Opeth

Opeth - Damnation

I'd like to relate a story to y'all of how I first got into Opeth. First, some scene-setting:

A 14 year old punk named John Montroy is sitting in front of his so-big-it-might-be-a-transformer monitor connected to his way-worse-than-he-thinks-it-is computer, most likely in his boxers with old dirty dishes scattered around him, and maybe a used tissue or something. His mother wanders in and out occasionally, throwing secretive and despairing glances at the youngest of her flock, hoping desperately for some indication that he is aware of things in the real world, like the woman who raised him. Receiving no such signal, she sighs softly and walks out. John sniffs loudly, probably picks his noise and continues staring at the screen.

This particular day, the screen is filled with LimeWire, that old derelict P2P program that was 95% a bad life decision. John is searching for new music, as he has just stumbled upon the "Metal" boards on IGN.com's forums. He has recently been given the blessing of Porcupine Tree, a band he enjoys to this day. Steven Wilson, front man of Porcupine Tree, has connections to this band called Opeth. John knows nothing of Opeth, and blissfully decides to download a couple tracks. Ignoring the tracks like "opeth band full download album" and "brittney spearz opeth sex" (because he's a cleeeever boy, and he'll save the second one for later), John downloads two tracks. The first is called "Death Whispered a Lullaby" off the album "Damnation", which instantly appeals to John's Final Fantasy / anime-oriented mindset of overly dramatic titles like that. The second is called April Ethereal, off the album My Arms, Your Hearse.

The track Death Whispered a Lullaby starts to play. John nods approvingly, while probably apathetically eating Cheetos off his chest. Sounds Spanish-y with the acoustic guitar...cool vocals too! This guy has a beautiful voice. The track finishes out, and John is close to being an Opeth fan.

He turns on April Ethereal. Pretty vocal chord fades in, but it's eerie. And then-

RRRRRIIITTTTT WAAAAS MEEEERRGHGHG, PEEERRRING THROOOOUGH THE LOOKING GLAHHHHHSSSSSRRRR

oh my god. control of bodily functions gone, cheetos spill everywhere. mother montroy rushes in to see what the hell that noise is, realizes it, is disgusted, and leaves.

seriously, what? the cookie monster just got poetic. either that, or someone is giving a chronic smoker a colonoscopy while the smoker reads lines from Shakespeare.

John would soon learn to understand the appeal of Shakespeare-reading cookie monsters, and Opeth would prove to be a gateway to all sorts of soul eviscerating vocals. But what of that first track? Well, it turns out that it comes off that album Damnation, which is an entirely acoustic, clean vocal album. And actually a bloody brilliant little album. A little dark, a little drowned in mellotron, but super pretty.

Give it a listen, yo. Just - you all have fair warning when you go to their other albums. Opeth is a (damn interesting and ambitious and atypical) death metal band first and foremost. But this album - it sounds like Nick Drake on a sad day. Which is good.

Download this album

pw: crossgenre