Opeth - Watershed

The Special Edition includes three bonus tracks, 5.1 audio mix of the entire album, extensive video content, expanded artwork and more.Special Edition includes DVD with bonus tracks. The forward-thinking Swedish titans, who seemlessly and fluidly combine metal, classic rock, prog, folk and free form jazz, continue the time-honored Opeth tradition on Watershed, their second album for Roadrunner Records. With this, their ninth effort, Opeth continue to shake things up, turn the corner and push the limits of their sound. And the results are breathtaking. Ultimately, Watershed sounds at once completely like and absolutely nothing like previous Opeth records. Watershed takes all that is Opeth, and goes where Opeth have never gone before. Album Description

Opeth > God

Opeth's albums are the greatest pieces of art to ever come about in the course of human history. If you buy this album you will be given a gift greater than anything I can possibly put into words. October 27, 2008

LEADERS OF A NEW ERA

Thats exactly what Opeth is not only today, but almost a decade now. At least since the magnum opus Blackwater Park was released. Akerfeldt is in my opinion if not the biggest, probably one of most talented people in music industry today. And am not talking only about the area of metal, am talking about the whole music scene of the planet. His ability to create sounds that get deep inside of you and always haunt you is absolutely magnificent. His ability to find always the best possible musicians to support him as the vehicle of Opeth is even more magnificent (Martin is a MONSTER behind the drums). And we should not forget Mikael's vocals which remain perfect. His ability to change his vocals in such a level and bacome at one moment a growling monster ready to rip you, and again return in a melodic harmony that makes you dream of other spaces is indeed terryfing.
Above all is the songs of cource and i believe that is a waste of time to repeat all the time tha same again and again. If you think of listening to Watershed just stop thinking. Buy it and you will remember that Opeth is a group of artists that worth their money until the last cent.
We are talking probably about the real meaning of intelligent music here. September 7, 2008

My second Opeth disappointment

Opeth is without a doubt my favorite band of all time. I was looking forward to Watershed a great deal. Unfortunately, it left me in the same frame of mind as Deliverance. I realize I'm in the minority of Opeth fans in saying this, but Deliverance was my least-favorite album of theirs. At least, until Watershed came out -- it now takes the bottom spot. Production is great, augmented instrumentation (strings, oboes) are a nice touch, Mikael's clean singing continues to impress. But the simple fact is that Martin Lopez is a god among men and no one can possibly replace him, period. Other reviewers have commented on the album's lack of focus and I agree. I'm all for being eclectic and embracing diverse influences, but the entity being influenced must have some innate cohesion, which Watershed doesn't. I've done my duty by purchasing and listening to it a dozen or so times, but to be honest I doubt it will make an appearance in my CD player more than once a year. I hope they get back on track with their next release because as I said at the outset, they are absolutely my favorite band. September 3, 2008

Opeth - Watershed

I don't write many reviews so this will be my short analysis of the Watershed album.

Don't worry about the line-up change, the drumming is fantastic and does not fall short of Opeth's high standards. The new lead guitarist can shred, which opeth have lacked for so long. Don't get me wrong, Peter was a fantastic guitarist, but the new, ex-arch enemy guitarist is beter suited for the Death Metal side of things. The song writing is very diverse.

First of all there is Coil. A mellow, clean vocalled track with some female vocals which are realy nice. It sorts of starts where ghost reveries left off.
Then there is Heir Apparent. People are confused about this track, this is not Opeth's heaviest track, that would probably be the moor or Dirge for November, this is Opeth's most BRUTAL track, the most typical death metal song they have done. Very fast, good guitar solo, very low vocals, with perfect synths adding a sort of black metal feel at certain points.

Lotus eater. An other fast brutal track, more singing but lots of growling involved, this track has a very Dream Theater moment with the keys, base and drums taking the lead for a groovy breakdown.

Burden. A mellow soft track with echoed vocals and smooth guitar and key solos toward the end. The track finishes with a beautiful sounding acoustic guitar piece.

Porcelian Heart. The single, a spooky track, softer but far more atmospheric. The single is a cut, shortened version of the track.

Hussain Peel. Very Ghost Reveries. Starts soft with an atmosperic build up to some great death metal moments.By this point you are thinking, "thank goodness" because you havn't heard death metal on the album for some time now. After the brutality there is a short pause and then into some great, groovy singing still with heavier feel of things.

Hex Omega. Not a soft track but there are no growls on this one. It's sort of like a Fair Judgement. It's a heavier track but it's not metal.

Overal i love this album, it is a much softer Opeth album but it is also more typically death meatal.

Yeah Opeth have changed but they are still amazing, they have not decended. They have diversified even more, but it's a good thing.

August 31, 2008

So far, Watershed is the best album of 2008!

Opeth's last release, Ghost Reveries, was named top album of 2005 by many sites across the internet. This time, Opeth is back with 2008 release Watershed, and a lot of expectations from the fans. Watershed features new guitarist Fredrik Åkesson (Arch Enemy) and new drummer Martin "Axe" Axenrot, who's been filling in for Martin Lopez since the Reverie tours.

Throughout their career Opeth has been notorious for diversity while maintaining a distinctive style of music, and Watershed proves that Opeth has not lost their golden touch.

Watershed begins with beautiful, "Coil." Coil is a soft and tranquil song with a soothing twelve-string and nylon acoustic touch with layers of keyboards. Mike sings very melodic on Coil and brought in Axe's girlfriend Nathalie Lorichs as a guest vocalist on the song to add a more refining touch. Coil is on the shorter side, just over three minutes in length, but it's a very pretty song and a wonderful addition into the Opeth song catalog.

As always, Opeth paves the way from melodic transitions into heart stopping, death metalesque styles of music. "Heir Apparant" is roughly nine minutes of epic Opeth metal without melodic vocals, but the diversity comes from some dark acoustic interludes and a slide guitar solo. Heir Apparant is dark, brutal and probably the heaviest song they've written since "Wreath" the Deliverance album.

Enter "The Lotus Eater" as track number three. The Lotus Eater is the perfect display of Opeth's diversity and progressive nature packed into a nine minute song. This song has wonderful solos, heavy blast beat drumming, lots of death growls, but the song balances out with melodic guitar and vocal work, some jazz twists and a mellotron solo. Simply put, this song is amazing and a pleasure to enjoy.

A note to all of those progressive rock fans out there: don't feel as if Opeth's neglecting you with Watershed. Instead, it's quite the opposite. "Burden" comes to Watershed as a little homage to the mid 70's Scorpions style ballads. This song has it all for the musicians. Burden starts off with a keys intro and leads into full band accompaniment with Mike's melodic vocals. The simplicity of the melody on Burden allows for countless guitar solos (about: four at the end, concluding with a harmony arrangement and three lead guitars over vocals melodies throughout the song) a keyboard solo and amazing guitar and vocal harmonies.

If there was a weakness to Watershed, it's definitely here with "Porcelain Heart." Honestly, this song is way too long at eight minutes. Porcelain Heart rehashes up some of the riffs from Ghost Reverie's "The Grand Conjuration." But to add fuel to the fire, this song feels like it was a copy and paste job through Pro Tools (recording software). This is a very pretty song, with only clean tone vocals over lots of nylon guitar work. Porcelain Heart also has its heavy moments and plenty of double bass drumming, but the song just feels jumbled and a bit too long. Personally, I feel the five minute radio/music video edit of Porcelain Heart should have been the album version.

"Hessian Peel" is definitely the hardest song to portray in words. It's nearly a twelve minutes epic, with lots of progressive transitions. Starting off with a bass note drone, leading into some bluesy riffs and a wonderful melodic feel, Hessian Peel transists into a death metal segment back into a beautiful acoustic segment only to finish heavy and drop into a bass guitar and keyboard finale. This is definitely a must hear song to any Opeth fan or newbie getting into the band.

"Hex Omega" is a wonderful song that's perfect for closing out the album. Dark, eerie and proggy, Hex Omega seems to be the least memorable song on the album, but it has this great vibe to it.

Bonus content: Since this album comes with the two-disc CD and DVD edition, there's some wonderful additions to the album. First, a 5.1 mix of the album is included on the DVD disc. The mix is a lot better than Ghost Reverie's 5.1 and Dream Theater's 5.1 Systematic Chaos; however, if anyone has an SACD player or a DVD-A (MLP lossless) player, the 5.1 mix here doesn't compare to the higher resolution mixes. If you're looking for perfection, pick up Porcupine Tree's Lightbulb Sun, Stupid Dream or Fear of a Blank Planet on DVD-A and get a player capable of handling the format! Back to the Watershed 5.1 mix, it's clean, the panning is done well, but it is missing the punch that a great 5.1 mix should have.

Three extra songs are also included. First is "Derelict Heards." This song should have made the album cut and fell between Burden and Porcelain Heart. It's a very pretty song at times and has great transitions into death metal segments. Similar to The Lotus Eater, Derelict Heards definitely shows off Opeth's musicianship and song writing capabilities. Second is the Robin Trower cover, "Bridge of Sighs." This is an amazing cover, true to the original and done with an Opeth vibe. Third is a second cover song, "Den Ständiga Resan." This song is wonderful, but spoken all in Swedish. Den Ständiga Resan is a beautiful acoustic ballad with a few great blues solos.

Overall, this Opeth - Watershed is a must have album for any progressive metal fan. As of now, it's still my pick for album of 2008 and is the perfect follow up to Opeth's last release Ghost Reveries. Check it out, Watershed is a must hear! August 23, 2008

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