Metal Reviews

Like many of you here, I have been pretty underwhelmed with the recent ouput of the once mighty Opeth. The leaked Cusp of Eternity sounds positively bland compared to the brilliance of past tracks like The Moor or The Leper Affinity. While I'm hoping this is merely a downward blip on the upcoming release, it reminded me that even the best of bands can hit lulls in their recording output. However, Opeth have produced some of the finest material of any metal band in the past 15 years and a revisitation of their past albums led me to post this question to you all. What is the best album in the Opeth catalog? After repeated listens, my vote goes to the band's fourth release, Still Life. A masterwork from beginning to end. Serenity Painted Death remains one of my very favorite songs the group ever produced.

I love My Arms Your Hearse, Morningrise and Still Life but Blackwater Park is probably my favorite. The only one I don't care for is Heritage... and it might have some company soon judging by the samples from Pale Communion.

The hipster in me wants to say something like My Arms Your Hearse, Still Life or Watershed, but I think Blackwater Park probably wins. Also once-favourites like Serenity Painted Death and Demon of the Fall mostly bug me these days.

Used to think Orchid and Morningrise (especially) were their best albums. They still have a certain appeal.

I'd probably pick My Arms Your Hearse for their best album now though, with Blackwater Park (Dirge for November excepted!) and Watershed closest behind.

The title track to Deliverance is probably my favorite track at this point.

My Arms Your Hearse does have a special place in my heart though because it's a transitional album from the Orchid/Morningrise phase to the latter-era Opeth and it's songwriting takes different directions from either of those two.

Probably My Arms these days. My love for Blackwater Park and Still Life faded with overfamiliarity, Noodz is right about that.

I've never really been a hardcore fan of the band but have always enjoyed their stuff. I think this relative distance has allowed the material to remain fairly fresh to me up to this point. I enjoy their Candlelight years as a whole more so than their later output because of the emphasis on the death metal aspects, but everything just clicks perfectly for me on Still Life. While some of the tranisitional portions of the songs feel a bit choppy on previous albums, they are nearly flawless on that album. That being said, it's understandable how overplay can ruin the listening experience of a great record (or band). As much as I love Slayer, it seems like I hardly ever listen to them anymore.

True. It's strange that this only happens with some bands for me - I can always listen to Megadeth, for example, but went right off Opeth and Mastodon's Leviathan, to pick another example.

Resurrecting an old thread. I think my fav Opeth album is extremely hard to pick. I love Morningrise, Orchid (however the song-writing suffers, it's still full of genius), Still Life, Blackwater Park followed by albums such as Ghost Reveries and Watershed, equally. I've listened and listened again and still hear new notes and arrangements after so many years. I haven't grown tired of them yet. They're simply that good. I haven't given Pale Communion and Heritage a fair chance yet. Will change that soon.

Blackwater Park.

I'd accept that if Dirge for November wasn't so aimless. Would have said Morningrise a decade ago without question but now would probably have to give it to My Arms Your Hearse just over Watershed.

I'll have to re-listen. I haven't listened to Opeth in a while.

Simply can't get into "Pale Communion" these days. I've listened to it a few times before and liked it a lot but can't stand it nowadays. Maybe it's that I'm in a more heavier mood. Much prefer listening to their old material. It'll change one day.

I kinda want to say Watershed, but would probably just default to My Arms. Why is this thread in this forum?

I guess I just defaulted to the Progressive metal tag in light of recent releases. Opeth are pretty diverse stylistically though, especially their post-Candlelight stuff.