u/Cutiepie232

Choose one song from different bands to add to my playlist

These are my favourite so far

Part 5 of my series called:

“Fuck Al Music - Here are some albums made by humans that changed my life.”

You probably could have guessed Opeth would be in this series, this album was my entry point, and “The Drapery Falls” was the song. I forget how I discovered them, maybe it was a recommendation for fans of Dream Theater or Meshuggah or something. I wasn’t a massive death metal fan, and I had never listened to anything folk, but somehow Opeth could blend the two perfectly in a progressive context.

I remember thinking “I didn’t know you were allowed to do that” hearing full on death metal parts with deep growls suddenly switch to acoustic parts with the most beautiful singing. The riffs were so cool, and just seemed to keep on going, but in such a tasteful way. Like I didn’t realize you could just let a riff keep doing its thing, so long as it was interesting and musical enough.

Most importantly everything seemed so focused on musical arrangements, again the band is clearly immensely talented, but the focus was always on the musicality. The solos were rarely showy, Mikael’s leads just always oozed with feel, the phrasing was so thoughtful and always seemed to work perfectly with the tone.

This album is still my favorite of theirs to this day, even with all of their very strong material. I probably could admit that Ghost Reveries is their “best” but there is a vibe and feeling to this album that is somehow both nostalgic and refreshing. I love how the cover art looks exactly how the album sounds.

I should give props to the rest of the band, everyone is playing their part for the vision, no one is overstepping, the songs and album and vibe are always sacred. Drummer Martin Lopez doesn’t feel like a death metal specialist, but instead focuses on creative parts with great feel, and I LOVE the way his drums sound on this record.

It’s funny because as I understand it, this album and In Absentia by Porcupine Tree are albums that resulted from Mikael Akerfeldt and Steven Wilson meeting, and both bands became better for it in my opinion.

Just listen to this album from beginning to end if you aren’t familiar with it. What’s your favorite Opeth album?