHH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD I LOVE IT I LOVE IT


----------



## Pav (Jul 31, 2016)

MattThePenguin said:


> OHHH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD I LOVE IT I LOVE IT




Ugh and the video was taken down within 15 minutes. I want to hear it so damn bad. Hopefully this thread doesn't turn into the same infantile whining as the orher one.


----------



## MattThePenguin (Jul 31, 2016)

Pav said:


> Ugh and the video was taken down within 15 minutes. I want to hear it so damn bad. Hopefully this thread doesn't turn into the same infantile whining as the orher one.



Honestly I love the fact that people hate the new Opeth sound because the mental image of Mikael not giving a flying .... is hilarious to me haha. The new stuff is ....ing ballsy, and their live shows are so much more interesting with the new and old music clashing together. 

Just saying, this song is heavy as hell, and Mikael's voice sounds absolutely killer. I can't get the riffs from this song out of my head, they're so KILLER! The guitar tone is sweet, too


----------



## AmoryB (Jul 31, 2016)

Just heard "Sorceress", heavier than anything from the previous album that comes to mind, but not pre Heritage heavy. I'll give it a couple more listens to see how I feel about it!


----------



## BrailleDecibel (Aug 1, 2016)

Is that Opeth playing in A I hear?? I am liking this a lot!


----------



## Razerjack (Aug 1, 2016)

The guitar sounds good to me, seriously massive tone.
The intro was unnecessary, but everything after that is excellent, Mikael's singing is top notch, and the song grooves very well. Opeth have never tuned this low, and the main Riff combined with the vocals gives me the chills.
This is definitely one of the simpler 'rocker' Opeth tracks, like what Cusp Of Eternity was on the last album. With the tracklist, I expect Opeth to go into much weirder territory in the rest of the album tho...


----------



## Pav (Aug 1, 2016)

FINALLY got to listen and I am excited as hell for the rest of the album. This song sure sounds like it may be an unfinished mix but I'm enjoying it so far. It sounds very Opeth yet still very different and that, more than anything else, is what I expect from them. Mikael has never been one to rest on his laurels and continually rehash old ideas and this is no different.


----------



## The Mirror (Aug 1, 2016)

This has me hooked like Opeth didn't do since Ghost Reveries. 

I even liked the weird af synth intro. 

And a big +1 to Mikael sounding awesome.


----------



## Ironbird666 (Aug 1, 2016)

This song is waaaaay beyond what my expectations were for the album. Super hyped!!


----------



## MattThePenguin (Aug 1, 2016)

This one won't get taken down because it is OFFICIAL

Enjoy guys =)


----------



## StrmRidr (Aug 1, 2016)

Sorceress is awesome! Can't wait to hear the full album


----------



## MFB (Aug 1, 2016)

Looks like I'll be skipping this one as well.


----------



## ArtDecade (Aug 1, 2016)

MFB said:


> Looks like I'll be skipping this one as well.



Ugh... same here. I listened to that track as I was putting on my shoes and had forgotten about it as soon as I took a few steps.


----------



## SD83 (Aug 1, 2016)

Sounds nothing like what I expected. At all. On the first listen, but so far, I like it. Which is a lot more than I could say about Heritage or Pale Communion.


----------



## Pav (Aug 1, 2016)

MattThePenguin said:


> This one won't get taken down because it is OFFICIAL
> 
> Enjoy guys =)




Goddamn it Agent Bauer, you are the man.


----------



## VBCheeseGrater (Aug 1, 2016)

Pretty interesting sound to this, going to need a few more listens, or the full album (like most music that stick with you)


----------



## Lorcan Ward (Aug 1, 2016)

MFB said:


> Looks like I'll be skipping this one as well.



Same, these guys used to be one of my favourite bands but I just can't find anything of what I love about them in their recent albums. I gave it 3 listens anyway.


----------



## abeigor (Aug 1, 2016)

Are they still doing the low-gain-with-a-million-tracks guitar technique? The skronky guitar is kind of irritating, but I actually like this song quite a bit.

Edit: PLEASE NO MORE ANIMATED ALBUM ART LYRIC VIDEOS.


----------



## Cnev (Aug 1, 2016)

....ing love the new song. Here's hoping that they finally found their voice within this new style.


----------



## Double A (Aug 1, 2016)

I heard the other video and thought the song writing is subpar, or at least I think Opeth are easily capable of writing better than this in their sleep. But I thought that about the last two albums also. What stuck out to me though was the terrible production and I thought I would give the official video another go to see if it was just the other video. Nope... 3 albums skipped.


----------



## lemeker (Aug 1, 2016)

The new tune is decent. I think the jam in the beginning is a little too long, and seems a bit out of place with the rest of the song. I'm afraid we'll never get old school Opeth back, but I can live with this and hope the rest of the album is similar.


----------



## Mprinsje (Aug 1, 2016)

Sounds like Åkerfeldt sang a tune on the latest Mastodon record. MastodOpeth.


----------



## ImNotAhab (Aug 1, 2016)

Mprinsje said:


> Sounds like Åkerfeldt sang a tune on the latest Mastodon record. MastodOpeth.




Haha, I would have went with MastOpeth.


----------



## Mprinsje (Aug 1, 2016)

ImNotAhab said:


> Haha, I would have went with MastOpeth.



yeah i also could've gone with Opethstodon but a man has got to make choices.


----------



## ddtonfire (Aug 1, 2016)

Kinda sounds like if David Bowie wrote metal.


----------



## ZeroS1gnol (Aug 2, 2016)

Opeth is dead to me. 

I mean, I absolutely hated Heritage and Pale Communion, not because I'm a conservative metal-only fan, (far from it really), but just because the songs are so damn mediocre and lack any tension or build up. It's just elevator music. The new song is not any different in my ears.


----------



## Zalbu (Aug 2, 2016)

Sounds a bit too much like Ghost, but a solid tune nonetheless

An Opeth and Ghost tour would be sick as hell


----------



## Ibanezsam4 (Aug 2, 2016)

fps said:


> Didn't like Watershed, didn't like Ghost Reveries. The addition of synths and keys took away a tonne of the magic for me.



there's a fracking Mellotron all over Damnation


----------



## chassless (Aug 2, 2016)

poop, double post


----------



## chassless (Aug 2, 2016)

that song was begging for some growls by the 3 minute mark  still good though. i kinda liked it through a first listen.



Ibanezsam4 said:


> there's a fracking Mellotron all over Damnation



but it didn't sound so 70's. it took some spices and ingredients here and there, but still wasn't all so old school prog.




Esp Griffyn said:


> Opeth peaked with Morningrise, they've been on a downhill quality slide ever since.



and there's this guy. there's always this guy.


----------



## Ibanezsam4 (Aug 2, 2016)

chassless said:


> but it didn't sound so 70's. it took some spices and ingredients here and there, but still wasn't all so old school prog.




no. it sounds like a Mellotron, classic tape warble and everything. it's just not that high up in the mix. 

i think people are more tired of the church organ synth patch than the actual key arrangements themselves.. i feel if they used a different texture and synth sample we would be having a different conversation.


----------



## ArtDecade (Aug 2, 2016)

ddtonfire said:


> Kinda sounds like if David Bowie wrote metal.



David did write metal when he was working with Reeves in Tin Machine. And it sounded a lot better than this nonsense.


----------



## ArtDecade (Aug 2, 2016)

chassless said:


> but it didn't sound so 70's. it took some spices and ingredients here and there, but still wasn't all so old school prog.



What?! The introduction sounded like they pulled tapes of Jon Lord noodling for three minutes before a nap.


----------



## wankerness (Aug 2, 2016)

ArtDecade said:


> What?! The introduction sounded like they pulled tapes of Jon Lord noodling for three minutes before a nap.



On that album, they just ripped off 70s prog fewer people have heard


----------



## chassless (Aug 2, 2016)

ArtDecade said:


> What?! The introduction sounded like they pulled tapes of Jon Lord noodling for three minutes before a nap.



i was referring to Damnation


----------



## Double A (Aug 2, 2016)

^Don't forget, the songwriting was also good on Damnation. Maybe why no one minded the mellotron.


----------



## Pav (Aug 2, 2016)

The new song is wonderful and I cannot wait for the rest of the album. Somehow I get the feeling that Sorceress in particular will be one of the simpler songs on the album but obviously that's a complete shot in the dark at this point.


----------



## twizza (Aug 3, 2016)

I like it, definitely 70s prog/70s metal sounds. I did almost think for a second that Troy or Brent were going to start singing about naked men in the forests or whales or something. Guess it's the plodding A notes.


----------



## Razerjack (Aug 3, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> Sounds a bit too much like Ghost, but a solid tune nonetheless
> 
> An Opeth and Ghost tour would be sick as hell



They already did a Mastodon/Opeth/Ghost tour tho


----------



## ArtDecade (Aug 4, 2016)




----------



## cwhitey2 (Aug 4, 2016)

I think this album will be a masterpiece.


----------



## WordyBugger (Aug 4, 2016)

Razerjack said:


> They already did a Mastodon/Opeth/Ghost tour tho



That's where I discovered Ghost. I love Ghost. 

Also, I really dig the new Opeth song. Getting the feeling we're in for another concept album like Still Life, just not back in the Death Metal flavor. That being said, I liked Heritage and Pale Communion more and more as I continue to listen to them. Doesn't keep me away from Blackwater Park though. The title track is just an orgy of awesome riffs.


----------



## MFB (Aug 4, 2016)

After listening to it again, my biggest complaint is the intro. Ditch that and it'd immediately be 50% better.


----------



## fps (Aug 4, 2016)

Ibanezsam4 said:


> there's a fracking Mellotron all over Damnation



Yeah, but that record takes Opeth's softer style and develops it into a fragile, melancholy album with excellent songwriting.


----------



## WordyBugger (Aug 4, 2016)

MFB said:


> After listening to it again, my biggest complaint is the intro. Ditch that and it'd immediately be 50% better.



After listening to it again today, I'm leaning toward agreeing with you. It feels detached from the rest of the song. Not unusual for them, really, but it would have been fine without it.


----------



## MFB (Aug 4, 2016)

Best I can surmise, is that the drum fills and pattern are possibly leading in from the song before it, so there's a bleed over. If you just start it at 1:02, it has a totally different feel from that first part, so at best it's a ....ty transition; and at worst? It's an unexpected 'artistic' choice.


----------



## MattThePenguin (Aug 5, 2016)

I just picture Mikael going ham on the keyboard with a pair of idgaf sunglasses on looking directly at the bassist of my band who doesn't like the intro either and it made me love the intro so much


----------



## AmoryB (Aug 5, 2016)

I read in the Guitar World magazine interview with Mikael that sorceress is the heaviest track on the album, for those that are wondering.


----------



## InFlames235 (Aug 7, 2016)

AmoryB said:


> I read in the Guitar World magazine interview with Mikael that sorceress is the heaviest track on the album, for those that are wondering.



Aww


----------



## hodorcore (Aug 9, 2016)

awesome new song, i'm still hoping for growls tho


----------



## SD83 (Aug 10, 2016)

hodorcore said:


> awesome new song, i'm still hoping for growls tho



He's obviously able to deliver those (although I agree, some recordings from recent years sound horrible, this, at least to my ears sounds rather convincing). But given that 'Sorceress' is supposed to be the heaviest song on the record, I highly doubt it. Then again, given Akerfeldts sense of humor, I wouldn't be too suprised to hear growls on an otherwise slow ballad...


----------



## hodorcore (Aug 11, 2016)

SD83 said:


> He's obviously able to deliver those (although I agree, some recordings from recent years sound horrible, this, at least to my ears sounds rather convincing). But given that 'Sorceress' is supposed to be the heaviest song on the record, I highly doubt it. Then again, given Akerfeldts sense of humor, I wouldn't be too suprised to hear growls on an otherwise slow ballad...





i'll see them live on november 13th in zurich, i am optimistic he will deliver them growls mate!


----------



## dh848 (Aug 11, 2016)

Love the band but every time I try to listen to any of their albums I still just end up going back to blackwater park, can't get past it even years later


----------



## chopeth (Aug 12, 2016)

I'm amazed there's a lot more praise for Opeth's last albums in this forum than in the afaik only unofficial Opeth forum. 

http://www.theopethforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=503


----------



## wankerness (Aug 12, 2016)

chopeth said:


> I'm amazed there's a lot more praise for Opeth's last albums in this forum than in the afaik only unofficial Opeth forum.
> 
> http://www.theopethforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=503



That's definitely unofficial, Mikael flipped the table and had the official one closed many, many years ago due to too many people saying bad things about an album. If it had still existed when Heritage came out, his head would have exploded.


----------



## chopeth (Aug 15, 2016)

wankerness said:


> That's definitely unofficial, Mikael flipped the table and had the official one closed many, many years ago due to too many people saying bad things about an album. If it had still existed when Heritage came out, his head would have exploded.



I know, I was in the first one just a couple of months before Mikael closed it. He didn't do it because of many people saying bad things about the album. AFAIK He did it because of the death of a fellow musician and friend. Some ass in the forum started making fun of it and Mikael said that that was the last straw.


----------



## ArtHam (Aug 15, 2016)

chopeth said:


> I know, I was in the first one just a couple of months before Mikael closed it. He didn't do it because of many people saying bad things about the album. AFAIK He did it because of the death of a fellow musician and friend. Some ass in the forum started making fun of it and Mikael said that that was the last straw.



I was on that forum and I remember reading that post. Something about that forum being negative and people making fun of a terrible situation.


----------



## Double A (Aug 15, 2016)

I have been around Opeth forums since the UltimateMetal days and they always, alllllways just closed their forums. Idk about the forum mentioned above or what happened, but I remember at one point they split the Opeth forum on UM into two because the band or moderators (who were always close irl friends of the band) thought it was too off topic... Then they just closed the forums there altogether and it became it's own forum called Seriously Off Topic which is now defunct because it was like 50 OG Opeth fans that got left in the lurch. I don't know if Mikael is an actual empath or what but they have turned off fans because of that crap for like 15 years.


----------



## wankerness (Aug 16, 2016)

Double A said:


> I have been around Opeth forums since the UltimateMetal days and they always, alllllways just closed their forums. Idk about the forum mentioned above or what happened, but I remember at one point they split the Opeth forum on UM into two because the band or moderators (who were always close irl friends of the band) thought it was too off topic... Then they just closed the forums there altogether and it became it's own forum called Seriously Off Topic which is now defunct because it was like 50 OG Opeth fans that got left in the lurch. I don't know if Mikael is an actual empath or what but they have turned off fans because of that crap for like 15 years.



Yeah, I think they closed it before the FINAL LOCKING for some album criticism. I def remember Mikael raging about criticism at some point. Maybe I'm just thinking of when he said he was leaving forever. It's been a longass time, though, so I might be wrong. I THINK it happened before I was over them, like during the GR days. I posted on that forum pretty religiously for a few years (starting before D1/D2 came out), but my memories bleed together with some of the other crappy Opeth forums that existed (like the one run by that useless "gunhaver" guy).

EDIT: OK, looking at some random google results, it was closed before GR came out too, because people were sharing a "leak" of a stream of Grand Conjuration from Roadrunner themselves!!! I remember it reopened at some point and I posted on it a bunch during the GR era since I was spending hundreds of hours tabbing stuff from it (and then having a shocker when there was an "official tab book" released by a company I'd sent samples of my work to which happened to include 8 songs I'd tabbed!), and when all the songs from GR had been done and I'd confirmed most of the tabs by seeing them live (and then felt kicked in the gut by the tab book) I kinda closed the book on them till the next album. I think I was on break from the forum by the time Watershed had come out. By then I was really into other stuff, and when Watershed sucked that was it, I don't think I posted much about it, just moved on.

Now I'm all curious. Their search won't work, unfortunately.


----------



## The Mirror (Aug 16, 2016)

wankerness said:


> I remember it reopened at some point and I posted on it a bunch during the GR era since I was spending hundreds of hours tabbing stuff from it (and then having a shocker when there was an "official tab book" released by a company I'd sent samples of my work to which happened to include 8 songs I'd tabbed!), and when all the songs from GR had been done and I'd confirmed most of the tabs by seeing them live (and then felt kicked in the gut by the tab book) I kinda closed the book on them till the next album.



A little bit offtopic here, but do you still got those tabs? I pretty much did the same thing since I decided to learn the whole Ghost Reveries record a few years ago, but some parts are damn tricky to get right.


----------



## wankerness (Aug 16, 2016)

The Mirror said:


> A little bit offtopic here, but do you still got those tabs? I pretty much did the same thing since I decided to learn the whole Ghost Reveries record a few years ago, but some parts are damn tricky to get right.



Yeah, I still have all of them. I did Ghost of Perdition, Baying of the Hounds, Reverie/Harlequin Forest, The Grand Conjuration, and Isolation Years. Ghost of Perdition had a couple riffs, particularly towards the end, which I think were questionable, but Baying of the Hounds in particular I'd guess is REALLY close, I was checking everything against when I was in the front row and saw Mikael play it live  I will post them later when I'm at my home computer. One thing to note is I'm a bass player, not a guitarist, so I think the solos have all the right notes but are positioned stupidly.

Some other dude did Beneath the Mire and Isolation Years. I can't remember if he did Atonement, but who cares  I think they were all pretty good, too. All 7 (or 8) of these are in .ptb format.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Aug 16, 2016)

New studio report! https://youtu.be/vlVqGbwxU6g


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## jerm (Aug 16, 2016)

What really sucks about these studio updates is there's almost no actual recording footage, just dialogue


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## wankerness (Aug 16, 2016)

Here's my GR tabs, for that dude that asked. They're powertab format. I dunno what will happen if you open them in GP, since the bass score and the guitar score aren't structured the same way and GP isn't intelligent enough to deal with that.


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## wankerness (Aug 16, 2016)

Here's the other three songs, all done by some dude who went by the name "Thediceman" that I did some co-tabbing with in the past. I haven't actually studied any of these, so no accuracy guarantees


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## The Mirror (Aug 17, 2016)

Hey thanks a lot. I'll look into them.


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## A-Branger (Aug 19, 2016)

I just saw they are not only going to come to Australia, but to play at the Sydney opera house, and not only do a set of the new album of course, but they are doing a set of Damnation and Deliverance  !!!!!!

I just register to be able to get into the pre-sale. I think would be 99-199$ price tag if I read it right.

I dont care much, I ahvent see them live ever yet. Miss the chance few times. Plus I dont live in Syndey so I would ahve to fly in to crash at a firedns place, but I got sold on the Opera house environment

plus they are only doing 3 shows. One in New York, one in London, and this one


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## A-Branger (Aug 19, 2016)

wankerness said:


> Here's my GR tabs, for that dude that asked. They're powertab format. I dunno what will happen if you open them in GP, since the bass score and the guitar score aren't structured the same way and GP isn't intelligent enough to deal with that.



hey thanks for those, I think I lready had one of those from ages ago.

I uused to download everything from powertab back in the day, before they close down the site for a few years.

I used to use it on a pc as it wasnt for mac back them, and I loved way more than GP, far far eassier to use and far more accurate tabs in the powertab.net archives.

I just downloaded it to my mac, it has changed a lot from what it used to be. I find it so weird to use. For your harlequin forest, the bass tab is out from the guitar. Like the bass is starting couple of meassures before it supossed to, so its trowing everyhting out of sync. Problem is I cant find how to fix it. Like how to insert two bars of silence. Any help?

In my previous mac I found one called "Tux guitar", which was more similar to the original powertab software. is that one better?. It doesnt work on my newer mac tho

EDIT: I just found a way to make Tuxguitar work and it all lines up perfectly, jsut a couple of weird tempo changes, but an easy fix. Thanks for the tab bro


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## Zalbu (Aug 20, 2016)

A-Branger said:


> hey thanks for those, I think I lready had one of those from ages ago.
> 
> I uused to download everything from powertab back in the day, before they close down the site for a few years.
> 
> ...


Tuxguitar broke for me again when I installed the Macos Sierra public beta, it's probably going to break completely soon since they pretty much never update it. Will probably have to buy Guitar Pro 6 sooner or later but there's no way in hell it's worth 60 bucks for something that Tuxguitar does just as well for free


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## wankerness (Aug 20, 2016)

I haven't actually tried opening any of these in GP6, I just assume it breaks them since in GP you can't have two instrument scores with different measure layouts. I'll see what happens right now!

EDIT: Ah, yeah, it tells you immediately and tells you to separate them or deal with the consequences. I really don't understand why it has to be so stupid. I think people have already copied them into GP and put their own names on them, otherwise I'd just do the work of making the scores "match." I think it would probably only take about 5 minutes, it's a matter of things like having to copy/paste the bass score a bunch of times behind the guitar solo. Sometimes it's the opposite. For example, there in Harlequin Forest, the guitars play the exact same thing over and over, but the bass does something different almost every time, so GP makes me either eliminate all the bass variations, or write those identical guitar parts out several times in a row.

I'm glad I didn't do these in GP in the first place, cause my OCD would have made me do the drum parts, and to do drum fills, I'd have even LESS ability to use repeats in the guitar/bass scores since any time there was a drum fill I wouldn't be allowed to use a repeat sign! What a clunky program.

As a side note, last week I just finally broke down and bought GP6 after probably almost 15 years of not paying for it. I guess I felt I owed them, even though their program is buggy and unwieldy


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## Zalbu (Aug 20, 2016)

wankerness said:


> As a side note, last week I just finally broke down and bought GP6 after probably almost 15 years of not paying for it. I guess I felt I owed them, even though their program is buggy and unwieldy


Yup, I use Tuxguitar on my Windows computer and I like the simple and minimalistic layout way more compared to Guitar Pro but right now I don't have any way to look at tabs on my laptop. I'll probably have to set up a virtual machine with Windows or Ubuntu on it or something...


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## A-Branger (Aug 20, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> Yup, I use Tuxguitar on my Windows computer and I like the simple and minimalistic layout way more compared to Guitar Pro but right now I don't have any way to look at tabs on my laptop. I'll probably have to set up a virtual machine with Windows or Ubuntu on it or something...



if your laptop is amac, then theres no trouble. I just made tuxguitar work on it


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## Zalbu (Aug 20, 2016)

A-Branger said:


> if your laptop is amac, then theres no trouble. I just made tuxguitar work on it


It worked for me on El Capitan but not Sierra. It might work when Sierra is out of beta but I doubt it since Tuxguitar is already a patch job on OSX.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Aug 22, 2016)

Getting this thread back on topic! New studio report! https://youtu.be/JIeezJf4Qt8


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## Razerjack (Aug 23, 2016)

Sydney Opera House show confirmed. 

This show along with the Wembley Arena and Radio City Music Hall shows will have a special setlist focusing on 'Sorcery, Deliverance and Damnation'. Looks like Opeth is trying really hard to hit the big venues on this tour.

Absolutely shocked, seriously considering booking a trip to Sydney for the show. Can't help but worry about the attendance tho, it seems that they're struggling to fill the SSE Arena.


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## CreptorStatus (Aug 23, 2016)

Hmmm.. Sorcery got a 6/10 review in Decibel this month. Not very promising.


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## Pav (Aug 23, 2016)

Who gives a .... what one magazine says about it?


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## CreptorStatus (Aug 23, 2016)

Pav said:


> Who gives a .... what one magazine says about it?



Possibly the thousands of magazine subscribers? But i do see your point.

I guess my surprise is because they have given Opeth stellar reviews on every single record before this.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Aug 23, 2016)

CreptorStatus said:


> Hmmm.. Sorcery got a 6/10 review in Decibel this month. Not very promising.



They, like any mainstream publication, kinda suck.


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## Pav (Aug 23, 2016)

CreptorStatus said:


> Possibly the thousands of magazine subscribers? But i do see your point.
> 
> I guess my surprise is because they have given Opeth stellar reviews on every single record before this.



I've developed a great disdain for review publications over the past few years so no matter how renowned a site or magazine may be, I always take it with a grain of salt. The lists I've read of now legendary music, movies and games that were initially panned by critics reminds me that regardless of how professional a forum they are given to air their opinion, it still boils down to the opinion of one person (or a small handful of people). Even the review of a published magazine writer is equivalent to the opinions of any of us - just a drop in the bucket.

Sorry for the rant.


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## Opion (Aug 23, 2016)

Isn't Decibel a very "core" metal magazine? I usually don't really see a lot of prog metal in that mag, I haven't read it in a while though so I may be off. But I'm honestly not very surprised. I'd wait til I hear from other sources what they make of it. Or you know, listen to the album myself


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## wankerness (Aug 23, 2016)

If they'd given it a GOOD review, would you guys be rushing to trash them?


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## Pav (Aug 23, 2016)

wankerness said:


> If they'd given it a GOOD review, would you guys be rushing to trash them?



I would disregard their opinion no matter what kind of review they gave it.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Aug 23, 2016)

Opion said:


> Isn't Decibel a very "core" metal magazine? I usually don't really see a lot of prog metal in that mag, I haven't read it in a while though so I may be off. But I'm honestly not very surprised. I'd wait til I hear from other sources what they make of it. Or you know, listen to the album myself



They like bands like SOAD and Hellyeah. Stupid mainstream metal.


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## A-Branger (Aug 23, 2016)

Razerjack said:


> Sydney Opera House show confirmed.
> 
> This show along with the Wembley Arena and Radio City Music Hall shows will have a special setlist focusing on 'Sorcery, Deliverance and Damnation'. Looks like Opeth is trying really hard to hit the big venues on this tour.
> 
> Absolutely shocked, seriously considering booking a trip to Sydney for the show. Can't help but worry about the attendance tho, it seems that they're struggling to fill the SSE Arena.



struggling? lol, if they were srtugling they wouldnt be able to book those places.

BTW is already sold out   

I was looking forward to go to the Sydney opera house, Ive never seen them live and the place alone was an awesome idea. So went online and I pre-book, so I could be able to access the pre-booking. So if that doesnt tell you how quick those tickets were gonne go, I donno what.

kinda forgot it was yesterday, but no point on it as I read on FB in one of the coments of the photo that someone jumped 7 min after the opening time and it was already sold out. Also apparently you could buy 8 tickets at a time, so Im guessing there would be some re-sellers making $ out there 

either way, dream crushed


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## CreptorStatus (Aug 24, 2016)

Opion said:


> Isn't Decibel a very "core" metal magazine? I usually don't really see a lot of prog metal in that mag,



Certainly not. It's probably on the opposite side of the spectrum, almost all the content is about black, prog, doom, death, etc. The most current issue was almost all dedicated to Neurosis.


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## Zalbu (Aug 24, 2016)

I'd argue that Opeth are just as mainstream as SOAD or Hellyeah


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## Opion (Aug 24, 2016)

CreptorStatus said:


> Certainly not. It's probably on the opposite side of the spectrum, almost all the content is about black, prog, doom, death, etc. The most current issue was almost all dedicated to Neurosis.



Word then I stand corrected. I used to have a subscription to Decibel a while ago and I felt like all I saw in there was Black, Death, Grind etc. with the occasional mainstream and symphonic metal band added in there. But hmm this is very interesting. I still will withold my judgment until I hear the record


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## TedEH (Aug 24, 2016)

leftyguitarjoe said:


> Stupid mainstream metal.



Certainly wouldn't want to get caught enjoying something that other people enjoy too, amirite? 

I don't know that I'd say Opeth and SOAD etc are all equally "mainstream" (I know quite a few more casual music fans who listen to SOAD but have never heard of Opeth before), but I doubt it's that far off. Opeth isn't some kind of kvlt underground band that hipsters namedrop to impress their friends anymore.


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## Smoked Porter (Aug 24, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> I'd argue that Opeth are just as mainstream as SOAD or Hellyeah



Haha, come on man, Opeth is only mainstream in the metal bubble. System of a Down still gets steady terrestrial rock radio play to this day, that's never happened for Opeth. Just google their total worldwide album sales if you don't believe me, Opeth has 1.5 million, System has 40 million. Don't take this as me trashing you, I'm really not, but that's kind of a noticeable difference. 



Zalbu said:


> An Opeth and Ghost tour would be sick as hell


Yes.



Pav said:


> I've developed a great disdain for review publications over the past few years so no matter how renowned a site or magazine may be, I always take it with a grain of salt. The lists I've read of now legendary music, movies and games that were initially panned by critics reminds me that regardless of how professional a forum they are given to air their opinion, it still boils down to the opinion of one person (or a small handful of people).



Yep, I don't even bother looking at professional critics' and bloggers' reviews anymore. I'll make an exception if it's a musician I like talking about the albums they dig and are influenced by.

Anyway, a bit late, but Sorceress is making this album sound promising. Nice, huge, and heavy.


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## Cnev (Aug 24, 2016)

Critics are paid to criticize. They have no greater insight into music than anyone else, and I'd argue that they have much less than any member of a passionate fan base. I have no idea why people still take what these people say to heart. Judge an album by your own merits. That is all that matters in the end.


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## MattThePenguin (Aug 25, 2016)

Even if the album is "bad" I like Mikael's voice so damn much that I don't see myself not absolutely loving it. I fangirl over him, no shame. He's the man.


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## The Mirror (Aug 25, 2016)

Cnev said:


> Critics are paid to criticize. They have no greater insight into music than anyone else, and I'd argue that they have much less than any member of a passionate fan base. I have no idea why people still take what these people say to heart. Judge an album by your own merits. That is all that matters in the end.



This is part true (for amateur critics) and part nonsense. Being a professional critic is a job you have to learn as any other. To being recognized as a really good critic you practically have to have knowledge in journalism, applied musicology and the music scene you are reviewing in general. 

Of course I get that the market is flooded with your average guy opening up a review website, but still there will always be people like Roger Ebert around, who are major leagues above everyone else for their knowledge and journalistic outings (wrong genre, sure, but you know what I mean).


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## chopeth (Aug 25, 2016)

Smoked Porter said:


> Just google their total worldwide album sales if you don't believe me, Opeth has 1.5 million, System has 40 million.



Just being curious... where do you find these figures, any particular website showing them?


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## Razerjack (Aug 25, 2016)

Zalbu said:


> I'd argue that Opeth are just as mainstream as SOAD or Hellyeah



I think they are already as big as they can get given the kind of music they play, they sell a relatively large number of records(despite having mixed reception) and has a loyal fanbase filling 2000+ people theaters in big markets, but still far from capable of selling out a arena... 

Being a huge Opeth fan with a interest in sales figures and all that stuff, I simply think they are being too ambitious with the Wembley show, especially considering the price they charge. I would even argue that they had more drawing power back in 2012


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## Smoked Porter (Aug 25, 2016)

chopeth said:


> Just being curious... where do you find these figures, any particular website showing them?



I just looked at Wikipedia. Not exactly scholarly, but whatever.


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## Cnev (Aug 25, 2016)

The Mirror said:


> This is part true (for amateur critics) and part nonsense. Being a professional critic is a job you have to learn as any other. To being recognized as a really good critic you practically have to have knowledge in journalism, applied musicology and the music scene you are reviewing in general.
> 
> Of course I get that the market is flooded with your average guy opening up a review website, but still there will always be people like Roger Ebert around, who are major leagues above everyone else for their knowledge and journalistic outings (wrong genre, sure, but you know what I mean).



I've never once in my life ever chosen to dislike or like an album because of someone else's opinion of it, regardless of how "educated" that opinion might be. It's completely irrelevant. Yes, "professional" critics might try to draw from learned objective standards, but they are illusory and contrived anyway. Art is a personal and intimate thing that transcends any need to rationalize the meaning it holds to a particular person. 

There's nothing about Roger Ebert's reviews that I find more or less valid than anyone else's aside from presentation and writing quality. Being knowledgeable obviously shapes your own personal tastes, but it has nothing to do with those of other people. The only thing that matters is whether the listener finds value in a particular piece of art, at which point any super impressive and "skilled" external criticism ceases to hold any real validity or importance. 

I've been a music nerd long enough to know that a lot of times I have no real reason to like or dislike a song or an album, but I do anyway. So yes, I find critics to be absolutely useless.


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## wankerness (Aug 25, 2016)

Cnev said:


> I've never once in my life ever chosen to dislike or like an album because of someone else's opinion of it, regardless of how "educated" that opinion might be. It's completely irrelevant. Yes, "professional" critics might try to draw from learned objective standards, but they are illusory and contrived anyway. Art is a personal and intimate thing that transcends any need to rationalize the meaning it holds to a particular person.
> 
> There's nothing about Roger Ebert's reviews that I find more or less valid than anyone else's aside from presentation and writing quality. Being knowledgeable obviously shapes your own personal tastes, but it has nothing to do with those of other people. The only thing that matters is whether the listener finds value in a particular piece of art, at which point any super impressive and "skilled" external criticism ceases to hold any real validity or importance.
> 
> I've been a music nerd long enough to know that a lot of times I have no real reason to like or dislike a song or an album, but I do anyway. So yes, I find critics to be absolutely useless.



This "critics are useless, my own opinion is exactly as important" comes off as so narcissistic. People who have studied film their whole life, especially with a background in film studies (who thus know how things are constructed, have a wealth of different genre knowledge, etc) are absolutely more informed about how well something is done. Whether they LIKE something or not might not matter, but their ability to draw attention to what's good or bad about something is incredibly valuable. I can't count the number of movies I only watched because of reading reviews that made it sound interesting (sometimes, even BAD reviews make me want to see something, you just need to get attuned to a writer so you know what their descriptions mean). I'm talking about professional critics, not some idiots on youtube or whatever. If you find reviews on imdb in the user section that are actually written coherently (which is ~15% of them) they're often incredibly helpful, especially with more obscure films. Why would you want to waste your time watching things totally at random because "NO CRITICS AINT GON TELL ME NUTTIN"? 

This all said, I'm hypocritical in that I think 95% of MUSIC writers are idiots. If people don't actually know anything about the technical side of music, their opinion is useless to me. They tend to just drop musical terms in ways that are not remotely accurate like "THIS SONG IS FILLED WITH TEMPO CHANGES!!!" (when it isn't, it has meter changes or something) and the like. Also, so many music writers just go into this abstract bs that doesn't say ANYTHING. Like, look at some classics like this:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6656-kid-a/



> The experience and emotions tied to listening to Kid A are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax. It's an album of sparking paradox. It's cacophonous yet tranquil, experimental yet familiar, foreign yet womb-like, spacious yet visceral, textured yet vaporous, awakening yet dreamlike, infinite yet 48 minutes. It will cleanse your brain of those little crustaceans of worries and inferior albums clinging inside the fold of your gray matter. The harrowing sounds hit from unseen angles and emanate with inhuman genesis. When the headphones peel off, and it occurs that six men (Nigel Godrich included) created this, it's clear that Radiohead must be the greatest band alive, if not the best since you know who. Breathing people made this record! And you can't wait to dive back in and try to prove that wrong over and over.



Writers like the ones they hire at Downbeat, on the other hand, are incredibly informed and their opinions are usually extremely helpful. They still come with their set of biases, but they're usually pretty predictable, so you can just go from what they say and take into account they'll generally dislike anything modern-sounding, etc.

I basically don't read music reviews, but I do read forum reactions, which are essentially the same thing, just shorter form.


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## AmoryB (Aug 25, 2016)

MattThePenguin said:


> Even if the album is "bad" I like Mikael's voice so damn much that I don't see myself not absolutely loving it. I fangirl over him, no shame. He's the man.



Word, Opeth can do no wrong by me.


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## The 1 (Aug 25, 2016)

I never got into their last couple albums, after ghost reveries. Interested to see if this brings me back.


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## chassless (Aug 26, 2016)

^ there's 3 albums after GR


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## chopeth (Aug 26, 2016)

Yeah, Watershed still rocks, after that...


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## leftyguitarjoe (Aug 26, 2016)

chopeth said:


> Yeah, Watershed still rocks, after that...



Heritage, being the first album after their "transformation", has like two songs on it I like. Pale Communion, however, is a pretty great whole-album experience. They honed their new style and it flows much better. Pop it on on a long drive or while you're playing a video game or something and try not to expect it to be "Opeth-Opeth". It took me a while to enjoy it for what it is and I'm glad I took the time to try because now I get to listen to more Opeth.


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## MFB (Aug 29, 2016)

Has anyone been following the updates?

I watched the guitar tracking one today, and I ask: what the fvck is the point of giving an update about tracking guitar tracks, and solos, and all the effects you're using to sound heavier than your last album - if you're not even going to play a clip besides the single you've already released?

Jesus, they suck at hyping an album.


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## wankerness (Aug 29, 2016)

leftyguitarjoe said:


> Heritage, being the first album after their "transformation", has like two songs on it I like. Pale Communion, however, is a pretty great whole-album experience. They honed their new style and it flows much better. *Pop it on on a long drive or while you're playing a video game or something* and try not to expect it to be "Opeth-Opeth". It took me a while to enjoy it for what it is and I'm glad I took the time to try because now I get to listen to more Opeth.



"Don't pay much attention to it, and you might like it?"


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## The Mirror (Aug 29, 2016)

MFB said:


> Has anyone been following the updates?
> 
> I watched the guitar tracking one today, and I ask: what the fvck is the point of giving an update about tracking guitar tracks, and solos, and all the effects you're using to sound heavier than your last album - if you're not even going to play a clip besides the single you've already released?
> 
> Jesus, they suck at hyping an album.



I have to back you up on that one.

The studio reports they are uploading are downright boring and show right about nothing about the actual studio work. Dunno what they are trying to do with that.

This hits especially hard as Devin is uploading his studio report for Transcedence right now, too, which is freakin fantastic.


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## Pav (Aug 29, 2016)

I enjoyed the very first one where Mikael gave a little walking tour of the studio complex they're in, but since then they've been nothing but general explanations of the recording process that people like us are already pretty familiar with.


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## InFlames235 (Aug 29, 2016)

Pav said:


> I enjoyed the very first one where Mikael gave a little walking tour of the studio complex they're in, but since then they've been nothing but general explanations of the recording process that people like us are already pretty familiar with.



Agreed. They're boring. At least sprinkle in a bit of new music alongside the updates to keep people interested.

EDIT:

9.5 rating from this place http://www.metalwani.com/2016/08/review-opeth-sorceress.html


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Aug 29, 2016)

Yeah the studio reports totally suck, maybe this means we'll get an awesome in depth making of documentary &#55357;&#56835;also I have been hitting the replay button on sorceress mad hard and can't wait for new Opeth


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## beneharris (Aug 29, 2016)

InFlames235 said:


> Agreed. They're boring. At least sprinkle in a bit of new music alongside the updates to keep people interested.
> 
> EDIT:
> 
> 9.5 rating from this place http://www.metalwani.com/2016/08/review-opeth-sorceress.html



Its great to hear that the album is good, but its odd that the reviews are starting to come out a month early.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Aug 29, 2016)

InFlames235 said:


> Agreed. They're boring. At least sprinkle in a bit of new music alongside the updates to keep people interested.
> 
> EDIT:
> 
> 9.5 rating from this place http://www.metalwani.com/2016/08/review-opeth-sorceress.html



How is the user score a 7.something if no one's heard the damn album


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## wankerness (Aug 29, 2016)

RUSH_Of_Excitement said:


> How is the user score a 7.something if no one's heard the damn album



Same way the IMDB score for batman v superman was like 9.5 before it came out


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## SD83 (Sep 4, 2016)

Second song is not bad... I'm a bit suprised. Not even remotely heavy, but I guess no one was really expecting anything in that direction anyways.


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## wankerness (Sep 4, 2016)

It's not bad musically, I like that the acoustic part is fairly intricate, but the vocals are terrible! He's got some really, really whiny enunciation on everything. Did he change up his style on the last couple albums and I just didn't notice till now?!


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## Opion (Sep 4, 2016)

wankerness said:


> It's not bad musically, I like that the acoustic part is fairly intricate, but the vocals are terrible! He's got some really, really whiny enunciation on everything. Did he change up his style on the last couple albums and I just didn't notice till now?!



This has been the standard Akerfeldt clean vocals for a while now, at least the last 3 albums 

I really enjoyed the song and the lyric video. I have always pictured these kind of visuals whenever listening to Opeth. I'm kind of relieved this is a more folk-type song, in the past Opeth have always excelled at mixing metal with folk music (think Credence in the middle of MAYH, Harvest in the middle of Blackwater Park).


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## Thorgrim_Rexor (Sep 4, 2016)

Channeling Jethro Tull, anyone?
I am a big fan of Opeth's older albums, but i just cant seem to get into anything past Ghost Reveries. If only we could get something along the lines of Still Life or My Arms Your Hearse again, that would be the day.


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## fps (Sep 4, 2016)

Thorgrim_Rexor said:


> Channeling Jethro Tull, anyone?
> I am a big fan of Opeth's older albums, but i just cant seem to get into anything past Ghost Reveries. If only we could get something along the lines of Still Life or My Arms Your Hearse again, that would be the day.



The keyboards added a layer of cheese that would never be removed. And the vocals have become very stage-y and less emotive, to me.


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## Sammy J (Sep 5, 2016)

As an old Opeth fan who has pretty much hated both Heritage and Pale Communion, this is probably the first song I've thought was decent in 5-6 years. Not remotely heavy, but the guitar playing was pleasant and I enjoyed the simple song enough. I do agree with Mikael's vocals...they do sound cheesier, or more whiny. Maybe it's more noticeable without the contrasting growls to go with it.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 5, 2016)

Will this band ever write a bad song? Probably not


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## Lorcan Ward (Sep 5, 2016)

I enjoyed the song, it barely sound like Opeth to me though. The lyrics and guitars are more like a Blind Guardian/Sonata Arctica acoustic ballad. The solo has a bunch of Opeth signature licks though.


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## jwade (Sep 6, 2016)

Jethro Tull/Led Zep, didn't hate that at all.


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## mdeeRocks (Sep 6, 2016)

Jethro Tull back from the "dead"?

Opeth aiming at metal Grammy this year confirmed.


p.s. derivative, pretentious BS. I'd rather listen to proper hippie music (I am going to put "Aqualung" on now - on vinyl!), there is a ton of it. Really unimpressed by this, but whatever floats their boat.


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## chassless (Sep 6, 2016)

Yeah the only moment i recognized Opeth in there was during a few licks in the solo. They might as well have made this a side project.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 6, 2016)

Alright I've listened to this about 10 times now and I love it just as much as Sorceress if not a little more. For me, Opeth's music is perfect for creating an atmosphere and a sentiment that envelops the listener, this song is no different and I'm really excited for the new album


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## leftyguitarjoe (Sep 6, 2016)

The amount of butthurt in those youtube comments 

I, for one, and very excited for this album. They have had a while to get used to their new style and it is looking like they'll really shine on this one.


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## InFlames235 (Sep 6, 2016)

leftyguitarjoe said:


> The amount of butthurt in those youtube comments
> 
> I, for one, and very excited for this album. They have had a while to get used to their new style and it is looking like they'll really shine on this one.



Lol seriously. They've been like this now for YEARS. This doesn't sound much further off from the last two albums yet people still are complaining. Just stop listening to them? They're never going back to growls. EVER.


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## MattThePenguin (Sep 6, 2016)

This song is stuck in my head constantly! I love the ending so much, I cannot wait to hear the album


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## Cnev (Sep 6, 2016)

Great song, and that lead tone is gorgeous.


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## TheHandOfStone (Sep 6, 2016)

I like this song a lot, but yeah it doesn't really remind me of Opeth at all. I'm honestly fine with that as long as they keep up this level of quality.


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## beneharris (Sep 6, 2016)

chassless said:


> Yeah the only moment i recognized Opeth in there was during a few licks in the solo. They might as well have made this a side project.



I can't believe people are still saying this  Its been almost 6 years since the first album of this sort of music has been released.


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## Sang-Drax (Sep 6, 2016)

I don't mind them not sounding too Opeth. I really didn't like Heritage, but The Pale Communion is a pretty good album, IMO.

This last song was kinda boring. I stopped paying attention not long after the bass and drums kicked in. To be honest, if I didn't know it was Opeth I wouldn't even care to know the band's name.

Sorceress itself was just an ok track, now this. I hope they have something better up their sleeves.


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## chassless (Sep 6, 2016)

beneharris said:


> I can't believe people are still saying this  Its been almost 6 years since the first album of this sort of music has been released.



no, not really. i've easily recognized Opeth on both older albums but not in this song.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Sep 6, 2016)

chassless said:


> no, not really. i've easily recognized Opeth on both older albums but not in this song.



One of my favorite bands ever is Ulver. These are the genres of their albums:
1993: Black metal
1995: Folk
1997: Really terrible black metal
1998: An orchestral movie soundtrack
1999: Techno
2000: Prog/experimental rock
2001: Two ambient/glitch/noise EP's
2005: Even proggier/experimentallier rock
2007: Ambient/atmospheric stuff
2010: Electronic/ambient stuff some more
2012: An album of just 1960's pop covers
2013: Full blown orchestral
2015: Really weird sh!t with SunO)))

I love it when I cant recognize a band.


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## chassless (Sep 6, 2016)

I like it when a band experiments with nee directions but when you can still feel their little signature touch somewhere that makes them stand out. I didn't really see it in that last song.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 8, 2016)

Very positive review up from Metalsucks http://www.metalsucks.net/2016/09/07/opeth-sorceress-approaches/


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## The Mirror (Sep 8, 2016)

RUSH_Of_Excitement said:


> Very positive review up from Metalsucks http://www.metalsucks.net/2016/09/07/opeth-sorceress-approaches/



That's a great review in such a way that it was written from a fan of late Opeth (he names Watershed as his favourite in it).

So: For those liking the way Opeth took since Heritage it is a fantastic album. 

Everyone wanting the pre Watershed phase back, just skip this record and probably the whole band.

I'm absolutely looking forward to it.


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## MattThePenguin (Sep 8, 2016)

Still don't get the Watershed hate haha


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 8, 2016)

Watershed is an amazing album. Burden, Coil and Porcelain Heart are easily some of the best songs in Opeth's discography


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## Jaxcharvel (Sep 8, 2016)

I just wish Akerfeldt forgot what a keyboard was. They've had plenty of keys on some very good albums of their's, and I've always liked it because it was tastefully implemented. The last three albums however, (Heritage, Pale Communion, Sorceress) the keys and synths have been the dominant instrument. They can be there, but do they have to be so constant, and so ....ing loud?


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## Sikthness (Sep 8, 2016)

MattThePenguin said:


> Still don't get the Watershed hate haha



Watershed rules


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## Pav (Sep 9, 2016)

RUSH_Of_Excitement said:


> Watershed is an amazing album. Burden, Coil and Porcelain Heart are easily some of the best songs in Opeth's discography



Personally, I could listen to Heir Apparent and The Lotus Eater back to back, over and over for a long, long time.


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## Fistertain (Sep 9, 2016)

Wasn't sold on the Thick as a Brick worship, but that outro makes the song completely. Funny, I have a similar opinion of Sorceress. Luke-warmly excited for this, half of Pale Communion was pretty great.


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## chopeth (Sep 9, 2016)

RUSH_Of_Excitement said:


> Watershed is an amazing album. Burden, Coil and Porcelain Heart are easily some of the best songs in Opeth's discography



That's exactly the three songs I find most boring, especially porcelain fart. But I love Heir Apparent, Lotus Eater, Hex Omega and above all Hessian Peel.


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## Fistertain (Sep 9, 2016)

chopeth said:


> That's exactly the three songs I find most boring, especially porcelain fart. But I love Heir Apparent, Lotus Eater, Hex Omega and above all Hessian Peel.



All these songs rule. Porcelain Heart on the other hand, in hindsight, was a big fat red flag that warned us of where they were headed with that disjointed mess Heritage.


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## chassless (Sep 9, 2016)

^ weird, i wouldn't make that association. and Porcelain Heart is one of my least favorite of their songs.

edit: what i said makes me seem like i also think Heritage is a mess. i don't


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 9, 2016)

Jaxcharvel said:


> I just wish Akerfeldt forgot what a keyboard was. They've had plenty of keys on some very good albums of their's, and I've always liked it because it was tastefully implemented. The last three albums however, (Heritage, Pale Communion, Sorceress) the keys and synths have been the dominant instrument. They can be there, but do they have to be so constant, and so ....ing loud?



To me, that's like trying to imagine Opeth without guitars  the keys have become such an integral part of their sound, if they abandoned them, everything would feel off


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## extendedsolo (Sep 9, 2016)

whether I like what Opeth does or not, I can't say that I find what they do stale. So many bands just release a slightly tweaked version of the same record. Which is fine! I like many bands like that. I find myself at least extremely intrigued and excited by the uncertainty of a band that possesses the talents that Opeth has. I feel like it's when Radiohead decided to have less guitars and more bleeps and bloops in their music. Yeah it hasn't been as good, but some amazing stuff has come out of it. Same with Opeth for me.


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## Zalbu (Sep 9, 2016)

chassless said:


> They might as well have made this a side project.


Why? Micke is captain of the ship, if he wants to start playing disco then Opeth is a disco group


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## chassless (Sep 9, 2016)

^ it's just my opinion, that in all Opeth songs ever created, i could recognize Opeth. even if he did do a disco album i'm sure i'll recognize Opeth in it. it's just that, this last song just didn't have much going for it, for me. it's a cover-band level song to my tastes. that's just my impression this time.


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## Jaxcharvel (Sep 9, 2016)

RUSH_Of_Excitement said:


> To me, that's like trying to imagine Opeth without guitars  the keys have become such an integral part of their sound, if they abandoned them, everything would feel off



No, you misunderstood. I love keyboards, and without them Opeth would sound empty. But they have them so damn loud in the mix lately and it's all I hear. I haven't heard any cool guitar work since Watershed.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 9, 2016)

Jaxcharvel said:


> No, you misunderstood. I love keyboards, and without them Opeth would sound empty. But they have them so damn loud in the mix lately and it's all I hear. I haven't heard any cool guitar work since Watershed.



Fair, my misunderstanding  but there was some awesome guitar work on both Pale Communion and Heritage imho. The Devil's Orchard? Some of the coolest riffs I've ever heard.


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## Fistertain (Sep 9, 2016)

RUSH_Of_Excitement said:


> Fair, my misunderstanding  but there was some awesome guitar work on both Pale Communion and Heritage imho. The Devil's Orchard? Some of the coolest riffs I've ever heard.



I think part of the problem is that Mikael's riffing style really doesn't mesh well with single coils played through not-quite-gainy-enough Marshall Plexis. He still plays these percussive style metal riffs and they sound totally awkward and limp-wristed with that guitar tone. It's better on Pale Communion, but it still sounds like there is a lack of attack.

Now I don't want to bash the guy or anything, he's a genius... but he might just not have a heavy enough rhythm hand to play with conviction when not playing through amps with a percussive character. This wasn't a problem back when they used Laney VH100s which had a thick woody knock, but when they first switched to Marshalls on Ghost Reveries you could tell there was a lack of attack.

With Heritage it's particularly bad. He could be playing the most brilliantly crafted riffs in the world and it would still sound awkward.


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## Jaxcharvel (Sep 9, 2016)

Fistertain said:


> This wasn't a problem back when they used Laney VH100s which had a thick woody knock, but when they first switched to Marshalls on Ghost Reveries you could tell there was a lack of attack.



I could have sworn they used the Laneys through Ghost Reveries.


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## Fistertain (Sep 9, 2016)

Jaxcharvel said:


> I could have sworn they used the Laneys through Ghost Reveries.



Very well could be, I just assumed because their tone seems pretty compressed compared to the previous albums. Lacks roundness and almost sounds like there's a hard gate on it. Always attributed that sound to Overdriven Marshalls... more fizz than bubble, if you know what I mean. I also remember them getting a Marshall endorsement around then... might have been after though.

That said, the lead tone is absolutely incredible on Ghost Reveries.


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## wankerness (Sep 9, 2016)

Ghost Reveries is BY FAR their best sounding album in the wall of distorted guitars field, IMO. Blackwater Park is a distant second. I thought it was a huge comeback after Deliverance sounded much duller than BWP. I don't see how it could be described as "weak," but then again I rarely understand guitar tone complaints that seem based around specific gear that the complainant heard was used on an album.


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## jwade (Sep 9, 2016)

I remember listening to Blackwater Park over and over for years, completely avoided listening to any other album after that for a long while. I didn't think they'd ever be able to top it. 

The next album I listened to after that was Ghost Reveries, and it floored me. I felt like those two albums belonged together. I still find it hard to listen to anything but BWP leading into GR. I have to actively go out of my way to put on any of their other albums, despite how much I love everything pre-Heritage, because of how strongly I feel about BWP & GR. Just incredible albums.


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## Jaxcharvel (Sep 9, 2016)

jwade said:


> I remember listening to Blackwater Park over and over for years, completely avoided listening to any other album after that for a long while. I didn't think they'd ever be able to top it.
> 
> The next album I listened to after that was Ghost Reveries, and it floored me. I felt like those two albums belonged together. I still find it hard to listen to anything but BWP leading into GR. I have to actively go out of my way to put on any of their other albums, despite how much I love everything pre-Heritage, because of how strongly I feel about BWP & GR. Just incredible albums.



I agree, but to me Still Life and MAYH are right there with them. And yeah, Ghost Reveries was their best tone. The opening riff to The Grand Conjuration is one of my favorite recorded tones of all time.


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## wankerness (Sep 9, 2016)

jwade said:


> I remember listening to Blackwater Park over and over for years, completely avoided listening to any other album after that for a long while. I didn't think they'd ever be able to top it.
> 
> The next album I listened to after that was Ghost Reveries, and it floored me. I felt like those two albums belonged together. I still find it hard to listen to anything but BWP leading into GR. I have to actively go out of my way to put on any of their other albums, despite how much I love everything pre-Heritage, because of how strongly I feel about BWP & GR. Just incredible albums.



BWP is one of my favorite albums ever, but I think Still Life and MAYH beat it since they don't have the same back-half lull that BWP does. BWP starts off with four of the strongest tracks in their discography, but the back half has three weaker tracks and that rather boring instrumental. I know people love BWP's title track, but I never really did. The Funeral Portrait has some incredible riffs, but it doesn't hold together as well as those first four. Dirge For November seems to be one of the most-hated songs pre-Watershed, and I agree that it is disjointed and just sort of peters out, but I really do like the intro and the distorted intro especially and all the 6/8 octave counterpoint does create some sort of feeling of drowning which is pretty badass.


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## Fistertain (Sep 10, 2016)

wankerness said:


> I don't see how it could be described as "weak," but then again I rarely understand guitar tone complaints that seem based around specific gear that the complainant heard was used on an album.



I'm guessing this is directed at me. I don't complain about the tone because I "heard" they were using particular gear on GR... I was just trying to say that Mikael seems to have a light touch as a rhythm player and that doesn't translate well with tones that have high-mid emphasis (like Marshalls) as opposed to the rounder tones they've had from MAYH-Deliverance. IMO.

He doesn't dig in and that is emphasized more lately, especially post-Watershed.


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## wankerness (Sep 10, 2016)

I like the weird little sharp twang he has on the guitar attacks on Heritage, but maybe that's more the tone/strings than his playing? I'm not enough of a guitar player to identify picking technique vs everything else that contributes to tone most of the time. 

(I also dislike virtually everything else about the wimpy tone on Heritage)


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## Fistertain (Sep 12, 2016)

wankerness said:


> I like the weird little sharp twang he has on the guitar attacks on Heritage, but maybe that's more the tone/strings than his playing?



Think that has more to do with them using single coil pickups for the rhythm tracks. Fredrik mentions it in an interview. Single Coil Pickups + Any gain over slight breakup = bright tone that kind of sounds like a slightly cocked wah pedal. There are guitarists that make it work... like Richie Blackmore.

IMO Heritage's rhythm guitars sound all sorts of wrong. Not because they aren't \m/ METALLLL, but because it doesn't sound like Mikael is responding well to the amp. I've always had the mindset that the amp is almost as much of an instrument as the guitar (that's why I don't like re-amping so much) and Mikael isn't playing raunchy enough to get the push and pull from those older Marshall amps that players like Blackmore could.


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## tedtan (Sep 12, 2016)

Fistertain said:


> it doesn't sound like Mikael is responding well to the amp. I've always had the mindset that the amp is almost as much of an instrument as the guitar (that's why I don't like re-amping so much) and Mikael isn't playing raunchy enough to get the push and pull from those older Marshall amps that players like Blackmore could.



My first thought when I read your comments in post 241 is that maybe the guitars were reamped. If so, it would explain why he isn't playing the amp.


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## beneharris (Sep 12, 2016)

Jaxcharvel said:


> No, you misunderstood. I love keyboards, and without them Opeth would sound empty. But they have them so damn loud in the mix lately and it's all I hear. I haven't heard any cool guitar work since Watershed.



With all due respect what record are you listening to when Pale Communion is on? That has some of the most awesome guitars I can think of from the past few years. You may not like it compared to old Opeth, but come on, there is some tasty stuff on that record.


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## Zalbu (Sep 13, 2016)

The Devils Orchard sounds crisp when they're playing it live, it could just be that they tracked it with different guitars in the studio or something.


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## The Mirror (Sep 13, 2016)

Yep. Live they are playing everything with more gain and of course with their humbucker guitars. 

Cusp of Eternity in live shows is heavy af.


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## InFlames235 (Sep 21, 2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9vA6dJJX-8

New single! I think this is the best of the 3 so far for sure.


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## wankerness (Sep 21, 2016)

Yeah, it has a fair amount of weird, twisty riffs in it. It was kind of cool. I guess we'll see what that ends up meaning. I kinda liked Pale Communion but never got the urge to listen to it more than once.


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## beneharris (Sep 21, 2016)

That song is awesome. Definitely the best one so far.


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## TimothyLeary (Sep 21, 2016)

Still a nope for me. I guess Opeth and Mastodon are becoming my "only listen to their older stuff" band.


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## Eptaceros (Sep 21, 2016)

This new stuff is cringe-worthy. There's nothing progressive or "band's sound evolving" about this. I guess to people that have never listened to 70's prog rock, this might sound fresh, but man...


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## InFlames235 (Sep 21, 2016)

Eptaceros said:


> This new stuff is cringe-worthy. There's nothing progressive or "band's sound evolving" about this. I guess to people that have never listened to 70's prog rock, this might sound fresh, but man...



Cringe-worthy is Creed, Nickelback, new In Flames, plenty of pop music, etc. - this is no where near cringe-worthy and I think it's quite awesome songwriting but that's the good thing about opinions.


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## chopeth (Sep 21, 2016)

TimothyLeary said:


> Still a nope for me. I guess Opeth and Mastodon are becoming my "only listen to their older stuff" band.



Same here, exactly the same bands... Circus Maximus also comes to mind, but there must be a lot more.


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## Fistertain (Sep 22, 2016)

As a Heritage-Hater and one who's always thought that Opeth has sounded awfully uninspired lately, I feel this album is one good song and some smart editing away from being really great.


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## MFB (Sep 22, 2016)

Will O The Wisp has been leading for the best they've released so far, followed by Sorceress, then this.

This is the 3rd strike of 'dad prog' from them, so it looks like I'll have to accept that Watershed will be their last metal release.


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## Opion (Sep 22, 2016)

I really do have high hopes for this album. I've said this on other posts before, but I really think that the reason I can't get into the last two albums is because they have been lacking in the "oomph" department, like the production was just too parched. When I read that they tracked Heritage and PC with singlecoils it all made sense - that thickness was gone. Now they're trying to make it sound more full again and it's getting my attention.

The new song The Wilde Flowers is really cool - I like what's happening from beginning to end, the solo rips, the chorus is catchy, and the middle part shows that Mikael still can write a song that goes from heavy and loud to quiet and mysterious. Apparently, Strange Brew and Chrysalis are two really awesome songs and we haven't heard those yet, so I'm excited to finally hear them


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## Cheap Poison (Sep 22, 2016)

I still long for the olden days, but from what I have heard this is certainly their best record since they went more 70ties prog. 

This is one I can see myself growing attached too if things pan out. I feel this one is a quality effort, even if you aren't 100% into it.


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## SD83 (Sep 22, 2016)

Cheap Poison said:


> I still long for the olden days, but from what I have heard this is certainly their best record since they went more 70ties prog.
> 
> This is one I can see myself growing attached too if things pan out. I feel this one is a quality effort, even if you aren't 100% into it.



Pretty much my thoughts on this. Not great but solid, judging by those three songs.


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## Rock4ever (Sep 24, 2016)

An album has 4-5 songs to make an impact. 3 of the 1st 4 tracks have been released. Not looking good.


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## jwade (Sep 25, 2016)

If you go into listening to this without any requirements, it's a pretty nice album. Not the kind of thing I generally would go out of my way to put on by itself again, but definitely enjoyable to have a song pop up now and then on shuffle.


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## wankerness (Sep 25, 2016)

jwade said:


> If you go into listening to this without any requirements, it's a pretty nice album. Not the kind of thing I generally would go out of my way to put on by itself again, but definitely enjoyable to have a song pop up now and then on shuffle.



I don't get how this kind of thing is an endorsement. "good album, as long as you don't pay too much attention to it, because it's not interesting"! This isn't the first time someone's said that about their last couple albums, either!


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## leftyguitarjoe (Sep 25, 2016)

You can find and hear the new album if you want.

As a long time Opeth fan, its hard not to compare it to BWP or Ghost Reveries. Putting the album on and just chilling out is really good though. Listen to and judge it for what it is and you'll be happy about it.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 26, 2016)

New studio update! Mikael basically said that the band is getting closer to writing the best record they ever have https://youtu.be/nFdjJVw6NYM


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## CreptorStatus (Sep 26, 2016)

I'm a big fan of Opeth, i have alot of respect for Mikael and the guys for playing the music they want to play - that being said. Sorceress is a snoozefest. Just like the last 2 albums.

Oh well, there is always next album.


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## Sammy J (Sep 26, 2016)

Yeah...I've tried getting into it but it's really just not my cup of tea. 

It's definitely better than Heritage and Pale Communion, but it's still like a 6/10 for mine. 

While the Opeth of old doesn't appear to be coming back anytime soon, one can still hope (cries and pops on Still Life)


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## jwade (Sep 27, 2016)

wankerness said:


> I don't get how this kind of thing is an endorsement. "good album, as long as you don't pay too much attention to it, because it's not interesting"! This isn't the first time someone's said that about their last couple albums, either!




That's not even vaguely what I wrote. It makes no sense to add b.s that I didn't say as if I implied something else. I never said that it isn't interesting, and I definitely didn't say anything like 'don't pay too much attention to it'. Why quote someone and re-word their statement for no reason? I didn't say anything even close to what you've written.


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## TheShreddinHand (Sep 27, 2016)

I don't even care about the growls anymore, I just want some interesting technical riffs back!!


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## Sang-Drax (Sep 27, 2016)

CreptorStatus said:


> I'm a big fan of Opeth, i have alot of respect for Mikael and the guys for playing the music they want to play - that being said. Sorceress is a snoozefest. Just like the last 2 albums.
> 
> Oh well, there is always next album.




Man, I find The Pale Communion a great album and yet couldn't bear to listen to Will O' The Wisp and the other one whose name I don't recall til the end. The album title track was ok IMO, but not nearly as inspired as 'Moon Above, Sun Below' or 'Faith in Others', two excepcional songs from PC.

Incidentally, Damnation had a 70's feel to it as well, albeit in a lesser degree, and it didn't get in the way of being a great release - but it still sounded like Opeth, something that these new songs do not


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 29, 2016)

Album finally comes out tomorrow!!! Any one staying up until midnight to see if it pops up on Spotify? I probably will since I'll be studying for a chem exam anyway. Also, first official date of the sorceress tour is tonight and the MD show, which I'll be attending, is tomorrow!!! I'm so excited!


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## TedEH (Sep 29, 2016)

The album has been put up early for streaming on a few sites:

http://www.metalsucks.net/2016/09/29/stream-opeths-sorceress-entirety-right-now/


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## KnightBrolaire (Sep 29, 2016)

I enjoyed listening to the new album, definitely an improvement over Pale Communion imo. I'm also really excited that The Sword is touring with them since they're one of my favorite bands. So many good riffs from them.


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## InFlames235 (Sep 29, 2016)

KnightBrolaire said:


> I enjoyed listening to the new album, definitely an improvement over Pale Communion imo. I'm also really excited that The Sword is touring with them since they're one of my favorite bands. So many good riffs from them.



Agreed. Really, really enjoying this album. Like most Opeth albums, it took me a few listens to really start digging it but the more I listen to this, the more I love it. Absolutely possible that it's their best album in the "new Opeth" era.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 29, 2016)

TedEH said:


> The album has been put up early for streaming on a few sites:
> 
> http://www.metalsucks.net/2016/09/29/stream-opeths-sorceress-entirety-right-now/



Yeah i figured, but i like waiting until the official release date idk why, it makes no sense  but I've waited this long so i can wait one more day


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## Triple7 (Sep 29, 2016)

It's better than the last two. I liked some tracks off Pale Communion, and didn't like anything off of Heritage. This one sounds closest to an Opeth album.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Sep 29, 2016)

RUSH_Of_Excitement said:


> Yeah i figured, but i like waiting until the official release date idk why, it makes no sense  but I've waited this long so i can wait one more day



In the age of the internet, there is no reason to wait. I think its dumb that labels wont just put out an album when its done.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 29, 2016)

leftyguitarjoe said:


> In the age of the internet, there is no reason to wait. I think its dumb that labels wont just put out an album when its done.



Like I said, it makes no sense I guess I'm just an old-school guy. I like the anticipation of waiting, makes the whole experience that much better once it officially comes out


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## extendedsolo (Sep 30, 2016)

I listened to the new album on my run this morning and I can say that it's quite a bit to digest. Very much a departure for them in my eyes and, like most albums, I can't accurately judge off of one listen. Usually my favorite albums I'm unsure after one listen, so by the time I form an opinion I'm sure this thread will be pushed to page 2.


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## vilk (Sep 30, 2016)

It's today it's today! I'm gonna listen to this on the way home from work.


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## mike0 (Sep 30, 2016)

This album surprised me quite a bit. After listening to the first few tracks they released, I was expecting it to not do anything for me, but on the first listen through I immediately liked it more than both Heritage and Pale Communion (even those first few tracks have grown on me). I thought Pale Communion was a good album, though it never really stuck with me, and with the exception of two or three tracks on Heritage I just didn't like it all that much. Sorceress sounds like they really honed in on that sound they were going after, and seems to me like the most cohesive album that they've put out in a looong time. I'm not much of a critic and I hardly ever rate things, but just to quantify how much I feel this album is a step up, to me it's a solid 8-8.5/10; whereas i'd put pale communion around 7 and heritage around a 6. Been listening to it pretty much on repeat for the past week or so, and still going for more.

Super excited to see them tonight, hopefully they do something fun since it's the day the album officially drops. If they have it on vinyl at the merch booth I might just pick it up.


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## stevexc (Sep 30, 2016)

I'm liking this a lot more than PC and Heritage. A few too many lulls in the energy of it all but when it picks up it feels pretty darn good.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Sep 30, 2016)

Just got home from the Opeth concert. If any one is on the fence about going, just go. They're amazing live, the new songs sound killer. Although if you hate the new album, nothing's gonna change your mind lol


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## AmoryB (Oct 1, 2016)

Did they play any older material? I'm seeing them at their vegas show on the 18th. So stoked!


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## mike0 (Oct 1, 2016)

One off of each album except Orchid and Morningrise, and three off of Sorceress. Helluva show.


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## EmaDaCuz (Oct 1, 2016)

Definitely a good album, but it is not Opeth. I think we have lost them with "Ghost Reveries", their best effort to marry prog and (harder) metal.
"Sorceress" is a decent prog album, with some great riffs and phrases here and there; but, if I want to listen to prog, I still go for Porcupine Tree or Spock's Beard.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Oct 1, 2016)

AmoryB said:


> Did they play any older material? I'm seeing them at their vegas show on the 18th. So stoked!



Yeah, notables include Ghost of Perdition, Demon of the Fall, Face of Melinda, the Drapery Falls and Deliverance ofc


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## fps (Oct 1, 2016)

wankerness said:


> I don't get how this kind of thing is an endorsement. "good album, as long as you don't pay too much attention to it, because it's not interesting"! This isn't the first time someone's said that about their last couple albums, either!



Absolutely. Might as well say "If the name Opeth wasn't on this, you wouldn't give a sh*t, but as it is, you might find it being on around you some time." In other words, not of the standard.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Oct 1, 2016)

EmaDaCuz said:


> Definitely a good album, but it is not Opeth. I think we have lost them with "Ghost Reveries", their best effort to marry prog and (harder) metal.
> "Sorceress" is a decent prog album, with some great riffs and phrases here and there; but, if I want to listen to prog, I still go for Porcupine Tree or Spock's Beard.



Opeth is whatever Opeth does.


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## TheHandOfStone (Oct 1, 2016)

I liked this album. It's not amazing, but it's pretty good. Unfortunately, I think WotW and the title track are two of the stronger numbers, so my hopes were a little too high. I'm not too disappointed though, especially after their last two (IMO uninspired) releases.


leftyguitarjoe said:


> Opeth is whatever Opeth does.


Bingo.


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## Zalbu (Oct 1, 2016)

EmaDaCuz said:


> Definitely a good album, but it is not Opeth.


How about we let Mikael decide that, eh?

Love the album, going to take a few more listens to digest but I might end up digging this more than the last two albums. Thought I read somewhere in the thread that Mikael claimed that Sorceress is the heaviest track on the album, but man, Chrysalis feels like it could be on Ghost Reveries or Still Life if it had harsh vocals.


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## EmaDaCuz (Oct 2, 2016)

Bah, of course Michael and the guys can decide whatever they want to play. I am simply saying that they have gone too far away from what they used to be. If we criticise Metallica, Mastodon, and Morbid Angel for their new style, then why not talk about Opeth as well?
Like I said before, the album is pretty good, most of the songs are genuinely well composed and played, the production is spot on, there are some awesome riffs and phrases here and there... but, I expect something different from Opeth. As it is, now the band has lost that quid that made them special. They used to be great at combining heavy music with prog (Still Life and Ghost Reveries are masterpieces in that respect), now they are just an average 70s prog wannabe band. Nothing against this choice, I understand they are growing older and mature, and they want to explore new directions. But I don't really dig it.


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## Sammy J (Oct 2, 2016)

There are certainly passages in this album where you can hear elements of the classic Opeth sound, so for that i'm thankful. I guess i'm just not a huge fan of the 70's era sound and lack of metal crunch in the guitars. I enjoy elements of the 70's prog sound, and the way they used to weave it in and out of their compositions was masterful. I get that of course it is Mikael's right to write whatever music he wants - but it's pretty far removed from the classic Opeth sound that I grew up with.

That said, Sorceress is easily the best of the 3 Prog-peth albums. The problem for me is it's still a 6/10 or so. 

While it is entirely unlikely, i'll continue to hold out hope for a reversion to the BWP/SL/GR era at some point.


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## Double A (Oct 2, 2016)

^Just give up on that. That is never going to happen so make peace with it. The new Opeth is boring as .... to me. But there is a whole backlog of incredible material to listen to still. I am just not spending any money on the new stuff and I am extremely glad I got to see them on the Ghost Reveries tour as I would also never go see this material live either. That was a damned good tour.


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## TheHandOfStone (Oct 2, 2016)

Double A said:


> I am extremely glad I got to see them on the Ghost Reveries tour as I would also never go see this material live either.


FYI, they played Ghost Reveries in its entirety each night on their 25th anniversary tour last year. It was pretty magical.


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## Sang-Drax (Oct 3, 2016)

All right, this is by far the worst album Opeth has ever released post-Orchid. Oh well, I figure every band is bound to release crappy material sometime in their careers.


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## The Mirror (Oct 3, 2016)

Some guys in here are talking like Opeth became two bands after Heritage.

They are still playing their old tracks and are not regarding them as "second-grade" or some stuff. In fact most songs on the setlist are from the "classic era". 

Just because Mikael doesn't want to write new Death Metal music anymore doesn't mean he totally dumps everything he ever wrote in that style.

I saw them live last time on the Pale Communion tour and there was still Deliverance, Ghosts of Perdition, even some My Arms, Your Hearse action.


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## Opion (Oct 3, 2016)

Been listening to the new album here and there. So far I am impressed, but not wowed. DAE feel that bands shouldn't release songs before an album that are right next to eachother? Sorceress, Wilde Flowers, and Will O the Wisp are right in the beginning of the album and I feel like i've already heard them enough and skip to the middle to get to the good stuff :/

Other than that little nitpick, I freaking love Chrysalis. Strange Brew and Seventh Soujourn are pretty sick too. The bonus tracks are also pretty awesome, Spring MCMLXXIV especially. I think this is the best album they've released since Watershed - PC and Heritage were a bit meh for me. But I am liking this one!


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## Opion (Oct 3, 2016)

Edit: sorry double post


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## vilk (Oct 3, 2016)

I still haven't listened yet....

Strange Brew isn't a cover of the Cream song, is it?


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Oct 3, 2016)

vilk said:


> I still haven't listened yet....
> 
> Strange Brew isn't a cover of the Cream song, is it?



Nope, but it is one of the best tracks on the record


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## AmoryB (Oct 3, 2016)

I love Strange Brew. I hope it's one they play live


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## Alimination (Oct 5, 2016)

I dug the Sorceress II it sounded like a dark lullaby. Strange Brew is also good


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## Rock4ever (Oct 5, 2016)

IMO this album sucks. A few good songs interspersed among other "Let's parade the bards/wandering minstrels" renaissance fair type .....


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Oct 5, 2016)

Alright, I've had enough time to digest it and here are my thoughts: I love it. I'm not head over heels for it, but it seems that Opeth is on the right track to perfecting this sound that they started cultivating during Heritage. Each subsequent album of Opeth 2.0 as I say has gotten better and better and this one is by far the best. I felt that Heritage meandered way too much but showed flashes of awesomeness and had a lot of potential but it was dragged down by its lack of direction. Pale Communion was much better and had a consistently strong first half but then lost itself in the second half. Sorceress is pretty spectacular through to the end, including the amazing bonus tracks, with only a couple of dull moments. For me, the best songs are Strange Brew, Sorceress, Wilde Flowers, Chrysalis and Will o the Wisp in that order. The dull moments I'm talking about are all encompassed in Sorceress 2 and Seventh Sojourn. Honestly if those were the bonus tracks and Spring MCMLXXIV and The Ward took their spot, it would be so much better. Both Persephone tracks are nice and the first one is a great way to set the mood. I love the haunted and desperate tone set by Sorceress, Chrysalis and especially Strange Brew, that song is so grandiose and theatrical and brooding in all the right ways. Also, Chrysalis is lowkey heavy af and really harkens back to Opeth's roots. Best lyrics for me go to Wilde Flowers and I have a pretty cool theory as to what they mean if anyone is interested.

TL DR: This album is awesome, there's still some work to be done down this path but it feels like the natural progression of PC and Heritage while being worlds better than either of those records.


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## Cnev (Oct 5, 2016)

Album's alright. I really like the last half of "Era"(melody is awesome), "Will O' the Wisp", Strange Brew and "The Ward". It's less experimental and a bit more standard, in my opinion. But, it's a good album.


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## vividox (Oct 6, 2016)

Just now getting around to giving this a listen:

Persephone - Just a great, dark, acoustic intro. Not much else to say.
Sorceress - The intro tone almost seems like a joke to me. Like the kind of tone that Rob Scallon would pick to cover a Slayer tune just to be goofy. But the note choices are great and the actual riffs are really cool. Once we get into the meat of the song I like the tone a lot more. Really cool driving verses, heavy guitars, dark sounds, lots of Opeth-isms, very strong. Especially like the outro.
The Wilde Flowers - This really gets back to some of the things that Opeth has done in the past that made me fall in love with them in the first place. They take really simple rhythmical ideas and turn them into a foundation of a song that is infinitely more structured and complex. What initially comes off as a mundane quarter-quarter-quarter-quarter march-style is quickly inundated with lead lines, fills, and harmonic complexities that almost seem to object to such a simple foundation. The end product is something intensely satisfying on even the 10th or 20th listen. That outro theme hits you so hard, it's such an expressive and full musical idea.
Will O The Wisp - Much more of a folk-vibe. Reminds me, instrumentally, of parts of Heritage. Not a bad song, but doesn't stand out as much as others on the album.
Chrysalis - Man, I like this one a lot. Some really old school riffage going on that reminds me a lot of Still Life. Some shredding, some new-Opeth organ solos, some ambient guitar solos, this feels like a song that really embraces and combines all of the the facets of Opeth's history. It's a pretty entertaining melting pot, IMO.
Sorceress 2 - Some pretty guitar work, but this one kind of gets lost in the shuffle for me. Doesn't really have its moments like most of the other songs. 
The Seventh Sojourn - This is excellent. Very atmospheric track that sounds like it belongs in a movie or video game. Definitely the kind of song that can pull you in and you can get lost in.
Strange Brew - There is so much emotion in this song. Brooding intro, frantic keys, even soulful guitars. It's hard for me to even describe a song like this or pin down its influences. This just feels like _Opeth_ to me, any other explanation doesn't do it any justice. Overall, this is some weird combination of eclectic and cohesive that just somehow works.
A Fleeting Glance - Kind of reminds me of a more mature version of Heritage / Pale Communion. Love the riffs in here, kind of wish there were more of them.
Era - Good ending track. Has a lot of energy and a cool refrain. I like how it transitions into
Persophone (Slight Return) - Nice 54 seconds of outro.

I didn't mind the bonus tracks, but they kind of felt like one-off songs in the key of Heritage / Pale Communion to me. I thought the ideas in the album proper were a little more cohesive and well-rounded so I left the bonus tracks off of my track-by-track listen. I did think it was kind of interesting that they decided to use Roman numerals to express '1974', but not '2' (as in Sorceress 2).

Anyway, I liked it quite a bit overall. Chrysalis was definitely the highlight for me the first time through, but there are quite a bit to sink my teeth into. Will be spinning quite a few times in the next few weeks I think.


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## LiveOVErdrive (Oct 7, 2016)

Anyone caught this tour live yet? I'm going on Monday.


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Oct 7, 2016)

LiveOVErdrive said:


> Anyone caught this tour live yet? I'm going on Monday.



Yeah I did, in the day Sorceress dropped! It was amazing, awesome musicians and chill and funny guys. Awesome onstage banter. Favorite Mikael quote, "I'm like all types of metal... except that djent sh*t"


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## mike0 (Oct 7, 2016)

RUSH_Of_Excitement said:


> Yeah I did, in the day Sorceress dropped! It was amazing, awesome musicians and chill and funny guys. Awesome onstage banter. Favorite Mikael quote, "I'm like all types of metal... except that djent sh*t"


was at the same show, that bit was pretty hilarious. i loved that he took requests at the end and tried to see what him and the rest of the band could/couldn't remember. if i'm not mistaken he played a little bit of orchid and morningrise briefly?


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## RUSH_Of_Excitement (Oct 7, 2016)

mike0 said:


> was at the same show, that bit was pretty hilarious. i loved that he took requests at the end and tried to see what him and the rest of the band could/couldn't remember. if i'm not mistaken he played a little bit of orchid and morningrise briefly?



Can't remember if he played anything off Morningrise but they did try the intro to Forest of October


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## AmoryB (Oct 7, 2016)

RUSH_Of_Excitement said:


> Best lyrics for me go to Wilde Flowers and I have a pretty cool theory as to what they mean if anyone is interested.



Would love to hear your thoughts on that!


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## LiveOVErdrive (Oct 11, 2016)

Well I saw them last night at 1st Ave in Minneapolis. I hadn't seen them live before and it was amazing.

One thing I noticed was that the upper bass (lower mids?) that seem to be overbearing in Sorceress (the song) seem to be present live too. BUT it worked. I did have earplugs in, so that helped.


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## wankerness (Oct 23, 2016)

vividox said:


> Just now getting around to giving this a listen:
> 
> Persephone - Just a great, dark, acoustic intro. Not much else to say.
> Sorceress - The intro tone almost seems like a joke to me. Like the kind of tone that Rob Scallon would pick to cover a Slayer tune just to be goofy. But the note choices are great and the actual riffs are really cool. Once we get into the meat of the song I like the tone a lot more. Really cool driving verses, heavy guitars, dark sounds, lots of Opeth-isms, very strong. Especially like the outro.
> ...



I finally listened to this, and listened to it a couple times. I agree with most of this post. It's good. I didn't like Heritage much at all except for a couple tracks, and Pale Communion wasn't bad but I really don't remember it at all. This actually sounds like the Opeth of old, just without the death metal at all. I mean, it's obviously a lot lighter and 70s-ish, but it's got weird twisty riffs and the acoustic stuff IMO sounds more like the breaks on their heavy albums than Damnation. It's pretty good!!

EDIT: Oh man, the live version of Drapery Falls on the bonus disc is TERRIBLE. Those growls...jeez.


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