r/Opeth

Oh, so you like Opeth?

Yeah—I must imagine listening to Blackwater Park for the first time must be cool. I too remember when I was only 14; such a newbie for intellectual music, I was hehehe But don't worry: you too can evolve from being a pubescent poser to becoming a demure, effeminate man like myself—if you can keep up with the sorrow and depression in Mikael's ingenious writing, that is. Don't think you can fool me, you promiscuous fuckboy. One cannot FATHOM to TRULY appreciate the melancholy of a masterpiece like Face of Melinda if you have yet to have your crush reject you in the middle of the cafeteria line in favor for Brandon Worthington (God, I hate him so much he's so much better than me). Listen up: to be an Opeth devotee is not a decision—it's a lifestyle—it's fate. Oh, so you cried to In My Time of Need? Wait until you get to Pale Communion. Really, to TRULY understand Opeth, one needs to live life first, and understand how cruel and cold this hollow world can be. There are two different versions of you and you're not even aware of it, are you? B.B. you and A.B. you: Before Burden and After Burden. And don't even attempt to claim to be an Opengelical if you draw the line on Watershed. Cut the crap, squeaker: the death growls were overrated. A true Åkerfeldtian™ always knew the best parts were when Mikael pouts like the cuck we are. Truly, there is no better feeling in this world than listening to the final 3 and a half minutes of Deliverance, and where the fuck are his growls then, huh?! I ain't hear not one motherfucking growl in all of In Cauda Venenum (Swedish version™) and I still became enlightened (again) after listening to Allting Tar Slut. Oh, and one last final trivia for all you chads out there: did you know Heir Apparent was written in E standard? You deathcore boobs may have all the girls, but you still can't write real music without a gimmicky 7 string Hahaha how I pity you fools

Don't belittle yourselves (unless it's for women), my brethren: WE are the chosen ones, bathed in grief and sorrow. May unrequited love enlighten us forever

I increasingly think comparing Opeth albums as though they are all competing in the same category misses the point of what makes the band special.

People constantly argue things like:

“Blackwater Park is objectively better than Sorceress”

“Heritage is weaker than Ghost Reveries”

“Oldpeth destroys Newpeth”

But these albums are not trying to achieve the same thing.

It would be a bit like arguing whether Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is “better” than his late string quartets or piano sonatas.

They are different musical forms aiming at different emotional and artistic goals.

Blackwater Park (or any of the Golden Era Albums) feels like a monumental defining statement. It’s huge, dark, overwhelming, unified. It has the feeling of a magnum opus.

Sorceress feels more like a late-period artist making strange, earthy, gothic prog-rock because that’s genuinely where his interests had evolved. It’s less concerned with perfection or canonisation and more concerned with mood, texture, personality and exploration.

That doesn’t automatically make it lesser. Just different.

Same with Heritage. You can dislike it, but it’s clearly not trying to be Ghost Reveries II. It’s Mikael deliberately abandoning one artistic language to pursue another.

The great composers rarely spent their whole lives writing the exact same type of work over and over.

Their catalogue becomes a conversation between different phases of life, interests, emotions and artistic priorities.

It’s just like Mozart, Beethoven and Bach didn’t only compose grandiose symphonies which all vied to be their Magnum Opus!

Opeth feels more like that than almost any band I can think of, perhaps other than the Beetles.

Trying to flatten all those albums into one ranking system almost feels reductive.

You can still have favourites obviously. But I think Opeth becomes much richer when you stop asking:

“Which album is objectively best?” (Especially across periods)

…and start asking:

“What kind of experience is this album trying to create?”

And also:

“What does this album signify about Mikael’s musical journey and the composition of the band?”

*** Edit ***

Please continue to put out your tier lists, I agree it is good fun!

My point is more highlighting the innate difficulty of comparing “symphonic scale” type with albums that are deliberately less ambitious and/or are in a different musical genre.

I want to see how "different"/"normal" my album ranking for their discography is, so please drop your lists below. I would of put what I rated the albums out of 10 on this list but that will make it too controversial so, I'll just say I did love doing a deep dive through Opeth and they're a great band.

1. Black water Park
2. Ghost reveries
3. Damnation
4. Deliverance
5. Still life (interchangeable with deliverance)
6. My arms your hearse
7. Watershed
8. The Last Will and Testament (interchangeable with watershed)
9. Morning rise
10. In cauda venenum
11. Pale communion
12. Orchid
13. Sorceress
14. Heritage

i’ve been listening to the song master’s apprentices for a while and i love it so much, I really want to get more into opeth but im not sure which album to start with. Any recommendations?

I'll start. Orchid is a better album than Morningrise.

Constant changes mean theres always something new for your brain to focus on.

Wanted to book a ticket for Opeth in Mexico City on November 11 that also happens to be my birthday. Checked that the Red Zone stage, which I'm guessing equivalates to General Admission, is $1200. That is crazy! I'm attending Sick New World in Texas and even that with the amazing lineup is not that expensive

Sonically referring to the soundscape itself, atmospherically referring to the abstract feelings and environments created by the soundscape