Opeth - Still Life

Country: Sweden      Genre: Death Metal, Progressive Metal

This is my first trip into the realm of Opeth. At first I wasn't sure what everyone was talking about. It didn't seem striking at first. As I listened sounds floated to the surface and I realized that it really is a great record. The record takes time to settle in the mind, where it circulates and percolates until you get it.

The record is classic Swedish Death Metal along the lines of Dissection and In Flames. However, Opeth tend to build into grooves. They never play as fast as Dissection usually do. They also tend to break down into acoustic quietness, to build up, and break out into the metal parts. Anyone who has heard Opeth knows what I mean.

The most surprising thing I found were the parts with Beatles-like chord progressions contained on a few songs. All parts seem to seamlessly move together, and the whole record is of a piece. The record has a unifying concept. It is about a sort of black sheep character who was cast out from his village. He returns some years later to find and retrieve his lover Melinda. From there, the story becomes a confusing, destructive tale, with disturbing passages of blazing power. Hear for yourself and figure out your own feelings of the story contained within.

Still Life is a complex record, requiring many listens before one can really grasp it. I personally don't think I've fully grasped the record, but I must say that I now understand why people speak of Opeth in reverent tones.

 Album Score: 9 out of 10
Reviewed by: Karl Haikara

Formed in 1990, the Swedish quartet Opeth (a literary reference to a "city of the moon") are a diverse and accomplished metal act whose career has spanned four full-length albums of strikingly original material. Things began to take shape for the group in March of 1992, when Mikael Akerfeldt took over as guitarist/vocalist and Peter Lindgren joined Opeth as a bassist (though he would eventually switch to guitar). By this time, Opeth had developed a very original style of metal, incorporating beautiful guitar harmonies along with acoustic passages into long compositions that averaged more than 10 minutes in length. The band aggressively explored musical genres, successfully melding death and black metal with influences as diverse as progressive rock, traditional metal, classical and even jazz. Candlelight Records was impressed and signed Opeth in 1993. Their first album, Orchid (released in the summer of 1995), combined ferocious and grim passages with truly moving and romantic orchestration. Their follow-up, Morningrise, was even more progressive and epic, exploring new vocal and harmonic realms. Soon thereafter, the band would experience success on the road, touring with black/death metal legends like Morbid Angel and Cradle of Filth. After adding a new rhythm section in 1997 (bassist Martin Mendez and drummer Martin Lopez) Opeth released yet another strong album, My Arms, Your Hearse, in 1998. With each track blending seemingly into the next from start to finish, Hearse gave the impression of an hour-long, epic journey.

Opeth's 1999 effort, Still Life, sees them honing their musical stylings and combining elements from Spanish-style baroque music, doom metal, goth, and traditional death metal. Akerfeldt is absolutely wondrous on vocals, combining death grunts and growls with stunning, clean harmonies that are almost angelic. Although Opeth is sometimes described as black metal, Akerfeldt never breaks into the high-pitched, caustic shrieks that are typical of that genre; all of his voices are steady and controlled. Musically, there are moments of true power and aggression, but Opeth is not at all riff-intensive. Segues are common, and the music flows miraculously from heavy sections to light, ethereal leads and hooks. Akerfeldt and Lindgren are adept at working acoustic parts into their pieces, and the classical flavor that results is one of the band's true distinguishing features.

Still Life will feel more like an odyssey than an album. There are moments of absolute solace and quietude, such as "Benighted," that will light your soul. More aggressive pieces such as "The Moor" and "Godhead's Lament" suggest darker passages, but retain softer elements. When this balance is just right, as in "Moonlapse Vertigo," the results are both predictable and potent. And Opeth's lyrics are no less disturbing and accomplished than their music. Take these haunting words from "Face of Melinda": Endlessly gazing in nocturnal prime/She spoke of her vices and broke the rhyme/But baffled herself with the final line/My promise is made but my heart is thine. Or the confessions of the faithless in "The Moor": I was foul and tainted, devoid of faith/Wearing my death-mask at birth/The hands of God, decrepit and thin/Cold caress and then nothing. Each song tells part of a story of the narrator's relationship with the album's central figure, the doomed and tragic lover Melinda.

Opeth is not just another great band from Sweden. They are far more; an entity that is both musically refined and glaringly unique. If you have a taste for emotionally wrought metal with a strong sense of class and ambience, look no further. Light a candle and journey boldly into the teeming shadows of Opeth's Still Life.

Reviewed by: Ladd Everitt