Almost 30 years ago, 4 young Swedes get together in Finspång to make music.
The result is Orchid, the debut album of none other than Opeth.

Opeth does progressive death metal, so wiki says. Seems right that a 14 minute track opens their career and also my #Opeth #Metaljourney

🎵 In Mist She Was Standing
💿 Orchid, 1995
▶️ https://song.link/y/msYuFVnhKMg

2/n

4 songs in and I am starting to think that this #Metaljourney might have been a good idea.

Much love for the guitars! 🎸🎸

🎵 Forest Of October by #Opeth
💿 Orchid, 1995
▶️ https://song.link/y/2vYHZxHyOcY

3/n

I planned to adapt my rating system for some time now and this #Metaljourney might be a good occasion to test it out.

I am now going for a 10 point system. Also, I am moving away from reserving a full star rating for perfect albums. Perfect albums will get 11.

Now what does this mean for Opeth's Orchid?

It means this:

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑️🌑️

Orchid is surprisingly balanced considering all the styles they blended together. The guitars really stood out, there was hadbanging. Very proggy, very deathy, very good!

Best song on the album: Forest of October

https://album.link/y/OLAK5uy_n9NSQ72p75EjTI1HLTLixAjET4xNB0mR0

#Opeth Ranking:

1. Orchid 8

4/n

Continuing my #Opeth #Metaljourney

Advent is starting in 6 days and Advent is opening Morningrise, Opeth's sophomore release.

My immediate thoughts: I don't like the bass and I don't like the vocals. Now the riffs, the riffs are more to my taste! 🍷

🎵 Advent
💿 Morningrise
▶️ https://song.link/y/UimBg1IVAQI

(But seriously, that bass? What was going on there?)

5/n

Can Morningrise keep up with its Orchid?

No. And it is not even close.

Let's start with the positives: the album is a bit more jazzy, I like the tempo changes, I love the guitars and the harmonies.

So what do I have to whine about?

First, it lacks punch, it sounds flat. I did listen to the remastered version and I expected much more. Second: the bass sounds horrible. Third: the vocals sound forced. And it is too long.

Fix that and you have a masterpiece. Like this, best I can do is:

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🤍🤍🤍🤍

Best song: To Bid You Farewell

#Opeth #Metaljourney ranking:

1. Orchid 8
2. Morningrise 6

https://album.link/y/OLAK5uy_lG_ySbEEfiI9d8kLSQWtWXi7CX-NeFr18

Edit: downgraded to a 6

6/n

7/n

What a lovely morning for the next Opeth album on my #Metaljourney

Next up is "My Arms, Your Hearse" from 1998. What immediately catches my eye is that it is a bit shorter and there's no song beyond the 10 minute mark.

Good, because I felt like Morningrise felt unnecessarily drawn out.

At this exact moment I am blown away by the opener:

🎵 April Ethereal by #Opeth
💿 My Arms, Your Hearse, 1998
▶️ https://song.link/y/C74cRJy1NNs

...keep on doing stuff like this, and we'll become good friends!

8/n

That's some interesting personell. Photography must be very important for Opeth's work.

Also: the only person I know is Mikael Åkerfeldt a.k.a. one of Ghost's guitarists.

Seems like Opeth is rather a one man show? 🤔

Also: 2 songs into My Arms, Your Hearse and I think I can stop. We have a winner.

#Opeth #Metaljourney

8/n

My Arms, Your Hearse.
Well, holy shit.
That's a 10.

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Seriously, what did they do? This sounds so much better than everything they did before. The production is much much better, the vocals are much much better. They elevated everything to higher spheres.

All hail Opeth!

#Opeth #Metaljourney Ranking:

1. My Arms, Your Hearse 10
2. Orchid 8
3. Morningrise 6

🎵 Karma
💿 My Arms, Your Hearse
▶️ https://song.link/y/Os_1yII7xKg

9/n

Next up on my #Opeth #Metaljourney is their 1999 release "Still Life".

And it begins very much like the last album ended. Absolutelty facemelting beautifully brutally brilliant.

This is ticking all my boxes🤘

🎵 Godhead's Lament
💿 Still Life, 1999
▶️ https://song.link/y/OY4oy4snMsg

10/n

So "Still Life", huh?

☑️ facemelting riffs
☑️ harsh and clean vocals
☑️ melodic but not symphonic
☑️ catchy but not cheesy
☑️ complex but not overengineered
☑️ fast parts
☑️ slow parts
☑️ facemelting riffs

...that's all my boxes when it comes to metal and as you can see, all of them have been checked.

🔟 out of 🔟

Best song: whole album.

#Opeth #Metaljourney Ranking:

1. My Arms, Your Hearse 10
2. Still Life 10
3. Orchid 8
4. Morningrise 6

https://album.link/y/OLAK5uy_kg_wGHA_19yp27nBWq85lu8F1xWqOO7fo

11/n

Producer: Opeth, Steven Wilson

Next up on my #Metaljourney is the big one: Blackwater Park.

🎵 Bleak by #Opeth
💿 Blackwater Park, 2001
▶️ https://song.link/at/i/363715810

12/n

Blackwater Park is big. Blackwater Park is grand. It is more melodic compared to My Arms, Your Hearse and Still Life. The edges are smothened, it really shines in perfection.

Nobody in their right mind wouldn't rate this a 10.

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜ (9/10)

It is just a little too perfect for me.

#Opeth #Metaljourney Ranking:

1. My Arms, Your Hearse 10
2. Still Life 10
3. Blackwater Park 9
4. Orchid 8
5. Morningrise 6

🎵 Blackwater Park by Opeth
💿 Blackwater Park, 2001
▶️ https://song.link/y/2w_vYwrn4lc

13/n

For #MittwochMetalMix I nominate the title track of my next album on my #Opeth #Metaljourney

🎵 Deliverance by Opeth
💿 Deliverance, 2002
▶️ https://song.link/y/pWrg5aZKIa8

Mikael's growls never sounded this brutal. But also I can hear some almost classic prog rock bits and pieces.

14/n

On Deliverance Opeth manage to make things more brutal while slowing down at the same time.
Mikael's growls are bone shattering.
On the other hand, there are more proggy elements again.

Now I don't know much about Opeth but I do know that they changed their style throughout their career and something tells me that the next album will be more on the prog-rock side.

Deliverance is another really good album:

📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀💿💿

#Opeth #Metaljourney Ranking:
1. My Arms, Your Hearse 10
2. Still Life 10
3. Blackwater Park 9
4. Orchid 8
5. Deliverance 8
6. Morningrise 6

🎵 By the Pain I See in Others
💿 Deliverance, 2002
▶️ https://song.link/y/dFiVZ6CTFpU

15/n

Deliverance/Damnation was supposed to be a double album with two very different sides. The record company said no, so we got two separate and very different albums instead.

I know that things would change, but I didn't think that it would be this drastic.

And I absolutely love it. I bet most of the fans hated it initially, because this is not what you expect after a very brutal Deliverance.

🎵 Death Whispered a Lullaby by #Opeth
💿 Damnation, 2003
▶️ https://song.link/y/9f0zPPBCwko

I love this #Metaljourney 🤘

16/n

And just like that, #Damnation was over.

For some reason I had to think of Foo Fighter's "In Your Honor" double LP, which also had two very different sides. But comparing FF to #Opeth feels very wrong.

Releasing an album like that is a bold move given the history of the band. But it also makes sense I guess.

I really liked it, but it's really difficult to compare albums that are so different.

Regardles, it's a great album!

🌝🌝🌝🌝🌝🌝🌝🌝🌚🌚

...and I'd prefer it over Deliverance.

#Metaljourney Ranking:
1. My Arms, Your Hearse 10
2. Still Life 10
3. Blackwater Park 9
4. Orchid 8
5. Damnation 8
6. Deliverance 8
7. Morningrise 6

https://album.link/y/OLAK5uy_nMoBdm6HssFJ37J4_D4aDwQCkrMpnd_yI

17/n

Next up on my #Opeth #Metaljourney is Ghost Reveries.

Sounds like they are uniting what they devided on Deliverance/Damnation again.

🎵 The Baying of the Hounds by Opeth
💿 Ghost Reveries, 2005
▶️ https://song.link/y/kHdTlfuSuN8

18/n

Opeth manage to make me question my personality.

Faith devides us, death unites us.

On Ghost Reveries #Opeth unite prog death metal and progressive rock, the things they have seperated with surgical precision on Deliverance/Damnation.

And of course what they did was a masterpiece. And yet I cannot give it a full score.

🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏳️

Why don't I fully understand this album?
Am I a simple man after all?

#Metaljourney Ranking:
1. My Arms, Your Hearse 10
2. Still Life 10
3. Blackwater Park 9
4. Ghost Reveries 9
5. Orchid 8 (downgraded to restore balance)
6. Damnation 8
7. Deliverance 8
8. Morningrise 6

https://album.link/y/OLAK5uy_kqQKBsAxjjCLHaZM0HsxpBWRgjEKBzqnQ

19/n

I think I got it, oh I think I got it!

Listening to Watershed on my way to the office the penny dropped.

This and Ghost Reveries are epics, operas if you will. It's not just randomly put together elements of prog and death metal, these are soundtracks to stories they are telling.

Great stuff that needs time to digest, which I didn't have yet:

🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧟🧟

Best song: Hessian Peel

#Opeth #Metaljourney Ranking:
1. My Arms, Your Hearse 10
2. Still Life 10
3. Blackwater Park 9
4. Ghost Reveries 9
5. #Watershed 8
6. Orchid 8 (downgraded to restore balance)
7. Damnation 8
8. Deliverance 8
9. Morningrise 6

https://song.link/at/i/277847430

20/n

Continuing my Opeth #Metaljourney with Heritage, the 10th studio album of these magnificent Swedes.

It sounds like they had Deep Purple for breakfeast, Uriah Heep for lunch and Rush for dinner when they entered the recording studio.

If you followed my previous metal journeys, you know that I am all in for that!

🎵 The Devil's Orchard by #Opeth
💿 Heritage, 2011
▶️ https://song.link/y/cl_N5UA-QMo

21/n

What an amazing piece of progressive rock Heritage is. I bet this was really controversial among fans, but to some degree I think it was forseeable that Opeth will pull off a successor to Damnation. But Heritage was better than Damnation:

💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💥

I want more of this, please!

Best song: The Lines in My Hand
▶️ https://song.link/y/t0U4bcF17s0

#Opeth #Metaljourney Ranking:
1. My Arms, Your Hearse 10
2. Still Life 10
3. Blackwater Park 9
4. #Heritage 9
5. Ghost Reveries 9
6. Watershed 8
7. Orchid 8
8. Damnation 8
9. Deliverance 8
10. Morningrise 6

22/n

Pale Communion opens almost exactly like Heritage. On song 2 though, they add a little bit of Led Zeppelin.

Dear lord that's great! Can anyone tell me why exactly these albums are controversial?

🎵 Cusp of Eternity by Opeth
💿 Pale Communion, 2024
▶️ https://song.link/y/wAOgvzxBqOE

#Opeth #Metaljourney