Opeth - Deliverance

2002 Album Award

Seven years and five albums after first shocking the metal community with their amazing debut album Orchid, the kings of progressive death have returned. Deliverance, the band's sixth album, follows along the same main path as the last five albums without sounding uninspired, tired or rehashed. Deliverance is the “heavy” album in a heavy/light double album that Opeth recorded earlier this year. Instead of releasing the albums together as originally planned, Opeth decided to release each album independently. The light album, tentatively titled Damnation is due for a March 2003 release.

It seems that with every release the band improves in multiple ways. With each passing album the transitions between heavy and light music become smoother and less forced, Mikael Akerfeldt’s vocals become more advanced, and the band generally sounds tighter. Deliverance sees the return of Porcupine Tree leader Steven Wilson, who acts as a fifth band member by lending various touches to the album. Mikael Akerfeldt is again brilliant with both the lyrics and his ever-developing vocals. Much like Blackwater Park, he experiments with different sounds and effects on his clean voice, giving him a very melancholy, yet beautiful, sound. Mikael’s heavy vocals follow along the expected path of being more guttural, depressing, and downright heavier than each previous album. I’m afraid that on their next “heavy” album Mikael will have to actually become possessed to get his growled vocals even more demonic than they currently are. The vocals in “Master's Apprentices” are Mikael’s most extreme ever. This song sounds like prime Morbid Angel, complete with a sludgy slow riff and Pete Sandoval-like double bass drumming courtesy of Martin Lopez. The title track is an exceptional song that ends with a very progressive, almost Meshuggah-like riff, without all the Meshuggah-like gritty distortion.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is just a “heavy” album. This is a standard (I use that term very loosely) Opeth album, complete with plenty of delicate acoustic passages and loads of clean vocals. “A Fair Judgement” could easily be considered one of Opeth’s best songs ever. With all clean vocals, some great riffs, and an amazing guitar solo, “A Fair Judgement” is an obvious highlight here. Once again Opeth proves that they work best in an extended song format, as five of the six songs here are over 10 minutes long. Each song takes its time unfolding without ever pointlessly meandering. Opeth again fully embrace technology and use production to the fullest extent, creating a dense layer of sounds that is unrivaled in metal.

Opeth have proved that they are one of the most creative, uniformly excellent bands in existence. This album, like all Opeth albums, will probably grow on you more and more over time. It’s may not be as instantly enjoyable as Blackwater Park, but given a proper listen it will probably give you just as much satisfaction.