bunkaroo

New album was originally scheduled for June but pushed back to August.

Track listing:

1. Eternal Rains Will Come
2. Cusp of Eternity
3. Moon Above, Sun Below
4. Elysian Woes
5. Goblin
6. River
7. Voice of Treason
8. Faith in Others

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beavis69

Can't wait for this one, was really bummed they pushed it back. I don't care if there's no growling, I was in the minority it seems and liked Heritage.

bunkaroo

Heritage grew on me but I liked it right away anyway. I just didn't care for the sound of it - too lo-fi.

This one sounds a lot better to me.

joeblow69

I used to think the opeth guy had a great singing voice, when it was only little snippets here and there between all the growls. I don't believe it's strong enough to fill a whole album. I couldn't make it very far into this song. His voice just has this pretentiousness to it now, that just irks me.

bunkaroo

So this one is "out there" now.

First listen impression: it's basically a more focused continuation of Heritage. "Cusp of Eternity" is probably the strongest track so I'm not surprised it's the one that was pre-released. I liked "Voice of Treason" a lot on first listen, same with "Faith in Others". The rest will take some time to gel for me, like Heritage did.

They've pretty much morphed into a prog rock band now. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do miss the pre-Heritage Opeth.

islandclaws

I'll have to seek this out. Already got my pre-order in for the LE vinyl set, but I'm very curious to hear this one now.

I agree that prog-Opeth isn't a bad thing, but Mikael has the most unholy growl of anyone working in metal today, so to have it go unused is a bit disappointing.

beavis69

Gotta give it a couple of more listens, but for the most part I like it. Moon Above, Sun Below should have been edited some. The first 6:20 is pretty good, but the rest drags. Also I could do without the instrumental track. The River is one of my favorite slower songs they have done. It stars out almost like a southern rock ballad.

bunkaroo

Yeah the instrumental "Goblin" is one Mikael talked about a lot in interviews - basically his homage to the band Goblin. I was expecting more from it.

wmermine

So there is a stream of this thing on YouTube.

Honestly, after listening to it twice, it sounds like a Phish album.

I canceled my vinyl pre-order, but judge for yourselves.

bunkaroo

I think there's just too much of that "organ" sound. A little goes a long way towards a retro vibe. Too much, and you just sound dated.

wmermine

There is a lot of organ. The guitar aspects are good but repetitive. The vocals are fine, and they are a little more varied than Heritage.

Overall, it's just so boring.

I want to add this: I went into the second listen trying to listen as if I knew nothing about Opeth. Is this an objectively good album? I just don't think so. My first impression was that it's a moderately decent bluesy chill out album. On second listen, I picked up the strong smell of Phish. But maybe that's just me!

bunkaroo

My initial impressions still stand. I'm not connecting with a lot of this - the last two tracks seem to be the most interesting along with the first "single".

I read somewhere that Mikael said if he does another heavy Opeth record it will 100% death metal. That to me seems to miss the point of what made Opeth so great - the brutality paired with the beauty.

dvduser6

Glad they streamed this. I typically would blind buy anything with Opeth on it, but after "Heritage" m mind has been changed. They are certainly capable of putting out a mellow album and having all the necessary elements that make them "Opeth". "Damnation" certainly proved that. So much of the material on these last two albums sounds a little aimless and wandering. A real shame as I know they can certainly do better than this. I'll be skipping this one for now...

Josh-da-man

I hate to say it, but I think Opeth really peaked from "Blackwater Park" to "Watershed."

Now they're just too goddamned proggy.

wmermine

I agree with your first statement.

As to your second, I don't think they're proggy enough these days. I guess prog is in the eye of the beholder!

islandclaws

My deluxe edition arrived today. Me, being a moron, didn't notice the album wasn't included on vinyl. I just made an assumption because the phot showed so much damn vinyl in it. Turns out, it's three 7" singles with the album on CD and a Blu-ray with some enhanced audio. Oh well, whatever. It's a nice little package at least.

bunkaroo

I've given this like 6-7 spins now, and I still cant latch on to much on it. I really like "Cusp of Eternity" but everything else seems devoid of passion. Even Heritage grabbed me more after this many listens. I've come to like that record a lot, warts and all. This one - I'm not sure it will happen.

bunkaroo

I think I would include Still Life in that range, but otherwise, yeah you're spot on.

I loved Steven Wilson's influence on Blackwater Park and Deliverance/Damnation, but now I feel like Mikael is trying too hard to mimic the stuff Wilson is doing with his solo project, which is light years ahead of this as far "prog" goes.

dvduser6

I was in Best Buy Tuesday night for a totally different reason and this was staring at me on the shelf so I decided to pick it up anyway. I listened to it in the car this morning since I had an hour drive. I'm warming up to it. Listening to a stream on my computer without decent speakers versus a quiet ride in the car to immerse yourself really changes your perspective. Still not sure if I will end up liking this more or less than Heritage. It is definitely a continuation of that album, but I'll see if my opinion changes after a couple of weeks.

BasementArt

Morningrise and MAYH were always my favorites.