Metal Reviews

The Lotus Eaters:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D_OZfYx-aoM&feature=related

Porcelain Heart:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nVRo8BRRbCI&feature=related

They both sound great! I can't wait for the June 3rd, this will be yet another awsome Opeth album methinks. Check out the interesting use of clean vocals over blastbeats on TLE, sounds pretty insane but it works i think.

Any thoughts?

I was just about to post this. I'm impressed; Opeth never dissapoint, and they're still progressing.

Still listening to the first one. I can't wait to hear the whole album in higher quality. It's more symphonic, but I think this is a good thing. Bands ought to change their style over the years, and this is a good direction for them to go.

Holy fuck. Those songs sounded sick.

I really need to listen to this band more. I just listened to Orchid, Morningrise and Ghost Reveries.
I liked Orchid the best out of the three Ghost Reveries the least. Now playing My Arms Your Hearse!
Sweet.

You should try Blacwater Park, their best IMHO.

So i listened to "My Arms your Hearse" and even though if i take sections of the individual song it is awesome as a whole it feels disjointed and i get confused and cannot follow it. Very different from Morningrise and Orchid. Ill retry it and eventually listen to Blackwater Park.

I liked the second...the first one was a bit wierd but I need to listen to it several times to see if ill like it or not. Nevertheless, I seem to like this new direction more than the overrated "Ghost Reveries" and closer to their older material.

Porcelain heart is I think intentionally a continuation of the grand conjuration. The Lotus Eater is the best thing I've heard since Blackwater Park

I miss their "Morningrise" days....to me that was the top of their career.

This bridges the gap between Damnation and death metal for me. I like it.

The Lotus Eater, the "jazz" part 0550 in is great.

Listening to The Lotus Eaters.

Holy shit, this is amazing. It uses the keyboards a lot better than Ghost Reveries. And it sounds a lot more inspired too. There are a lot of new elements here. It's fantastic. This just now became my most anticipated album of '08.

Woah.

Blast beats work wonderfully. Really looking forward to this...I guess I'll just have to get some of their other stuff in the meantime.

Awesome. Sounds like Opeth is picking up right where Ghost Reveries left off. Only this time, the songwriting sounds even better and the music sounds a lot more atmospheric (did anybody else here feel like they were alone in a big fancy British library studying ancient texts and classic poetry while listening to these songs?). I especially like the way the band now seems to be implementing woodwinds into their music.

Absolutely great, and way ahead of Ghost Reveries. I knew Peter Lindgren leaving wouldn't have too much negative impact.

Opeth have got a soul behind their music again.

Alright... I know ive already commented but ive been listening to these two tracks several times and my opinion is quite different from most of you here.

Now ive been an Opeth fan for a VERY long time now (I started listening to them in the mid-90s). I have all their albums and I still listen to them on a regular basis. My two personal favorite albums are Moringrise and Blackwater Park and honestly I even loved their slower tempo songs on Damnation.

Now in my opinion Ghost Reveries step in the wrong direction. Dont get me wrong! Its still an excellent album....and I would definitely rate it highly. But it is no way near as perfect as their older material. I miss the spark their music had prior to Deliverance. Whenever I listen to Ghost Reveries and then play Moringrise I notice an obvious dullness to their sound in the former(at least to my ears).

I know bands "evolve" and change their sound but to me this isnt what I would call an improvement. And from what I heard on the two songs from "Watershed" it seems to be going in the same direction Ghost Reveries did. I feel the unique sound of Opeth is gradually disappearing and we get this new death jazzy sound. Its still great stuff...but not as special as their older material.
Anyway just my two cents.....

Their older stuff is more "minstrel" sounding, and it has a more classical edge to it, and it's certainly more raw. The more they progress, the more modern and matured they sound. I think I like their latter material more, becasue their older songs are a little disjointed, but My Arms, Your Hearse is probably my favorite out of the Opeth albums I have.

i think they should keep going in the direction of Ghost Reveries and really indulge in combining prog/psychedelic rock with death metal

Only without kind of sucking like Ghost Reveries did. Lotus Eaters is the best way they could have progressed from that.