Alternative Weekend: Focus on ‘Opeth'

I have been posting most weekends using @detlev’s #metalweekend tag, but my main love of music is progressive and alternative music. Some of my posts have included these songs, but I feel they are not keeping with the spirit of metal.

I will continue to post article’s using #metalweekend occasionally but feel I have more to offer regarding these other genres that I am more familiar with.

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Introducing #alternativeweekend. Post an article that highlights THREE great songs that are either progressive or alternative and use the tag #alternativeweekend or use the ‘Focus on’ series if you like. There are no rules, just make your own!

If you have a short story or something to offer regarding an opinion on your songs, then share it with us!

‘Not those noisy growlers again’, I hear you say! I have written about this band several times before and they are undoubtedly the noisiest loudest band I can say I truly like.

Alternative Weekend has turned into just that lately, but Opeth is a progressive band for sure. The length of the songs gives it away and TEN minutes is quite normal.

While I find their music deliciously dark, gothic and varied to the point that there is little repetition in a single song, it does makes for harder listening.

A verse, chorus song can give you several chances to catch on to something recognizable, such as a riff or a lyric. When listening to an Opeth song, in some instances you may only hear a section of a track just once. This means more listens before it sinks into your brain and you register it as good or otherwise.

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While this may be fine for those who ‘hear' songs quickly, it's very bad for me who seems to take many listens before I hear what my ears are registering.

While the growling may put many off, the harmonies and clean singing parts of Mikael Åkerfeldt are diverse and those ‘horrible’ bits fit well with certain sections of the music.

Listen to the music is what I would advise, tolerate the growls initially and you will hear a plethora of wonderful melodies and harmonies mixed in with some of the heaviest metal sounds I can personally tolerate.

Opeth – Hessian Peel (Watershed – 2008)

I'm still discovering new gems from this band and Hessian Peel is probably my latest one. At over 11 minutes this is a song of two distinct parts, the first 5-6 minutes I could happily let my grandmother listen to, and if you're vaguely interested in this band then give this a try.

The second half is much heavier but no less in terms of quality from the first part. This is very progressive material and I still hear new things 15 listens later. Music for the mind and the thinker.

Opeth – Ghost of Perdition (Ghost Reveries – 2005)

When an album gets critical acclaim and is not the usual pop drivel I sometimes take an interest.

In 2014, TeamRock put Ghost Reveries at #46 on their "Top 100 Greatest Prog Albums Of All Time" list commenting that "this was a partial concept album, with Satanism as its theme.

So, we have another TEN-minute song which doesn’t do itself much favours for the first two and a half minutes. But wait, what are those lovely choral sounds and that piercing guitar just a little later.

If you can’t stand those guttural sounds, then I invite you to start this one at 2:30 and let me know what you think.

After many plays, I regard ‘Ghost of Perdition' as one of my favourite songs of the band and often sing along to it in the car. I must try and not listen too often for fear of it getting into my head just a little too much.

Opeth – The Drapery Falls (Blackwater Park – 2001)

Blackwater Park was my introduction to the noisiest of noisy bands and so hold a special place for me. My initial thoughts on hearing this song were that the intro is so heavy and yet so melodic at the same time.

The song has fewer growls than normal but is not one for your grandma's ears. The last vocal has some vocals from Steven Wilson, who produced this album, and you can hear the influence.

Some of my friends who love alternative music loathe this band or is it that they simply don't understand them. This is some of the most complex music I have ever subjected my ears too and is not 'just 'noisy rubbish' as first impressions can give.

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Don’t be put off by the intense heaviness of it all; there’s a lot going on in there and more diversity than I have heard from probably any other band.

If you claim to be a prog-lover there is something in here that will resonate with you. Just give it a chance and you will hear it.

Opeth – Burden (Watershed – 2008)

Just to show you they can create something that can be more easily ingested, I will leave you with one of the greatest but unheard-of heavy power ballads I have ever witnessed.

There is an official video that I will post as well as the full version. The problem with these edit's is that they cut out so much of the good material such as the piano intro which is unmissable!

Burden (Full Version)

Burden (Edited Version)

Other articles in the ‘Focus on’ series:

Focus on ‘The Sisters of Mercy'
Focus on ‘The Sundays' // Focus on ‘Muse'
Focus on ‘Nirvana' // Focus on ‘Anathema'
Focus on ‘Genesis’ - The Collins Years Part One // Focus on ‘Genesis’ - The Collins Years Part Two
Focus on ‘Genesis’ - The Gabriel Years // Focus on ‘The Pixies’
Focus on ‘Sonic Youth’ // Focus on ‘Talking Heads’
Focus on ‘Blackfield’ // Focus on ‘Karnivool’
Focus on 'Tears for Fears' // Focus on 'The Cranberries'
Focus on 'Kate Bush' // Focus on 'The Smiths'
Focus on 'Radiohead' // Focus on 'Rush'

Guitar Image courtesy of http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/16642

If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.