I THINK I FINALLY ‘GET’ OPETH
One of the reasons I am so widely respected and successful as a music journalist/meme author is that I am not afraid to admit when I am wrong. Granted, it does not happen very often, but when I make the wrong call I admit that I was mistaken and move on — all I can do is humbly beg for the forgiveness of you, the reader.
For example, I always wrote off OPETH as ‘just another one of those lulzy European bands for people that have ponytails and post a lot on home recording forums,’ but it turns out they are actually pretty good! I know I’m late to the party but better late than never, right? In this post, I will share a few of the tracks that speak to me the most, in case there are any other readers who never gave this excellent band the credit they deserve:
Their old stuff is not bad, it’s just kind of generic in a ‘one of those bands whose video you would force yourself to sit through on Headbanger’s Ball in high school hoping that they would play Biohazard or Green Jello next’ kind of way. Still, I think it is worth listening to just so you can see how far this band has come and as a reminder that at some point all bands were crappy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75XWbsSx-E
I love the upbeat tempo and hard-driving groove of this song — I am not usually a fan of progressive death metal but this is truly the genre at its finest! ‘Epic’ and ‘crushing’ are the first two words that come to mind but frankly I struggle to find words that do this song justice.
Just when you thought it was impossible for THE OPETHS to take metal any further, they smash conventional definitions of the genre with this masterpiece of tech death. You will definitely want to hear all the layers of lush, rich orchestration and every nuance of the band’s masterful performances so I suggest listening to it with headphones in a high-quality format like .wma (if your Zune supports 64kbps files that would be the ideal choice).
There costumes in this video are a little goofy but I guess it is just them trying to stay relevant and do the ‘vest metal’ thing. That said, I consider myself a ‘real’ death metal fan so personally I do not care about a band’s image and you shouldn’t either– just focus on what is important: the music. I do feel like they went overboard with the drum replacement on this album and robbed it of the natural, live feeling of their older recordings but that is a minor complaint, and overall I highly recommend this to fans of symphonic death metal!
What other OPPETH songs should I check out?? (Please do not list any of the crappy ones) Which album has the most crushing flute solo??? What are some other technical death metal bands that I might like?
-Sergeant D.
Sergeant D. is never afraid to admit that he was on wrong at Stuff You Will Hate.
