Opeth - looking for suggestions

[Nicky007]

> Because of my beliefs, I'm very sensitive to lyrics, especially the kind that we sometimes find in "black metal" or similar genres. There are a few Opeth songs that contain lyrics dealing with the occult, but I don't think they glorify it.

Thanks for sharing your deliberations with us, Keith. I consider that you have addressed an important issue here, and your thoughts helped me in clarifying my position in this matter.

I bought Opeth's most recent album, Ghost Reveries, on the recoms of Amazonians, and I was instantly gripped by the excellent and original music, but turned off by the growls, and sceptical about the lyrics.

Now, after many spins, the music remains fine in my ears. The growls, I have become somewhat used to, but I certainly do prefer Mikael Åkerfeldt's clean vocals, and besides, his clean vocals are very fine.

The lyrics, I have been scrutinising closely, and I had a lot of trouble figuring out how close he gets to Satan worshipping. But I think that you're very right here, that it depends on the listener's/reader's own premises. There is no doubt in my mind that Mikael is a great humanist, and he can certainly express a tender love for his nearest.

So I've ended up enjoying Opeth's fine music without further ado. I consider Opeth to be one of the most creative Swedish groups, and I  think that the Opeth catalog belongs in any serious proggies' collection.

Nicky

[PH]

Mikael Akerfeldt is amazing indeed. But without him Opeth would be rubbish though...
I LOVE his vocals (but I don't like the growling either).
Ayreon's The Human Equation is Mikael Akerfeldt at his best!
And Damnations is also very good!

[kmorse]

I ran across an interview with Akerfeldt. He said that while he writes about occult subjects sometimes, he doesn't believe in or practice such things. He describes himself as having been brought up Roman Catholic, but no practicing as such.

http://www.westword.com/2005-07-28/music/love-and-death/

[Nicky007]

> Mikael Akerfeldt is amazing indeed. But without him Opeth would be rubbish though...

But you could say that about a lot of groups, PH. What would Porcupine Tree be without Steven Wilson? In fact, what would Arena be without Clive Nolan? (notwithstanding that the other musicians are excellent).

However, the big surprise in this respect was Spock's Beard. When Neal Morse left surprisingly, everyone asked: So what now? Well, the other bearded guys sat down, talked it over, tried out some stuff, and came up with a new SB that's just as exciting as the old. Yup, this world has a lot of surprises.

By the way, the ring above the A in Swedish (and Danish and Norwegian) changes the sound quite a bit, so it comes around to sounding like the "awe" in awesome. The "ker" in Åkerfeldt is like the "cur" in curry, and the "feldt" like "felt" in "I felt that". So, if you want to impress the guy, you shake his hands and say "Goddag (go dog), Herr (hair) Åkerfeldt (awe-cur-felt)". I guess this is getting pretty freaky.

Nicky.

[PH]

> Mikael Akerfeldt is amazing indeed. But without him Opeth would be rubbish though...

But you could say that about a lot of groups, PH. What would Porcupine Tree be without Steven Wilson? In fact, what would Arena be without Clive Nolan? (notwithstanding that the other musicians are excellent).

Indeed.

But there's a difference between Opeth and Porcupine Tree on one side and Arena and Spock's Beard on the other side.
Opeth is Mikael awe-cur-felt's () band. Porcupine Tree is Steven Wilson's band.
But Arena is Nolan's AND Mick's band. There are 3 composers in Arena: Nolan, Pointer and Mitchell.
In Opeth there's just one.
In Porcupine Tree there's just one.
There are exceptions on some songs, I know.
Spock's Beard was the Morse brothers' band. But later on D'Virgilio and Meros were co-composers too. (Don't know about Rio here...)

So there's an explanation for this to some extent.

[Nicky007]

> Accepted, PH. Arena is much more of a band. In fact, when they play concerts nowadays, it's mainly Rob and John unfolding themselves.

What's with "Rio"?

Nicky.

[maddox]

He means Ryo Okumuto, Spocks Beard keyboard-player. 

Or were you trying to be funny again?