Release Date: June 3rd, 2008
Opeth is a progressive metal band that has become associated with quality. In fact, every Opeth album leading up to “Watershed” has been proclaimed as a masterpiece of metal by numerous critics. While they have certainly become known for dark and heavy metal riffs, they are just as well known for infusing soft, mellow acoustic parts in their songs. In fact, their 2003 album “Damnation” can not even be considered metal.
Obviously with every new Opeth album, the question is always asked if they will be able to live up to the ridiculously high standards they set upon themselves. Opeth fans need not worry however, for “Watershed’ is more than worthy of the Opeth logo gracing its cover. While the album contains all the classic Opeth elements (Transitions between death growl and clean vocals, heavy metal with mellow passages, complex instrumental passages, long songs), “Watershed” also marks a change in style for the band. This definitely isn’t just a rehash of previous albums, “Watershed” instantly separates itself from the rest of Opeth’s discography.
Right from the start, one can tell this isn’t a normal Opeth album. While most metal albums will begin with a fast paced heavy song, “Watershed” begins with a 3 minute acoustic piece with Åkerfeldt splitting vocal duties with a female vocalist. In classic Opeth fashion, this intro piece fades into the heavy crunch of “Heir Apparent”, the most classic sounding Opeth song on the album and the only one to feature death growl exclusively, showing how “Watershed” overall is lighter than most of their albums.
The third track is “The Lotus Eater”, perhaps the best song on the album. It begins with an eerie hum before crashing into a very dark sounding song, perfectly contrasted by Åkerfeldt’s clean vocals. The track contains quite a bit of keyboard work, and many classic mellow/heavy transitions. The band even experiments around the 5:30 mark with a funk sound.
After “The Lotus Eater” comes “Burden”, a very slow moody, ballad like song. The song has both an interesting organ solo, and multiple great guitar solos. The song ends rather eerily, with an acoustic guitar playing while being detuned at the same time.
Next comes “Porcelain Heart”, the first single of the album. An odd choice for a single, considering it’s neither the album’s best song nor the most marketable, featuring no chorus or refrain at all. Nevertheless, the song touches on all the key points one would expect from an eight minute Opeth song. After this is the album’s longest piece “Hessian Peel”. The song is for the most part split in half. The first half is quite mellow, and around the 4:15 mark it begins to pick up. The outro to the song never fails to send chills down my spine.
The album ends with “Hex Omega”, a fitting end to the album. Åkerfeldt’s voice really shines here, and the song contains many hauntingly beautiful lines for both the guitar and keyboard. The last couple minutes of the song in particular, are quite powerful.
Overall, “Watershed” feels a lot softer than the standard Opeth release, with most songs barely using a death growl singing style and having numerous long mellow passages. The album also fills a bit “proggier” than the normal Opeth album, with the keyboard being featured prominently. As with all Opeth releases, the album grows on each listen.
As Åkerfeldt says on the DVD, “This is the most important album of our career”. Indeed, the very definition of watershed is “a critical point that marks a division or a change of course.” With that in mind, “Watershed” may be a sign of even greater things to come from Opeth. However the album also stands by itself as an incredible album that only this band would be able to pull off, and is highly recommended to anyone that is already a fan of the band or any metal or prog fan.
Rating: 4.5/5
Track Listing:
- “Coil” (3:11)
- “Heir Apparent” (8:50)
- “The Lotus Eater” (8:50)
- “Burden” (7:41)
- “Porcelain Heart” (8:00)
- “Hessian Peel” (11:25)
- “Hex Omega” (7:00)
June 10, 2008 at 3:04 pm |
Nice review man. Very accurate, well written. I agree with everything you said, especially regarding to how this is just as much of a masterpiece as any of Opeth’s other albums, yet still different, while keeping the Opeth feel. A very important album indeed.