Ruthless

So yea i guiltily nabbed the albums leak off Isohunt.

Initial impressions consist of wondering what the fuck that tart from Lacuna Coil is doing on yet another superior bands album, coupled with almost getting erect over the blast beat/clean vocals combo at the start of "The Lotus Eater".

Dynamics wise the majority of it is pretty mellow, almost Folkey (?) in places. Good effort from the new drummer/guitarist as well, adding thier own subtle contributions without vastly changing the soundscape.

Thoughts?

Edit: Ok so the opening duet is actually with some bird called Natalie Lorichs. The innernet in "Giving wrong information" shocker!.

Opeth lost me after Blackwater Park.

What a completely boring, castrated band. I'm not sure who's worse, Opeth or Dream Theater.

I am not baiting, this is my honest opinion.

The drummer, Axlesnot, or whatever his name is, should be taken out back and shot. The organist/keyboardist should likewise be taken out back and shot, but only after being sodomized repeatedly with the corpse of Axlesnot. I just can't get into this new one at all. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I just don't see anything exciting about this CD apart from a few seconds here and there. The whole thing just sounds bland. If I want to listen to Dream Theater, I'll listen to one of their CDs. I don't want Opeth trying to channel them. Who knows? Maybe it'll grow on me after awhile, but that would mean actively listening to it again.

EDIT: It pains me to say this as an avowed Porcupine Tree fan, but Steve Wilson may have ruined Opeth.

That's not the singer from lacuna coil, it's some random swedish woman. They don't sound remotely alike so I don't know where you got that idea. As for the album, it's probably their worst, but isn't a total loss. Heir Apparent is alright, The Lotus Eater is entertaining largely due to the bizarre breaks on it (especially the keyboard/bass thing towards the end), but the only track that really reminded me of why I love Opeth is "Hessian Peel." The first half is the best acoustic stuff on the album and the second half has a lot of classic twisted Opeth riffs that are up there with their best. The rest of the album is kind of boring, "Porcelain Heart" in particular - nearly the entire thing is the same lame powerchord progression with various things layered over it.

It does have a distinctly different feel compared to their others for a change, it seems like Mikael was listening to Oregon or something in addition to the usual 70s prog suspects. The wind/string stuff in a few songs is actually pretty good. Overall it was a disappointment, since Ghost Reveries was such a huge improvement over the dismal damnation/deliverance. I expect it will grow on me a bit but I doubt I'll ever like it nearly as much as most of their other albums.

As for Steven Wilson, I did think he was taking them in a very negative direction, BWP was not at all bad but it was a slightly blander version of Still Life, while D1/D2 were extremely bland and showed clear Porcupine Tree influence. Ghost Reveries was a good recovery, but this is kind of a regression. I'll never understand all the love for Damnation, it's pretty boring even by mellow prog standards (Hope Leaves, Closure, and To Rid the Disease were good), I think it's just that most people who listened to it weren't familiar with the sound and thought it was new and fresh. Steven Wilson is really pretty insufferable, he seems to release 5 albums a year and most of them sound the same. In Absentia, Lightbulb Sun and Recordings are the only Porcupine Tree albums that don't bore me anymore. Blackfield 2 was much better than Fear of a Blank Planet, probably because Steven Wilson barely wrote any of the songs.

This is one of the best Opeth records yet. I love the whole sound, the drums, the keys... it's all perfect. Still life or Ghost Reveries could top it, but it's the melodies that get me here. There's a more Swedish scent present that just kills.

Steven Wilson has only made positive impact on Opeth in my opinion. D1/D2 may be worse than SL and BWP, but I view them as bridge albums in Åkerfeldt's path to a more refined and technical prog sound. Ghost Reveries is such a beautiful album, but I think he has surpassed it with this one. He's somehow more in control.

I'm honestly baffled at all the negative comments. How can you not appreciate this one, especially if you loved GR?

Thulsa Doom, you're impossibly sensless. Metal may have been about balls at some point, but that's beside the point. Opeth has obviously been taking a more folk/prog approach and sure as hell are not looking to claim some brutality prize.

DocLong and Erik, I only ask you give it more time. I remember not being too impressed by GR on first few listens. Anyways, sucks being you guys since this album is one of the few good things happening in my life at the moment.

I haven't written it off, but I'm not sold yet. I need to just let it play all the way through a few times and avoid the temptation to skip through the frustrating parts. The drums will be more difficult as Axenrot just doesn't have the "touch" that Lopez had. He's too heavy handed too often and not quite as fluid. I will say that the keyboard/organs are starting to grow on me and aren't nearly as intrusive as I thought. Much like the first time I heard GR, it's a bit shocking and unexpected.

Axenrot fuckin kills it on the drums. In Heir Apparent he takes Opeth to new levels of br00tality. The clean vocals/blastbeats bit in Lotus Eaters is awesome too. Blatantly ripped off from Akercocke, but cool nonetheless. I'm not big Opeth fan but I'm really liking this. One of my favourites next to MAYH and Still Life already.



Bit of a digression here, but pick up the reissue of Still Life if you are a fan of that album. It has the normal CD, plus a bonus version that's been fully remastered for DTS 5.1, and it sounds amazing. Everything just sounds absolutely huge and vibrant, I've never heard a metal album that sounds that good.

I just listened to Lotus Eater.

Uh, I really don't know about this. It was a bit crap.

Heir Apparent and the last two tracks make the album.

Give the whole thing a listen.

The obstacle that Opeth seems to have created for itself is the balancing of so many different Instruments/dynamics. (Clean vocals, Death Vocals, Keys/organs, Distorted guitar, Clean Guitar, Acoustic guitar)

With GR they achieved a perfect balance, with a good 60% of the album being the proper riff driven shit, and the rest giving way to Akerfeldts need to be soft and experimental.

With this album the balance seems to have been tipped a lot more in favour of the soft experimental side, in fact I cant recall Opeth ever sounding as folkey as this. There is still a lot to like about this record, but im not surprised by the negative reception.

I can't see people who got into Ghost Reveries not appreciating this one. GR was demanding, at least on the then current fanbase, and it had a lot of proggy folk elements. I understand Doc's point of view though, Axe has more brutal roots than Lopez. You're spot on with the Akercocke sound I think, Matt, I knew there was something about a few parts I couldn't put my finger on.

I really need to get a decent system already, 5.1 and all. Can't wait to hear Still Life remaster.

The main reason I don't like this album as much as Ghost Reveries is it's very muted in comparison. There are none of those huge melodic/orgasmic riffs like the outro of Baying of the Hounds or the middle section on Ghost of Perdition, it's all just kind of static clean riffs and heavy riffs that are interesting at best, with some random stuff thrown in on a couple songs that's only distracting. I have a hard time explaining these things. Basically it just strikes me as more background music than their other albums (besides D1/D2) and several of the songs sound completely uninspired.

Maybe I'm just too old school, MAYH was the first I gave serious listen to and still think it's their best by far. Also, it will probably grow on me, but BWP and GR were both love on first listen so I don't know.

They wrote a song called "Porcelain Heart"? Toss your dick into the garbage-bin already.

Fuckin A.

It's not that bad. The video on the other hand is quite bad. I'm not sold on the whole tossing my dick in the bin scenario though, haven't you guys heard Heir Apparent? It's fuckin Heavy Metal.

As long as they keep a fucking keyboardist in the band, I will continue to refuse to listen to Opeth.

The guy doesnt play a keyboard, he plays one of these;



Which i calculate as being roughly 40% less homosexual than wibbling and warbling on some Casio peice of shit.

The keys in "Hessian Peel" are incredible. What an awesome track.

In Hell bent For Leather, author and 80's teenage metalhead Seb Hunter spends a good four pages on the evil of metal bands who use synth and keyboards before admitting that, bizarrely, the piano is perfectly acceptable.