Really looking forward to the release as well..

TURN IT UP OPETH!

One thing that's interesting though, however, is the lack of death metal guttural growling that Mikael Akerfeldt has become so famous for (he has some of the darkest, bitterest growls on the planet, imo).

Damn it.. Akerfeldt's growling is simply amazing. Still.. heres hoping the album is just as awesome as the rest.

oh, forgot to get this last night when i got home.. gotta make a reminder for tonight :b opeth delivers, and the bunch of haters at blabbermouth kinda loved it ^^

awesome.. åkerfeldt! \o/

Never heard of them. Are they as good as Godsmack?

you wont of heard of them, metal is banned in iceland - it melts the lil igloos :''((((((

Like dentistry in England then.

huuuurrrr

it melts englands dentistry?

Sure why not.

already did, a long long time ago..

you'll upset drew

I like both Godsmack and Opeth but they sound very different from one another, not really comparable in my opinion.

I was joking about Godsmack. You're actually serious?

Sorry. BTW I like both AIC/Godsmack as well, even though Godsmack was just an AIC cover band at first.

I hope that's sarcasm because Godsmack is just a horrible band ripping off Alice in Chains. Speaking of which, Opeth is supposed to release a cover of the song Would? by AIC.

Pretty obvious troll tbh.

you're ascended m8

Both songs kick ass. I love it.

I think this will be one of the few metal albums this year where the majority isn't like:

a) bla bla bla they sell out
b) bla bla nu metal lol
c) The last good album was colony

it competes with meshuggah's "obZen" for best metal album of the year (so far) for me atleast.. in flames is meh :\

can't stand growling/screaming. except in a very few cases, it just sounds stupid

japp. x[[[

it's definitely an acquired taste. And that's something metalheads can be proud of. Not just anyone can listen to extreme metal and enjoy it or take something away from it. But an extreme metal fan is more than likely someone who enjoys all music *and* extreme music. They've got a much broader palate for enjoying music... at least, that's from my experience of myself and with other metalheads I know.

Opeth was one of the very first 'true growl' bands that I got into. Mikael's growl is so full of venom and hate and pain that you really feel the music rather than start thinking, "why is this guy trying to sound like the cookie monster?"

Opeth, In Flames (old), and At The Gates were the bands that got me started down the road of growl-enjoyment.

Opeth, At the Gates for me too! (how cool are we?)

But an extreme metal fan is more than likely someone who enjoys all music *and* extreme music.

Surely you can say that about any specialized genre of music. I, for example, like dubstep, and its an aquired taste, but I also enjoy all music, as its a huge part of my life, as I'm sure it is for many. Don't think you can put yourself above fans of other genres :)

I can't name another genre of music where people absolutely refuse to listen to it like metal. And I wasn't just talking about Opeth, I was talking about extreme metal in general.

Indeed the amount of times I hear people say "everything except metal" is unreal.

Burzum is extreme, Opeth is not :)

burzum = win

my first were mayhem, darkthrone and Marduk. and i were ~7 years old then. yay \o/ 12 years of glorious music been in now =)

Satan's child?

no o_O ?

Just joking, but aren't those bands like really satanic in their lyrical themes? That didn't affect you as a kid growing up?

no. i grew up just as normally as anyone normal have grown up. i mostly learned all that from my brother since he was quite a fan of thrash/heavy/black metal. ironicly and sadly he became christian at age of 20. (~1999)


and i mostly just liked bm back then because i just liked it. for lyrical content i started to explore when i was ~13

one of the very first metal bands (of all genres) that I listened to, when I was 13-14, was Cryptopsy's None So Vile, and then I moved on to Mayhem and Darkthrone shortly after.

Obviously, none of it affected me as a kid nor an adult. Kids' gotta be fucked up to begin with to let that shit affect them

Good point, I guess most of the lyrics might go right over the head of a youngster. It's hard no to be influenced by lyrics, though, especially if you revere your favorite artists like Gods.

plus you have to remember here most people can't understand the lyrics at age 13 anyway. And using a dictionary and possibly asking the teach would kinda ruin it :P

This reminds me of an American singing Rammstein lyrics to his buddy in school: "Hei-, Hei-, Heirate mich" :]

Nice, wasn't expecting much from a metal band these days, must say I'm pleasantly surprised.

The whole album is leaked on Waffles, and it is pretty damn awesome

Are you sure it's the whole album? I understood there was supposedly a cover of Would by Alice In Chains, yet the leaked version I found on the net exluded the 3 or 4 bonus tracks (which includes that AIC cover).

Well in that case, the album -coversongs is leaked :P

192 cbr. I'll wait for a proper v0 or v2 release tbh.

yeah i have it at 192 but even walter found it at 320.

this album is one of opeth's best in a long time, and it's one of the best albums ive heard so far of 2008. Arsis and Ihsahn being the other.

Seriously, go download Ihsahn's new album, it's possibly even better than Emperor

Slasher! GUH! Arsis' We Are The Nightmare?!I don't even know how to tolerate it... :-( You're dead to me, Slasher. Although, I will say that We Are The Nightmare > United In Regretably Bad (but that's not saying much since UIR ~ truck full of crap).

Gonna have to check out Ihsahn's album. Heard tons and tons of good stuff about it.

EDIT: Edit to spell 'Ihsahn' properly. :-P

woah there - what's wrong with with the new album!? United in Regret was pretty mediocre, but this is good stuff!

why don't you like it?

I'm a huge fan of ACoG and ADfD. I like the groovey drums and heavy, grinding riffage. But We Are The Nightmare has not only anti-melodic guitar riffs, but it also has this spastic drumming that doesn't sound good to me at all. I'm trying to tap my foot to the music and I'm thrown off by these off-beat, nonsense patterns that Cesca does. I know everyone talks about how technical he is... but Arsis was this Carcass-esque band with a technical flare and now it's like a cesspool of anti-melodic wankery. You can hear the genius in Arsis shine through at moments throughout the album, but it's always ruined by either James trying to do too much on guitar or Cesca trying to do too much on drums. I heard Cesca used 4 different types of snares for the album.

I get the impression that after the Summer Slaughter Tour that Arsis did with The Faceless and Necrophagist, that James kicked out Van Dyne (cause he's terrible live, tbh), and turned around and got the most technical American drummer he could get and set to writing music that draws off that California melo-grind-death style that The Faceless uses (with sporadic time changes and guitar melodies) and also the crisp sweep arpeggios that Necrophagist does. It sounds like James has taken his unique sound from the original ACoG/ADfD and thrown it away in favor of more sporadic and technical sound.

There are some good moments on WatN, but there's not a single song on the album that has me going all the way through. I get through parts of songs and then either the drums or the guitars do something that makes me cringe. WatN is definitely a step up from UiR, but Arsis definitely has way to go to refine their new sound before it does anything for me.

imo its not ;) but ihsahn is quite good still :) emperor = win

ewwww.

Hasselhoff makes a guest appearance on one track. Worth a listen mate.

i was one of those people who used to dislike opeth. i would laugh when ppl tried telling me how good they are...i just couldn't get into their cds. i am happy to say that watershed now made me fan. i have only listened to the cd 6-7 times and it seems to grow on me each listen.

I can understand how people get the impression that Opeth is a pretentious band with all the ravenously sycophantic fanboys that praise them all day.

I can't even really describe them to people who haven't heard of them, I end up using words like, "great", "crushing", "heavy", and "brutal". But to anyone that could mean a lot of different stuff. I guess they're like a stew of 70s prog-rock/folk, Black Sabbath-style doom, and Sweded melodic metal? I guess I'd just say they are 'classy metal'. :-P

nice shoes

Ha! Yeah, that was after work on a Saturday. I have a job where people can't see my feet so I just wore those. :-P

yay this green shoes are fkn awesome, i wish my converse could have the same color :D

Big Thanks for the lotus eaters link, I've been listening to it a dozen times and it gets better all the time!I can't wait for the album, I hope the final sound and style is in par with Ghostly Reveries.

Been listening to the leaked version a bit and I'll tell you right now that it sounds very much like Ghost Reveries. However, it has at times a very weird and experimental sound to it. There's some very odd guitar sounds (out-of-tune, spacey, ambient kinda stuff) and some effects on vocals. I think it's Steven Wilson's influence on Mikael that is where it's coming from.

Excellent, perhaps you'll imsg me when the album hits the shelves? I'm not as much up to date with releases aymore :)

June 2nd is the release of the album. I'm seeing them in concert June 1st, so hoping I can buy it and some merch the day before it releases in stores! $$$

The music video to Porcelain Hearts if you haven't seen it yet.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6BUuUw7i0k