How well one takes to Opeth’s more recent forays into progressive rock will likely vary depending on how much of their appeal in the first place was grounded in death metal or prog. Not a bad album by any means, but definitely a missed opportunity. But as the band’s 11th album, it feels redundant, and though it has its share of towering rock moments, it also feels a bit more like a holding pattern than what came before. If this were Opeth’s debut, it’d be impressive, certainly.
That’s where the context of a band’s complete catalog becomes crucial. Yet those commonalities are also what prevent it from standing out among their other albums. Their 2014 album Pale Communion, for instance, shares a lot in common with 2005’s Ghost Reveries - blazing heavy psych organ, serpentine riffs, everything epic all the time. There’s really no reason why they shouldn’t - Opeth playing prog rock isn’t as dramatic a shift from playing prog metal as it might seem on paper.
But going full-blown prog was a test of sorts to see how many fans would come along for the ride. It lines up all pretty neatly, and each one will have its defenders and detractors (though, let’s be honest, the first five or six records probably won’t have many detractors).
There are essentially three distinct phases of Opeth’s discography - their death metal-influenced ‘90s records, the heavy progressive metal grandeur of the ‘00s, and the more traditional progressive rock approach of the ‘10s. With today marking the 20th anniversary of Opeth’s landmark 2001 album Blackwater Park, we took a broader view of the band’s catalog and evaluated which of their records have aged the best and which ones reveal any cracks in the armor. But no matter which album you’re listening to, the product is unmistakably Opeth. Informed as much by Scandinavian death metal as they are by progressive rock titans like Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Genesis, Opeth pour a variety of disparate but complementary influences into their music, their earliest records sounding more in tune with death metal peers like Dark Tranquility while their later albums have mostly filtered out the metal elements altogether, instead riding more classic rock riffs and grooves.
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Opeth’s music is big on drama, but refreshingly free of offstage controversy. But if there’s one thing that hasn’t changed, it’s their sense of ambition, building their sound on a blend of towering heavy metal riffs and intricate, detailed progressive rock songwriting. The group hit their 30th anniversary in 2020, and they’ve come a long distance in those three decades - in fact, they’re very much a different band than the one that formed as teenagers in 1990 (literally - frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt is the only founding member that remains in the group, and a few more members have come and gone since the release of their debut album Orchid). Thanks as always to Levitation for making shit happen.No band in metal consistently makes statements as grand and overwhelming as those of Sweden’s Opeth. So enjoy some primal and sensual double drumming and as a side note, no one died at this show. This is also the version of the band with Lars 'Fingers' Finberg of Intelligence fame as second banana drummer. "Our love is obvious here as we bring forth a short but sweet set of hits and deep cuts. Brigid Dawson, Mike Shoun, Petey D and myself had already laid the live show out in front of crowds here, so it wasn't our first rodeo and certainly not my last," says John Dwyer. "I think this was our first time at Levitation but our millionth time in the amazing and tough as nails city of Austin, Texas. We've got an exclusive variant pressed on orchid and tangerine swirl vinyl, limited to 300 copies.
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Their first appearance was in 2012 at Emo's East, back when they were Thee Oh Sees, and that performance is now being released as an album as part of the Live at LEVITATION series on May 29 via The Reverberation Appreciation Society. OSEES have played Austin's Levitation festival many times, dating back to when it was called Austin Psych Fest.
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