Best time to be a Opeth fan?

They were much heavier before (except for Damnation). And I rather love the metal-side of Opeth.

It's good that you are interested in their past. The thing I hate the most are Roadrunner-Kiddies.
 
Moonlapse said:
I got into Opeth just as they were breaking out, after the release of BWP and their tour to the states with Nevermore. I'm not sure whether that was the best time. I'd say during the first two albums would have been killer, but you may have felt a bit betrayed when MAYH came out. As much as I love the new direction Opeth took with MAYH, if I had really only known Opeth for the first two albums it would've been very hard to adjust... actually much as it is now. Watershed doesn't sound like Opeth to me. As far as I'm concerned the band ended with Ghost Reveries and this is a side project that Mike is carrying on to get closer to his influences... which is definitely cool, but largely not for me.
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this is how I felt when GR came out ... but Watershed seems to be more Opeth again for me.

I became fan when the Deliverance album came out. Heard that they were worth checking out, so bought that one, didn't like it at all, but kind of had a feeling I had to play it more. So I did, and got totally hooked.
Although this is not the early days and they got recognition already, I still think times changed since then already. Ever since GR, there are A LOT more people with their shirts out there ... they seem to have become the basic metalband, the one that people start out with because they are so famous. And yeah, they are not at their peak yet and could become more famous, but everyone in metal knows about them now, which wasn't the case before GR.
 
I dunno how I became an Opeth fan, my cousin filled my MP3 player with Black rose immortal, Deliverance, the moor and all opeth's classics...
I was listening to Blind guardian these years ( i still love them ) then one day while I was listening to Black rose immortal I learnt. I learnt what was Music :D since that day, I became more "Opeth-RULZ","Akerfeldt is God" fan :p It was just in 2006 when ghots reveries released and then I tried to create an Opeth fan club in my quarter. Well I heard that they weren't really known during Orchid years and all but their fans were x4375364 when Blackwater Park was released =P
And now they become more and more famous every single moment. They devellop their music trying new things and get better. Now I cannot live without at least listening to one song of them by day...

Every Opeth-album is unique and sounds different, has another feeling.
Orchid was dark and sad; Moningrise tried to bring some light to the sorrowful days; My arms you hearse was epic concept album about the dead man; Still life, being another concept album was a great succes; Blackwater Park ( one of the most popular album) ; Deliverence ( heaviest album I think); Damnation was a response to all who thougth that Mikael couldn't sing clean and had a jazzy sounding ; and it goes like that....

I know the truth; they are a legend...
 
I got in touch with Opeth in 2002 when a friend of mine lent me his copy of Deliverance.
I have to be honest...at that time I was really into fast/direct/traditional metal so I kind of dismissed the album. However a few months later I listened to it again and I was baffled by both my previous stupidity and the amazing musicianship of Opeth.
 
First, a backgrounder: I'm a child of the 80's, and grew up on Slayer, Metallica, Maiden and Priest. So my 'template' for good metal was driving guitars and clean, acrobatic vocals.

In 2006, I was looking around for new music and did your typical interweb-type search: best albums metal 2005.
The search consistently returned two albums: Lamb of God's Sacrament and Opeth's Ghost Reveries.

I downloaded both to check out (don't get me wrong, I ALWAYS buy the album if it's good, but see no problems getting a free 'demo' first... :) )

Sacrament immediately grabbed me by the balls, even though until that point I positively hated cookie monster growlings.
I became a LOG freak for the next six months. Meanwhile, though, there was something about that first track, Ghosts of Perdition, that kept me coming back.

I'm probably like you - have WAY too much music in my life, and sometimes it's hard to digest it all. So I had Ghosts on my IPOD for 6 weeks before it finally just grabbed hold of me.

Suddenly, I was listening to Opeth 24/7 - for the last 18 months, it's been Opeth and nothing but - except for Katatonia and Porcupine Tree, two bands that were introduced to me courtesy of the Opeth connection! :)

Absolutely love everything from Still Life to GR - but must be honest now, I have a 'preview' copy of Watershed, and so far it has not grabbed me. I'm a little concerned about that, but doesn't change my overall impression: best band in the world, hands-down.

Saw them in Vancouver last night for the first time - balls, they are good
 
When every single note that comes out of the singer's mouth is pitched perfectly in tune I think it is an issue. I noticed this on GR and felt that on the whole the production was too.. how shall I say... flat and uninteresting. Other than that I loved the album. But I miss the occasional slips especially in Mike's vocals. They made it all sound more human.
 
Metalstrm said:
When every single note that comes out of the singer's mouth is pitched perfectly in tune I think it is an issue. I noticed this on GR and felt that on the whole the production was too.. how shall I say... flat and uninteresting. Other than that I loved the album. But I miss the occasional slips especially in Mike's vocals. They made it all sound more human.
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well said

go listen to The Leper Affinity
 
Metalstrm said:
When every single note that comes out of the singer's mouth is pitched perfectly in tune I think it is an issue. I noticed this on GR and felt that on the whole the production was too.. how shall I say... flat and uninteresting. Other than that I loved the album. But I miss the occasional slips especially in Mike's vocals. They made it all sound more human.
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I see where you're coming from. I think they're just evolving as musicians. They've said numerous times they play mainly for themselves. I respect that greatly and it makes their music seem much more personal. You can sit and listen to an Opeth song and hear many layers of music in ebb and flow. That's partly why I like Opeth. They just kick major ass.
 
I've told this story many times before, but I guess once more can't hurt.

In 1995 a friend of mine came home to me and he had brought a CD that he had just bought. We used to introduce new bands that we discovered to each other all the time. At the time I listened a lot to Edge of Sanity, Morbid Angel, My Dying Bride, etc, so I was quite into Death Metal, but also loved the more progressive side of Edge of Sanity for example.

Anyway, he started the CD (Orchid) and I fell in love with it instantly. I bought it the next day and kept listening to it quite a lot. When Morningrise was released I bought it the same week and instantly loved it as well. However when My Arms Your Hearse came out, the first thing I thought was "wtf!!??", listened to it a few times and decided they've changed too much and that I didn't like what I heard. I guess I wasn't ready for the change.

After a while I listened to it again and fell in love with it as well. I've really enjoyed every single album they've released ever since. D1 and D2 I found refreshing and hoped they would reach a wider audience with Damnation. I really like Ghost Reveries as well, even though I'm an old Opeth fan. And from what I've heard of the new songs I don't think I'll be disappointed about the new album either.
 
Stilgar said:
I've told this story many times before, but I guess once more can't hurt.

In 1995 a friend of mine came home to me and he had brought a CD that he had just bought. We used to introduce new bands that we discovered to each other all the time. At the time I listened a lot to Edge of Sanity, Morbid Angel, My Dying Bride, etc, so I was quite into Death Metal, but also loved the more progressive side of Edge of Sanity for example.

Anyway, he started the CD (Orchid) and I fell in love with it instantly. I bought it the next day and kept listening to it quite a lot. When Morningrise was released I bought it the same week and instantly loved it as well. However when My Arms Your Hearse came out, the first thing I thought was "wtf!!??", listened to it a few times and decided they've changed too much and that I didn't like what I heard. I guess I wasn't ready for the change.

After a while I listened to it again and fell in love with it as well. I've really enjoyed every single album they've released ever since. D1 and D2 I found refreshing and hoped they would reach a wider audience with Damnation. I really like Ghost Reveries as well, even though I'm an old Opeth fan. And from what I've heard of the new songs I don't think I'll be disappointed about the new album either.
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cool story
 
Frosties said:
I got into them sometime after Blackwater Park was released, and don't consider it a long time at all. Because I was at the age when I just started getting exposed to this kind of music, what I say may be biased and wrong, but it seemed as if they were just beginning to be known at this point. I don't remember seeing any albums of theirs in stores until Deliverance was released.
When Damnation came out, it was "OMG, that is such a COOL IDEA!". I didn't know anything like it (remember - this was before Foo Fighters, Green Carnation and Borknagar had mellow albums ;) ). At this point, the news that "a metal band has made a soft album" was making waves, and people started checking them out by the dozens. But thanks to Damnation, the expectations for Ghost Reveries was even higher, because it seemed like people were aching for a heavy-as-fuck album again, which may be why some people were dissapointed with the album. I think it was Moonlapse that said it before it was released "This next album is the defining one for Opeth, if they really can take it to the next level" or something of the sort.

So, that's my point of view of how things went, more or less. Hope I answered the question right.
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Apparently Opeth have a pretty big following within the Israeli metal scene (at least, judging by the disproportionate amount of israelis that post here). Do you find that to be true?
 
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