OPETH - BLACKWATER PARK 3LP

Opeth has meant a lot to me throughout the years. They were my high school darlings, the master craftsmen of heavy metal, and the first discography I ever fully owned (and consequently fell behind on after Sorceress bored me senseless). Now, I listen to their music once-a-year at most. Something about remembering every note before it plays kills the magic of a band, even one as capable as Opeth. Still, a cold November morning seems the perfect time to return to an old favorite and examine it anew, particularly since something has always seemed off about Blackwater Park to me. Unlike Still Life, My Arms, Your Hearse, or even the patchy Ghost Reveries, Blackwater Park never felt like a classic, which is strange, because, at this point, it is a seminal metal album. This review will be from the perspective of a long-time fan, and thus I speak about the band in ways that someone who really isn’t familiar with Opeth may not relate to easily. If you haven’t heard Blackwater Park, go listen to it, it’s pretty awesome. If you have, I want to talk about some things that have been bothering me from the first listen of this album up until now.

With so much already explored, the little teases of strange, unbarred ideas the band offers are the most tantalizing aspects of Blackwater Park after all these years. The increasing cacophony of noise looming behind the t/t as it roars into its final moments, Martin Mendez and his bass swelling over the mournful chords inaugurating “The Drapery Falls,” and the peppy solo piercing the gloom of “The Leper Affinity” add character to the atmospheric walls of death metal Opeth spend most of their time wallowing in. “Bleak” in particular stands above much of the material here. Like all of Opeth’s best songs, it uses unique passages, such as Mikael’s short, jazzy solo and the ferocious climax, to puncture and deflate purposefully repetitive song-structures. The four minutes of death metal that precede Steven Wilson’s first chorus build an eerie tension that perfectly complements a catchy hook, yet such songwriting tactics risk leaving anyone by the Bungliest of listeners wincing from whiplash. Thus, the simultaneous necessity for the muzak calm bridge to rejuvenate the listener and readjust their mood. Where we enter the first chorus from the paranoid and raging, the second chorus explodes from a heart-wrenching melody. The relentless violence of the final forty-five seconds feels earned by the deep grief preceding it, and perfectly compliments the emotional journey of the lyrics which, as far as I can tell, is about strangling a young woman over an affair.