Not since the release of Tiamat's groundbreaking masterpiece Wildhoney in 1994 had the extreme metal scene witnessed such an overwhelming show of fan enthusiasm and uniform critical praise as that bestowed upon Blackwater Park, the astounding fifth effort from Swedish metal titans Opeth. A work of breathtaking creative breadth, Blackwater Park (named after an obscure German progressive rock outfit from the 1970s) keeps with Opeth's tradition by transcending the limits of death/black metal and repeatedly shattering the foundations of conventional songwriting, to boot. Rarely does a band manage to break new ground without losing touch with its roots, but Opeth has made a career of it - perhaps never as effortlessly as on this occasion…

Heritage, Opeth's tenth studio offering, finds the Swedish band abandoning death metal: no growled vocals, no blistering fast power riffs, no blastbeats. Mixed by Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) and engineered by Janne Hansson, Heritage is easily Opeth's most musically adventurous - and indulgent - recording. Written primarily by vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt, these ten songs are drenched in instrumental interludes, knotty key and chord changes, shifting time signatures, clean vocals, and a keyboard-heavy instrumentation that includes Mellotrons, Rhodes pianos, and Hammond organs - ironic since keyboardist Per Wiberg left the band after Heritage was completed. Opening with the title track, a haunting solo piano instrumental, it careens into the explosive "The Devil's Orchard," with spectacular, arpeggiatic guitar work by Fredrik Åkesson and matching drums by Martin Axenrot…

Stockholm's most unpredictable metallic sons Opeth have offered another step on their dark journey into the Maelstrom that combines progressive sonics, and acoustic and electric instrumentation, all the while extrapolating on their now-trademark brand of death metal. Stepping aside from the malevolent acoustic elegance of 2003's Damnation without abandoning the textural advances, Ghost Reveries is a tour de force of creativity, power, and innovation. Alternately melodic and brutal, the album takes the band's progressive acumen to a new level while never abandoning the crunch. Vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist Mikael Åkerfeldt has become a complete poet of the dark side…

Opeth's debut, Orchid, was quite an audacious release, a far-beyond-epic prog/death monstrosity exuding equal parts beauty and brutality - an album so brilliant, so navel-gazingly pretentious that, in retrospect, Opeth's future greatness was a foregone conclusion. Fact is, these Swedes - with the opening cut, "In Mist She Was Standing," exceeding the 14-minute mark - laid their cards on the table at the beginning of the hand and still took the pot, so ambitious and convincing is the band's artistic vision. And while the record finds the group searching for the razor-sharp focus and prominent emotional hook put forth on the later, classic releases My Arms, Your Hearse, Still Life, and Blackwater Park, Orchid is still an exhilarating listen, with the band meshing double-time death tempos with bleak, frostbitten riffs and moodily expansive, jazz-influenced, melodic instrumental passages…

On their third album - and first to be released simultaneously in Europe and the U.S. - Opeth continue to refine their epic, progressive death metal style, replete with harmonized leads and acoustic passages. My Arms, Your Hearse flows logically from one composition to the next, and the mostly long songs have enough variation in texture and mood to hold the listener's interest fairly consistently.

While they have taken a different approach with each album, Opeth has a very distinct and instantly recognizable sound: somber, mysterious, and very serious. Their style falls at a meeting point between melodic Swedish death metal and '70s progressive rock, though without any of the technical busyness that description might imply. Morningrise is, as far as the metal scale goes, possibly their least heavy album; it also contains their longest songs - just five of them, ranging in length from ten to 20 minutes. The tracks all take their time developing, shifting back and forth from full-on metal sections (marked by distorted dual guitar riffs and growling vocals) to calm, acoustic guitar-based passages with more softly sung vocals…

Having taken their oppressive black metal symphonies to their furious zenith with their third effort, My Arms, Your Hearse, Sweden's Opeth began deconstructing their sound on 1999's brilliant Still Life. A logical next step in their evolution, the album finds the band re-examining their unlikely fusion of progressive rock and black metal to highlight the former while staying in touch with the latter. The result is a formidable splicing of harsh, often jagged guitar riffs with graceful melodies, and the increasing use of Mikael Åkerfeldt's "clean" vocals (alternated with his ever-present death growl). This tactic only serves to spotlight the quality of Åkerfeldt's lyrics (a rarity in extreme metal circles) and, in the tradition of prior efforts, Still Life is a full-fledged concept album, which, without going into unnecessary details, centers around a tale of unrequited love for a character called Melinda…

After album (or "observation," as the band likes to call them) number eight - Ghost Reveries - Opeth could have very easily coasted, merely rehashing their sound. Instead, they opted to challenge themselves and their listeners, creating an album that can - at times - expose its true nature and scope slowly and - at other times - be jarring, as if it were turning itself inside out. Opeth take chances that many bands in the same situation would be too scared to have a go at. It's hard to say if the recent membership changes affected bandleader Mikael Åkerfeldt's writing and production, or if he was enjoying his trip down classic rock (see: Deep Purple) lane. For whatever reason, Watershed is a new benchmark for Opeth…

When Opeth released Heritage in 2011 - the wonderfully indulgent, somewhat unfocused exercise in prog rock aesthetics - some longstanding fans were offended because the band had abandoned death metal. Truthfully, they had been exploring prog in fits and starts since 2005's Ghost Reveries. Pale Communion completes the transition, proving that Heritage was not only a next step, but a new beginning altogether. Vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt has obviously been listening to loads of prog in the interim - ELP's debut, Deep Purple's In Rock, early King Crimson and Eloy, National Health, U.K., Bill Bruford's early solo work, Pär Lindh, and even jazz fusion. Produced by the singer and mixed by Steven Wilson, Pale Communion states its ambitions outright…

After concluding their successful co-headline tour through North America, progressive metal legends Opeth finally release "In Cauda Venenum (Extended Edition)". This special edition, available on digipack, contains the English and Swedish versions of Opeth’s latest album "In Cauda Venenum" with new illustrations by internationally renowned Travis Smith in the booklet. In addition, there is also a third CD including 3 unreleased bonus tracks, both in English and Swedish…

The Devils Orchard (Live At Rock Hard Festival 2009) is a live gem an exclusive cd album that came with the September 2011 issue of the German Metal Hammer magazine. It has an advance copy of the album version (from Heritage) of The Devil’s Ochard, which was still a week or so from the albums release. The album clocks in at about an hour, making it as long as a full-length album. While the sound of the live recording is not quite as sharp as those of Opeth’s other live albums, it’s much better than bootleg quality, as this is basically an official release, although a very limited one. The physical cd is high-quality, with a beautiful cover and a booklet that opens up to a great two-panel photo of Opeth onstage at the 2009 Rock Hard Festival…

When Opeth released Heritage in 2011, they had completed the transformation from their death metal origins through progressive death metal in the early 2000s, to full-on prog rock that celebrated their love of Camel, Jethro Tull, ELP, and more. 2014's excellent Pale Communion furthered those notions as frontman and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt's own vision began to emerge. Sorceress is the third installment in this phase of the band's career, and while considerably different and more exploratory than its precursors, it also references Opeth's earlier efforts like Ghost Reveries and Blackwater Park, but goes further than either in its diversity.
Uncharacteristically, Åkerfeldt wrote the album quickly. He enlisted Tom Dalgety as co-producer (who also engineered and mixed) and Opeth recorded it in twelve days at Rockfield Studios in Wales…

While In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall may not be Opeth’s only live album, it’s certainly their classiest. Recorded at the famous London venue, the live album features the Swedish progressive death metal masters masterfully executing a nearly three-hour set. Most notable about the live set is that Opeth chose to kick it off by performing Blackwater Park, their artistic breakthrough, in its entirety. With an amazingly tight performance and a sparklingly clear recording, In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall is an easy addition for metal fans. If you’ve ever wanted to hear the quintessential death metal band at work live, it won’t get any more convenient than this.

Though Opeth have officially signed with Roadrunner, this double-live disc was released by former label Peaceville. This is welcome, because the band's first live offering, the DVD-only Lamentations: Live at Shepherd's Bush, was not able to focus on the first four recordings due to contractual problems. Apparently, this is worked out here, because all of the band's recordings are represented. That said, The Roundhouse Tapes, recorded at Camden Roundhouse, London, U.K., on November 9, 2006, is a double-disc set that captures this mighty band at their very best. The tour that Opeth undertook in support of Ghost Reveries was 18 months long; it began in June of 2005, and ended December 2006. They played 210 shows during that time. Given that this gig was near the end of the tour, it showcases the band at the zenith of their live powers…

In interviews before the release of In Cauda Venenum, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Opeth's vocalist, guitarist, and chief songwriter, stated that "heaviness" was an aesthetic rather than a sound, to explain why he had abandoned death metal. Beginning with 2011's Heritage, Opeth made a conscious shift toward progressive rock that has, as evidenced here, become pervasive. This set is their first to be issued in English and Swedish editions. Sonically and musically, the album contains musical and production traits already evident on Heritage and Sorceress – and to a lesser degree, on Pale Communion - as organs, synths, Mellotron, acoustic guitars, syncopated rhythms, strings, choirs, and key changes are crafted into the band's two-guitar-bass-drum attack…