"It's a Growl Thing"

Swedish Opeth has been doing their thing since 1990 and has released 10 albums so far. Blackwater Park is their fifth album and was released in 2001. Blackwater Park was produced by the band together with Porcupine Tree founder Steven Wilson and is my favorite Opeth album. The album is tagged as “progressive death metal” and was described by the magazine CMJ as “Godlike…. A metal fusion of Pink Floyd and The Beatles”. Opeth has gone through many lineup switches but singer Mikael Åkerfeldt has been with the band since the beginning. Opeth has done a fine job incorporating many different types of elements into their albums, for example - jazz, folk and blues.

The Album: Blackwater Park only contains eight songs but is 67 minutes long. Seven of the tracks are longer than six minutes and the longest track of the album, Blackwater Park, is a whopping 12 minutes long! Mikael Åkerfeldts vocals on this album are absolutely stunning - ranging from clean and soft vocals accompanied by soft guitars to death growls and a true metal sound. This album really showcases Opeth’s sound very well. Tracks like Harvest and Patterns In The Ivy (Instrumental) displays a softer side of Opeth with softer and cleaner vocals and has a slower tempo, while songs like Bleak, The Drapery Falls, Dirge For November and Blackwater Park has a great mix of slower parts combined with a more powerful sound where Mikael Åkerfeldt displays his tiger-like growls. What really captured me in this album was Mikael Åkerfeldts great voice combined with Opeth’s sound that almost takes you to another dimension. The album is very deep and powerful. If I’d have to pick a favorite song it’d definitely be The Drapery Falls - why? Because it’s simply amazing.

YouTube: Opeth - Blackwater Park (Full Album)

Website: Opeth

Facebook: Opeth

Spotify: Opeth - Blackwater Park (Album)

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