The giants are back, in full swing! The chill and gooseflesh, the excitement, the tickle in the finger tips, the will to stand up and break into a wild dance - Until you drop. Akerfeldt the 'magician' has done it again. I am trying to pass to you the arc of feelings that overwhelmed me when I opened the brown envelope, within which lay the new Opeth promo cd. The excitement is not for the fact that I am married to the front man or something, but rather due to the fact that I am familiar with all of Opeth's former activities since its beginning, and definitely think that it is one of the very few crown jewels (As one surely knows, there isn't room for many diamonds in a crown). Well, this is Opeth's forth effort, and the first that sees light on the veteran Peaceville Records. The band left CandleLight Records, on which it had released its first three albums. The transfer from one Label to the next is not understood, maybe the band was offered more money (and then it is very understandable). Some say money corrupts, it may be so, but you could not throw it in Opeth's direction especially after listening to the wonderful release 'Still Life'. Prior to switching a record label, Opeth had also switched two totally - not - Swedish members (also appear on 'My arms, your hearse'): The drummer - Martin Lopez and the bass player - Martin Mendez, in addition to the original members, Mikael Akerfeldt (Vocals and guitars) and Mr., Lindgren (guitars). A short history: Opeth's first album 'Orchid' was released in 1995, after the much rumored demo recordings that spread by word of mouth, of one very talented underground group no one has heard of before. The rumor fell upon the ears of British label CandleLight, which immediately signed Opeth for the time being. The first long play album, 'Orchid', was recorded at Dan Swano's Unisound studios (Edge Of Sanity, Diabolical Masquerade...). Right from the beginning, Opeth's unique sound, melodies and song structures shone through, not only as great performers but also as much talented song writers. A combination of brutal vocals with clean singing, heavy and dark music accompanied with long acoustic parts. Their style was unique, and as the years passed by, they managed to maintain this originality without being boring for one second on each of their first three albums. Mikael Akerfeldt, the lead vocalist and leader of the band, is a very busy man; He participated in Edge Of Sanity's masterpiece 'Crimson', where he played guitar and contributed with his special sound of vocals additional dimension to the overall music. In addition, he took the part of the lead singer in Katatonia's mighty 'Brave murder day', that is considered to be one of the best metal albums ever recorded, not least due to his vocals on that great piece. On Katatonia's last two albums he also functioned as a "vocals producer", whatever that means. Told you, a busy guy. On Opeth's second album - 'Morningrise', the musical ideas from the first album had been polished, were given a better song structure and much more persistence. The tracks were more structurally comprehensive as for the developing plot and melodic stories, the acoustic parts were shorter and more straight-forward, the heavy parts were heavier and more in-your-face. With second album's growing power, Opeth came to its third album - "My arms, your hearse", which was the heaviest of the three. It is a concept-album, dealing with love and death (pretty like all the rest of their albums), in which first word of a song is the last word of the preceding one, while the last song's last word is the opening word of the whole album. A circular structure that incarnates the magic circle of life, love, death and life again. The melodic parts were almost gone, and sheer power of dark-death metal, the kind that only Opeth knows how to play, filled their third effort. The forth album - 'Still Life', is the opposite of that name; It's alive and kicking! and it is a step forward in all that concerns forceful, dark, emotional power. It's the perfect combination between their second and third album, but in an upgraded, amplified manner. They are more heavy than on "My arms...", more melodic than on "morningrise", technical, inventive, but one can easily identify that we are dealing with the greatest - Opeth. Akerfeldt is as usually great as a lead singer, one time aggressive as hell (reminiscent of David Vincent formerly from Morbid Angel), another time clear and soothing as a far away lake (Reminiscent of Dan Swano's singing on Godsend's 'As the shadows fall'). The production is exceptionally clear, non of the instruments is let down, great work of all persons involved in this piece of fine art. The album's 65 minutes only add to the value of this musical masterpiece.

© 2000 c. drishner