Opeth - Morningrise
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Free Music Notes for Morningrise
Free Music Review: A Masterpiece even by the standards of an Opeth fan
Hit: 5 Stars
The intensely pure emotional level this song invokes is best described as ecstasy. The album is a continuous roller-coaster of adrenaline and dopamines best enjoyed in a dimly lit room on high volume.Free Music Review: opeth.....
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the best album ever made. Yes I own all the other Opeth albums and lots and lots of other great music and I completely stand by my claim.
Free Music Review: An improvement over the debut
Hit: 4 Stars
This album is a marginal improvement over Opeth's very solid debut. Akerfeldt's voice sounds stronger, deeper, and he makes greater use of his melodic voice. The separate parts of the songs sound better blended together. At this point of Opeth's career, you can actually almost recognize the words growled out by Akerfeldt without reading the lyrics booklet. Advent (9/10): Some great riffs (of course, it's Opeth, after all). It's really quite amazing how they can go from one great riff to the next. Almost any other band would waste all their songwriting potential using as many good riffs in one song as Opeth uses, but they have not yet had a shortage of creativity on this front. The first acoustic section makes use of some really complicated timing, and seamlessly leads into another heavy section. There are parts where the transition between the heavy and the light is so beautiful that you have to take notice of it. Very few bands out there can do this so well. There is a lot more acoustic on this song than on the previous album, and it is a very good thing Opeth decided to go this road with their music.
Night and Silent Water (8/10): There's a (too?) short part right near the beginning which has both a heavy guitar and an acoustic playing at once. The effect is pretty cool. There's another awesome acoustic section towards the middle of the song. The ending whispering is very different, but it works.
Nectar (7/10): As far as I am concerned, the opening riff to this song is one of Opeth's classic 10 riffs. It just has this great, powerful, gallop to it. The rest of the song is decent, fairly standard Opeth fair. The change from the melodic section into the final riff will get you by surprise. An interesting fact about the finale riff is that you can clearly hear the bass guitar doing some funky stuff through the heavy guitars.
Blackrose Immortal (8/10): This is Opeth's longest song. It doesn't feel very long, but it is over 20 minutes. It goes back and forth and back an forth between heavy riffs and acoustic folk-like passages. In some ways it seems to ramble a bit, and the riffs at times feel artificially pasted together, but not enough to detract from it being a great song. This is especially noticeable at around 4:00 when there is a long bit of silence. The acoustic part which follows the silence is somber and beautiful, and riff which follows that is somber and crushing. There is also some nice basswork in parts of this song. Akerfeldt does some nice melodic vocals that are a good indicator of what is to come in later albums. The song finishes with THE best scream ever.
To Bid You Farewell (8/10): Morningrise starts the trend that Opeth will always have at least one song on every album that only has clean vocals. The use of acoustic guitars for most of this song is a great change from the mostly heavy previous song. This song is also the first one to feature one of Akerfeldt's absolutely stunning blues-influenced guitar solos. He's one of the best guitar players ever as far as I am concerned, but he doesn't show it much on the first couple albums. There's actually a bit of heavy guitar that picks up at just the right place. Akerfeldt does some harmony with other band members on the vocals after, which is another thing that occurs with more frequency later in the band's life. The final words of this song are the perfect thing to close the album.
Eternal Soul Torture (4/10): Skip it. It's basically just demo material for later songs. I don't consider it part of the album (it is a bonus track), so I don't weigh it in the rating of this album.
All in all, an improvement over the previous album. 8/10 average, or 4/5.
Free Music Review: A great album from a great band
Hit: 4 Stars
While there are quite a few who consider this album to be Opeth's best work I still feel that this one and their debut Orchid recieve far too little credit. Many Opeth fans are too busy raving about My Arms Your Hearse (not bad but it disappointed me a bit) or Blackwater Park (which I have yet to hear). Perhaps the reason is the difference in style. Both of these albums are less bleak and heavy, yet more sprawling and meandering. Especially on Orchid more so that this one, there is plenty of acoustic guitar, moreso than on some of their other stuff.So what does Morningrise sound like? Not an easy thing to describe, I'll say that. There are plenty of twin guitars, acoustic passages and an overall mixture of clean and death vocals. In fact, this doesn't really contain any more or any less of the factors that Opeth a famous for - put simply, the ever contrasting soundscape of soft and melodic to heavy and pounding (in a slow, gloomy, Opeth kind of way). The difference is in the overall sound itself. Firstly, the production isn't quite as crisp as later work, giving the guitars are rounder, lighter sound. Secondly, the production gives the music a sense of distance. Rather than being in-your-face, the sound seems to be calling you from behind, urging you to close your eyes and let you senses guide you.
It is important to note that this style is not one that Opeth would (or probably ever will) return to later in their career, and while the overall nature of Opeths music has remained the same over the years, they have found different ways of presenting it. I urge anyone looking for some epic, experimental rock music with equal doses of folk and extreme metal to buy this and Orchid as soon as possible.
Free Music Review: Far from weak, but not their best
Hit: 4 Stars
Maybe 3.5
I personally think that this album is slightly overrated. Most Opeth fans either go for this effort or Blackwater park as their finest hour, id honestly have to vote for the latter. Morningrise, Opeth's second studio album is still a great cd, but i can see what some reviewers mean when they say it drags on for too long in certain parts. There can be 2-3 minute sections which are almost completely monotonous, not a characteristic i expect from this band; more like something found in a post-rock catalog.
However, if you have any of Opeth's cds in your collection and you thouroughly enjoyed them by all means you have to pick this up. It is not a poor collaboration, i just think it's not all its cracked up to be.