Opeth - Still Life
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Free Music Notes for Still Life
Free Music Review: Die Melinda!!
Hit: 5 Stars
Highly addictive....Opeth was recommended to me after I got hooked by Orphaned Land, both being epic and highly crafted metal. Opeth however, is one of the best bands I have ever came across. The lyrics and execution are just top notch...but beyond that, tHE art, the ability of the artist to drow you into the story, through the media of music...wow...music is so powerfull, it stay engraved in your mind long after you heard it, and you keep coming back for more. This is my favorite album among Opeth's discographie, but they are all absolutly amazing, i think even people who are not tuned into metal, would not overlook this masterpiece...life is so short, I'm gratefull for being able to listen to this music in this troubled world, to bad when I'll die I wouldn't be able too listen to this album again....Free Music Review: This is the one that got me into Opeth
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is a perfect example of what Opeth is: two extremes. The album has bone crushing metal, and some of the most beautiful classical inluenced passages you will here. This masterpiece starts out with "The Moor". This song is metal at it's best. "The Godhead's Lament" has some awesome riffs and the clean singing is awesome. "Benighted" is probably my favorite mellow Opeth tune. Mikael's vocals just sooth the savage beast. "Moonlapse Vertigo" is one of my top 5 favorite Opeth songs. The interplay between metal and mellow is awesome. I usually don't like the growls but they really fit in this song. "Face of Melinda" has no growls, just great metal and beautiful singing. The final two tracks are the typical Opeth metal tunes. This is one hell of an album. If you are looking for a good start for Opeth, Still Life is a good choice.Free Music Review: perfection
Hit: 5 Stars
In my opinion. Opeth's best album hands down which is hard to say since all of their albums are amazing, but there is something different about this album. Not only are all the songs catchy but the entire album tells a story. a "Concept Album" if you will. I'm not gonna go into details and make this review two pages long. But the story telling lyrics added to the songs is just mind boggling.Free Music Review: Very good, but not quite great
Hit: 4 Stars
Opeth's fourth album, 1999's "Still Life," was the group's first with bassist Martin Mendez, and also their most popular album (in terms of sales) among their first four releases. "Still Life" is similar to its predecessor, "My Arms, Your Hearse" (which was released only a year before this album), because it's a concept album. It tells the story of a man who returns home (after years of being gone), and searches for his loved one (who's referred to as Melinda). And though she is engaged to be married to another man, she is still in love with him. But even though this album is similar to "Hearse" in that regard, "Still Life" is also like Opeth's second album, "Morningrise," because the songs on here are so long. No, this record doesn't have any twenty minute songs, but every track is over five minutes long and most of them are over nine minutes. As with their first three discs, Opeth continue to perfect their traditional sound, here, by blending violent death metal with light, progressive rock elements. The result is an album with a very technical, creative, and bold contrast which allows both sides of Opeth to shine through equally as bright. Frontman Mikael Akerfeldt's vocals are stellar like usual, because he seamlessly jumps from mean, deep-voiced barks to calm, supple crooning. The two main highlights on here are the immensely-almost monstrously-heavy second track, "Godhead's Lament," and "Benighted," which is entirely soft and pretty, with lonely acoustic plunking. So, with all of the qualities that is has, the songs on this record are about as great as great can get. Unfortunately, as a whole, "Still Life" isn't a very far departure from Opeth's first three albums. It would take a very hardcore fan and well-trained ear to distinguish between songs like "Serenity Painted Death" and "White Cluster" (which are fairly typical tracks) and any song on "My Arms, Your Hearse." The epic, eleven and a half minute long album opener, "The Moor," is a prime example of most of the rest of the album. It begins slowly, with light, distant guitar strumming, and the acoustics enter around two minutes in. But the pounding electric guitar riffs come aboard soon thereafter, and the song stays heavy until about six minutes later (where there's a dreamy, acoustic breakdown). The power chords come back, however, about two and a half minutes later, and finish the song on a strong note. Some of the songs (like "Moonlapse Vertigo," which is a propulsive rocker with a surging guitar attack), should stay heavy and do without the soft breakdowns, and some of the songs (i.e. the stunningly beautiful, lightly strummed, and drearily sung fifth track, "Face of Melinda") would be better suited if they were completely soft. Unfortunately, it's usually (except for the aforementioned "Godhead's Lament" and "Benighted") just a matter of time before there's a heavy or soft tempo change. Knowing that most every song is going to have one of these breakdowns makes "Still Life" kind of predictable. But, because the listener never knows WHEN the sudden, breakneck tempo change is going to kick in, these songs are never boring. So, "Still Life" is very good, but not great. It's worth buying for the hardcore Opeth fan, and (since the songs are so great and a good representation of the band) it's also worth buying for newcomers. But if you're a casual fan, or a fan who can only hear the same album so many times, I still recommend you check this album out, but hear a few songs, first, before buying it.Free Music Review: Opeth's Finest
Hit: 5 Stars
With Still Life, Opeth treats listeners to one of the most intricate and complex albums in metal history. More impressively, Still Life is beautifully melancholic aggression in the form of song.
It all begins with an eerie and sparse intro. which literally explodes into one of the heaviest tracks Opeth has ever put on wax: The Moor. This opening opus is a perfect taste for what is to come, and at this time in Opeth's career, ushered in a new level of vocal and songwriting proficiency. When this song finally hits the verse section at the 3:30 mark, all hell breaks loose as Mikael unleashes the beast that has now become one of, if not the best death metal vocals in the business. As the song violently twists and turns through pulverizing riffs, drum blasts, and solos, Opeth integrates their trademark acoustic sections with a grace not present before, or replicated since.
In giving this album the edge over Blackwater Park, I think this very element, the seemingly impossible symbiosis of the distorted and clean sections, is indicative of what makes this the crowning achievement in Opeth's career thus far: the songwriting.
Instead of simply attaching clean and distorted passages together, Opeth splices them. The effect is often a haunting soundscape which can can unfold into more intensely quiet acoustic movements, or continue to emphasize the endlessly sustained distorted gutair melodies.
Matching the polarized quality of the instrumentation is a stunning juxtaposition of clean and death vocals. The clean vocals on "The Moor", "Godhead's Lament", and "Face of Melinda" are exquisite, and provide a perfect complement to the menacing growl so unmatched in contemporary metal. Unlike all other Opeth albums, Still Life also finds the vocal arrangements at their most natural. At times, it seems that Opeth songs make the vocal transitions out of habit/expectation. Like the integrated acoustic/heavy passages though, every vocal change on this album is methodically and effectively placed. On this masterpiece, the vocals match the mood, and not necessarily the intensity of the musical backdrop.
The result of this assiduous songwriting is a perfect collection of vivid tapestries, all telling their own stories, which, as stories mimic life, do not just lean on one emotion, but follow a progression of cause and effect. Each dark composition weaves together the mutually dependent feelings of melancholy, rage, despondency, isolation, betrayal, and regret. And while anyone who knows my opinion of Opeth knows that its ability to create palpable emotion is, in my opinion, what truly sets it apart from other metal bands, no other Opeth release can match the pathos of Still Life.
With Still Life, Opeth secured the place as my favorite band. A band of epic, progressive, and crushing proportions, Opeth exploited its assets to the absolute fullest on this release. Any fan of true metal, even those who do not tolerate death metal vocals, must hear this album. To hear Still Life is to witness the unavoidable change and progression of life. As should be the task of us all, Opeth has taken the accumulation of the greatness of the past to create an indelible and unparalleled mark upon the world which reflects a respect for the past, and the added ingredient of its own originality. Not only is Still Life Opeth's finest, but it's one of this music fan's top five albums of all time.