OPETH
MY ARMS, YOUR HEARSE
Opeth is on My Arms, Your Hearse:
Mikeal Akerfeldt: acoustic and electric guitars, vocals.
Peter Lindgren: acoustic and electric guitars.
Martin Lopez: drums and percussion
Martin Mendez: bass
Although I"m not quite sure if Mendez plays on this album, I think Mikeal played the bass, cause they weren"t sure of their then, new member, Mendez"s bass skills.
After a some wild change of members, trying out other members, and playing with session musicians, Opeth finally got a fulltime member line up.
The sound of this album has totally changed form the two before, the twin guitars are hardly there.
And his vocals have gotten way darker and demonic like, unlike the more raspy vocals on Morning rise and Orchid.
This is Opeth"s 3th studio release.
Released: Spring 1998
Running time: 52:38
01 Prologue (0:59)
Starts off with rain falling, very calming, and after a while piano comes in, just an easy melody.
This song is as the title states, just a prologue.
4/5
02 April Ethereal (8:40)
Without much warning this song starts of with heavy double bass kicks, and Mikeal"s awesome growling.
The song is quite epic.
Some subtle keyboard effects make this song even better than it is.
After a while a short acoustic bit.
And after that a heavy but slow paced, growling part.
After that all hell breaks loose and the aggressive drumming is back.
Mikeal"s vocals have come a long way comparing this to their latest release before this one "morning rise"
At 3:37 a very emotional clean vocal part.
It does sound a bit whiney, but still great.
The part from about 4:14 is so great, some growling and after that an awesome Solo.
After the solo, it all slows down.
And than an acoustic part.
Building up, towards something more heavy again.
At 6:45 the most emotional growling part of this cd comes.
This track is just awesome.
5/5
03 When (9:14)
Starts of with some slow electric guitar, and after that, wild as hell.
Nice acoustic parts.
And somewhere round the 2 minute mark a clean singing part, followed by a solo.
Some acoustics after the solo, but not for too long, cause the heavy part comes in again.
At 4:33 a very nice growling part, Mikael is one of the few artist I can think, who can stil put emotion in their voice while growling.
At 6:08 a more experimental part, where the bass gets a more dominant place, and there is room for some more clean vocals.
On this cd you"ll find more of these experimental rock-ish parts where bass is on the foreground.
The last part of the song is Mikeal doing clean vocals over a very heavy riff, it"s so nice.
4,5/5
04 Madrigal (1:28)
A short interlude song, not very difficult, but it sounds great.
Some experimental part as I mentioned with "When".
3.5/5
05 The amen corner (8:43)
I don"t like this song too much, it consists of great riffs, and everything is well executed in this song, but it just isn"t good as a whole song.
It starts of heavy, with very dominant drumming and a lot of cymbal work.
It does sound as if the guitars and drums are turned louder, cause the vocals don"t come out that well.
3:16 a great acoustic part, one of their best.
5:34 a clean vocal part, of which I"m not a too great fan, but the solo after that makes up for that.
At a certain stage Mikeal whispers "eerie circle upon the water "
This whispering reminds me of the night and the silent water.
The last word in this song before a short acoustic outro is "demon of the fall"
The next song.
2,5/5
06 Demon of the fall (6:13)
The best song on this album, a real Opeth classic.
They always perform this song as encore.
It starts of with some very scary growling and weird sounds in the background, I think this is played backwards or something.
After a few seconds the mesmerizing sound of the song takes you in it"s grip.
I can"t explain it"s just great.
At 0:50 such an awesome riff starts.
And after a while vocals come in, really deep and dark, very demon like.
The growling is quite slow.
This song is best compared to Dirge For November" if you ask me.
2:16 a great acoustic part, very disturbing.
And after that wow, what an amazing scream.
After that he"s uttering "demon of the fall "
And after a short acoustic section, the great growling is back.
3:56 another bass driven experimental part.
Now the clean part comes in, just beautiful, can"t say anything else.
This song is just amazing.
5/5
07 Credence (5:26)
Another experimental song, slow, completely clean as far as vocals go.
Very bass driven.
This track is great just to take a rest from the extreme force that Demon on the fall blew you away with.
Very depressing song.
4/5
08 Karma (7:52)
This song kicks you in the nuts on the first second, this is a heavy song.
Everything is loud and violent, yet refined.
1:00 a nice humming part, before going back to the violence, the riffage used on this album is very epic.
On this song you can notice that Mikeal is still having a bit of problems with growling "new style" as opposed to the growling on morning rise and orchid.
2:55 a great acoustic part with great clean vocals, the best on this album.
After this a very emotional instrumental part.
Which is quite long.
And after that some good growling again.
5:25 we"re building towards a climax, and we"ll get one big climax.
6:38 an awesome riff.
And at 7:00 we get our climax, a scream of 40 seconds, wow.
4/5
09 Epilogue (3:59)
As we started with a prologue we end with an epilogue.
It starts very quiet, and the volume is turned up, this song you can compare to ending credits.
Although this song is more 60/70 sounding, due to the organ playing underneath, the entire song.
This song is a great ending for the album.
Very peaceful.
3.5/5
Note that this album is sort of a concept album, as the songs are all interlinked.
Every last word of the song, is the title of the next song.
Prologue Madrigal and Epilogue don"t have any sung parts, but there are lyrics to them.
And nice ones too, especially with Epilogue.
I knew it was the coming of spring, thus our April Ethereal
I don't know how or why, I"ll never know When
When is the new beginning, the end of this sad Madrigal
Hiding within The Amen Corner
The final spark that blew life into me, the Demon Of The Fall.
And she had lost in me, her Credence
Confirming the epitaph of my soul and displaying the once unknown Karma
Draped within a fate I could not change, and always welcoming Winter"s Epilouge
Rising and telling everyone about the beauty of its Prologue
So, now all Opeth albums are covered
Enjoy, and give some comment
:)
