When the average person thinks of death metal, they think of talentless 1 chords guitar riffs set to equally talentless, blisteringly fast bass/snare drum attacks. What these casual observers of the scene are thinking is what the majority of music fans want to think:that extreme music has no value (musically, culturally, or otherwise). I had the same beliefs when I was younger. I always complained of metal being loud and obnoxious, and refused to listen to it. Then I saw the light. At the age of 12 I got my greasy little hands on a copy of ’’Under the Moonspell’’ by Portugese black metal/goth metal band Moonspell. I was forever changed, and vowed only to listen to the musically skilled, emotional, interesting metal (be it black metal, goth metal, thrash, death, grind, or whatever sub-sub-genre you can name!).
In ’96, at the age of 14, my questing led me to the answer to all my dreams and hopes of what music could be: Opeth. I purchased their Morningrise album (their 2nd release) and was blown away at how a band could be so good. For those of you unfamiliar with Opeth, their signature sound is a combination of ultra heavy Swedish melodic death metal, jazz-rock, progressive, classical guitar, and clean singing. They have progressed amazingly well through their 5 releases (with 2001’s Blackwater Park being the most recent), yet I can’t help but choose 1999’s Still Life as their crowning achievement. From the chilling death metal growls and gorgeous, ethereal and jazzy clean vocals (both courtesy of Mikael Akerfeldt) to the spot-on drumming of South American phenom Martin Lopez to the precision dual guitar work and bass (Akerfeldt and Peter Lindgren, and Martin Mendez, respectively) this band has achieved aural perfection more times than I would have ever thought possible.
Still Life, Opeth’s 4th album, is an astonishing musical accomplishment. Band leader, and musical mastermind, Mikael Akerfeldt (guitar, vocals) leads his Stockholm based quartet through an emotional journey that will leave any open-minded music fan utterly breathless. The slow jazz progression that is the introduction of album opener ’’The Moor’’ gives way to the fluid, hypnotic picking of harmonized acoustic guitars. This is when the peacefull feeling is shattered, as dual electric guitars, pounding drums, and death metal vocals come out of nowhere to take you by surprise. As one sits and listens, the song bends, shifts, folds, changes, and defies any categorization. From pounding melodic death metal empassioned, jazz inflected vocals, to dual guitar prog breakdowns, this song encapsulates everything that Opeth is about. It is also these diverse dynamics that make their emotional impact so shattering. Sorrowful emotions actually make you want to cry (the all acoustic track Benighted) and the angry moments make you want to scream in rage (Serenity Painted Death).
Throughout the course of the 7 track Still Life, Opeth puts the listener through the emotional wringer. The song Benighted carries classically and jazz influenced acoustic patterns through a haze of gorgeous vocals and into a swirling, beautiful jazz-solo. This song alone has turned many of my non-metal listening friends on to this band. Many have even purchased the band’s entire back catalogue the very next day. If you have an open mind, and truly want to hear music that achieves the emotional and musical wallop that is so lacking in todays MTV, look no further than Opeth. And Still Life is the place to start