Opeth
Watershed

At a concert in London, which was subsequently released by The Roundhouse Tapes, Michael Akerfeldt said that the new album will be “gloomy and vicious" ... I was looking forward to this album and I was wondering what this time they were preparing for us legendary swedes. The new album really turned out to be the darkest and most unusual of all. What did we get? As for me, this is a mixture of Still Life and Ghost Reveries. Throughout the album there is some mystery, some mystery. The change in composition affected the sound, which was noticeably heavier. Michael's vocals are always on top, his growls and clean vocals are great! On the album, a more pronounced death component is very noticeable, here there are frequent tempo changes, and more complex riffs and guitar parts in general. But what upset me was the drummer. No, he played just awesome! It’s immediately felt that the new Bloodbath drummer, Martin Axenroth, is playing, but in my opinion Lopez’s parts would be much more interesting and diverse, taking into account how much he played Opeth and how he felt the music. The guitarist Fredrik Akeson was very pleased, I think Michael found a really worthy replacement for Peter Lindgren who left the band. I want to note the amazing game of Per, he is really a talent and as always he did his job perfectly! All songs are awesome, all exciting from the first listening! I especially want to highlight "Heir Apparent", probably now their heaviest and darkest song, and Lotus Eater, in which the good old Opeth is most felt. Here we also have a new and unusual lyrical introduction, where the surprise was the presence of female vocals Natalie Lorichs - the girls of Martin Axenroth. Once again I will say that the album left a very pleasant, but at the same time ambiguous feeling ... But did we expect this from Opeth? And what will happen after this album? Will the group go into even greater darkness or ... In general, being my favorite group, it fully met my expectations.

Opeth's last extreme-prog album. Although Opeth's recent works are still good, but their extreme-prog style has something more than new-Opeth.

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LAst stand of Opeth as we kenw them. To be clear, Watershed already states a band changing its sound but it was again into a coherent and spontaneous path. We can already hear the love for progressive music but this happens accordingly with the fine alaborate and personal Death metal music they made us experiencing for years, even if not at the level of the superior work called Ghost Reveries. After Watershed, Heritage. Opeth? yes, Opeth again but playing a progressive version of Damnation still having inside some inspired minutes related to lowered instruments and fine vocalism of Akerfeldt. It would have been good as isolated and talented "outsider" album. Sadly Akerfeldt has chosen to "make the Steven Wilson" without having on his back the musical path of Wilson and result is an artifact no more interesting band. Question is now, in which way this is related to Watrershed? well, watershed is twice important album for real old fan (not fanatics, I mean honest fans) of this band. Watershed is the real "Heritage" of the past, still mixing in an honest way the music Akerfeldt played with his more vast interests. Watershed is important because it is only in a not big part a Death metal album. It was mixing the good from Damnation with some fine Decadent atmospheres and still brings high quality music. Thanks God this cheap version sold by Grooves is the normal jewel case one and not the HORRIBLE cardsleeves version with a pointless bonus CD. Humble suggestion: listen to this both with Ghost Reveries.