Album Rating: 3.5

I'm with Demon on this one. PC just had vocals that were off-key to the point on it being nails against a chalkboard for me, a problem I don't have with Sorceress. Sorceress was pretty forgettable overall but had some clear highlights for me that were way higher than anything on PC.

Album Rating: 4.0

"had some clear highlights for me" pretty much the opener X)



I lost count on how I many times I was diggin Sorceress and lost interest along the way...

Album Rating: 4.5

No love for Eternal Rains? That track can sit proudly next to their glory-days moments in my opinion, it's that good!

Album Rating: 2.5

Nothing on PC or Sorceress can stand up to their old material in any way shape or form tbh.

Album Rating: 4.5

Except for Eternal Rains and River I agree. Nothing on Sorceress can anyway.



Have been spinning this all day, lovely record.

Album Rating: 2.5

The weird thing about prog era opeth is that I used to love opeth’s melodic parts. The issue with akerfeldt trying to write old school prog is that he lacks the jazz/fusion background. He has Axenrot and Akesson as really capable mercenaries to play whatever he wants but the compositions and especially transitions just don’t come together. It feels very cargo cult. Plus he tries to take his voice beyond what it’s capable of and it sounds like garbage.



I’ve never seen a band go from an all time great discography stretch to an all time horrible one the way opeth has

Album Rating: 4.5

Woah man! All time horrible?



I think concerning the vox I kind of agree with you. He said in an interview that he deliberately goes that far, forces himself to sing stuff that is just out of his reach. He said he likes how his voice sounds when he does that. I greatly prefer him not doing that either, but that's a matter of taste I guess.



The one thing I don't really get is people dismissing the awkward transitions in their prog-phase, but adoring their metal days, and especially Orchid and Morningrise. Those albums are chock full of weird, stop-start, quiet-loud, acoustic-electric-distorted transitions and no-one seems to really mind that. Or at least people seem to accuse the new direction of being off in the transitions department and acting like this is a new thing for them when it clearly is as old as the band itself. I guess this would again be a matter of taste.

Album Rating: 4.0

Nothing post-Watershed lives up to their glory days, but this is certainly a fun album and the first one where their prog makeover has really sounded okay to me.

Album Rating: 3.0

To some degree I agree with the sentiment that it started to go wrong with the organ in ghost reveries. It presented a massive tonal shift in the bands catalogue and also a focus away from guitars. To me opeth are the band with the best guitar riffs ever basically. I don’t actually think there are many other bands where the biggest draw for me is the guitar riffage. Their riffs have an awesome sense of harmony and go to very unexpected places (and not just fucking chugging on open e/d/whatever tuning it is). There is nothing wrong with the keyboards per se, but I find they are much more amateurish compared with the guitar playing. The keyboards are rarely doing anything I would deem pianistic (they mostly just seem to be guitar parts with a worse timbre), and that is probably because Mikael is not a pianist. The latest albums are not bad, but they definitely don’t hit me in the same way that the classic albums do. Maybe if Steven Wilson had become opeths keys player things would be different. His keys playing on some of the classic records is way more suited to the band’s sound.

Album Rating: 4.0

PC is a pretty good bit better than sorceress imo. Sorceress has exactly zero songs on it that I ever feel like going back and listening to. PC at least has like 3 or 4 good songs

Album Rating: 4.5

Agreed hard Eak! And Heritage has ~10.

Album Rating: 3.5

That riff in Hjärtat vet vad handen gör is so sick

Album Rating: 4.0

Its just better to analyse them as 2 different bands...no one will ever take full advantage of this album f.e. if still looking for DM. Sure, somehow we can tell its Opeth sound...but their discog provides two different services (if not more). Just enjoy...this one and Heritage are delightful.

Album Rating: 4.0

I love Heritage, but this one just isn't as fresh or exciting to me. However a lot of people seem to love it so I might have to give it another go

Album Rating: 4.0

How much have you spun it Ocean?

My first rate was 3.

Album Rating: 3.5

First listen for me was 3.5. Probably gonna stay there. It's a great album!

Album Rating: 4.0

"I love Heritage, but this one just isn't as fresh or exciting to me. However a lot of people seem to love it so I might have to give it another go"



I've already listened to this more than any of their other post watershed albums and I've liked it more each time. I feel that is actually the most refreshing album to come out of their new era. The last two, especially sorceress, kind of felt like they were falling in a rut and just going through the motions

Album Rating: 2.5

I appreciate how vibrant and creative this is, not everything works perfectly but it feels alive and is awash with personality. Something I didn't get from the last 2. It also helps that the production is 10x better.

Album Rating: 3.5

I agree it's more creative and the production does help.



Heritage was their most interesting post-Watershed album until this one. Heritage IMO was more refreshing than Watershed. Watershed sounds like a tired Opeth going through the motions. But this is a nice blend of the Opeth "sound" and the prog stuff.



I wonder if they'd play Charlatan live, seems like it would be challenging

Album Rating: 4.0

Discog in reverse...starting now