: Jordan Blum
: Opeth Every Album, Every Song
: Sonicbond Publishing
: 9781789526110
: 1
: CHF 5.30
:
: Musik
: English
: 144
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

There has never been - and never will be - another band like Opeth. Formed in Stockholm, Sweden around 1989, their thirty-year career showcases a melding of diverse influences. They demonstrate a commitment to both songwriting and instrumental excellence, not to mention stylistic diversity - no matter what the cost - that's unmatched by any of their stylistic peers. Whether it be their unashamedly brutal early LPs, their near-faultless mid-period opuses, or their somewhat polarizing recent glimpses into macabre 1970s-esque prog/jazz rock eccentricity, mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt and company continuously create records that push themselves, their audience, and progressive music as a whole, forward. The result is among the most extraordinary, dependable, and laudable legacies in modern metal.
Using a meticulously crafted mixture of original analysis and behind-the-scenes research, this book digs into all facets of Opeth's output to discover how they innovated and evolved with practically every release. After all, each 'observation' - from their 1990s black metal classics (Morningrise and My Arms, Your Hearse) and 2000s progressive death metal masterpieces (Blackwater Park and Ghost Reveries) to their stunning progressive rock/jazz fusion excursions of the 2010s (Pale Communion and In Cauda Venenum) - found Opeth ceaselessly harvesting a one-of-a-kind catalogue that remains remarkably influential and impressive.


Jordan Blum is an Associate Editor at PopMatters, holds an MFA in Creative Writing, and is the founder/Editor-in-Chief of The Bookends Review, an independent creative arts journal. He focuses mostly on progressive rock/metal and has contributed to many other publications, including Sonic Perspectives, Paste, Progression, Metal Injection, Rebel Noise, PROG and Sea of Tranquility. He is the author of Jethro Tull On Track and Dream Theater on track, published by Sonicbond. He records his own crazy ideas under the pseudonym Neglected Spoon. When he's not focused on any of that, he teaches English courses at various colleges. He lives in Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Chapter1

Orchid (1995)


Personnel:

Mikael Åkerfeldt: lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars

Peter Lindgren: acoustic and electric guitars

Johan De Farfalla: backing vocals, acoustic and electric bass

Anders Nordin: drums, percussion, piano on ‘Silhouette’

Additional Personnel:

Stefan Guteklint: bass on ‘Into the Frost of Winter’ (bonus track)

Torbjörn Ekebacke: artwork, photography

Pontus Norgren: co-production on ‘Requiem’

Dan Swanö: engineer, mixing

Produced at Unisound Studio in Finspång, Sweden, March – April 1994 by Opeth and Dan Swanö.

Release date: 15 May 1995

Highest chart places: UK: none, USA: none

Running time: 65:26 (reissue 71:49)

Current edition: 2020 Candlelight Records / Spinefarm Records Record Store Day pink marble swirl 2 x vinyl with bonus track

While the departure of Isberg was unexpected and quick, it wasn’t entirely upsetting for the rest of the band. As Åkerfeldt reflects: ‘David had stopped showing up for rehearsals [before he quit] and I was starting to take it all more seriously; I was really becoming the leader of the band ... If I’m being honest, there was a sense of relief when he left’. Lindgren concurs, adding, ‘At that time, David was a bit troublesome; he didn’t make friends with people and didn’t even try. On stage, he would insult people and we’d tell him we thought it was unnecessary’. They were even thinking of reforming under a new name and leaving Isberg to fend for himself. Fortunately, that never had to happen, and with Isberg out of the picture, they had free rein to give Opeth a fresh start.

For the next year or so, Åkerfeldt, Lindgren, and Nordin wrote and rehearsed about half a dozen times per week (and sometimes in complete darkness to help establish a sense of control and atmosphere). Along the way, they brought in bassist Stefan Guteklint – who didn’t stay for long – and took promo photos to ‘feel like a real band’, as Lindgren puts it. Although they still looked to extreme metal for inspiration (not only musically but also in terms of work ethic and promotional tactics), Åkerfeldt knew that they wanted to ‘be a heavy metal band that could really play’, too. So, he started collecting second-hand vinyl records of progressive rock acts such as King Crimson, Camel, Van der Graaf Generator, Yes, Wishbone Ash, and even Dream Theater because their photos reminded him of classic rock and metal giants like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath. He ‘loved the length of the songs, the moods, and movements’ so much that he decided to incorporate those attributes into a revised Opeth formula that wittingly strayed from the typical and ubiquitous Swedish death metal sound.

Boldly, they decided against recording a demo, choosing instead to try and get a record deal from the rehearsal tape that they’d be handing out wherever they could. Luckily, a few notable people – Jonas Renkse of Katatonia, Samoth of Emperor, and Candlelight Records founder Lee Barrett – heard it and agreed. (Of course, this also led to Åkerfeldt and Renkse becoming great friends.) Specifically, Barrett heard a snippet of ‘The Apostle in Triumph’ on a tape of miscellaneous unsigned blac