Watching this live stream: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/opeth/sonisphere/ (click fast gogogo)

His clean singing sounds great, but his growls sound like he has a chest cold or something. I also saw a recent video of him with BLoodbath and he sounded like one of the guys from Entombed or something.

And then consider that the upcoming album is going to be all light rock?

Ahem.

Fuck this fucking band.

Yeah... from what I understand, Roadrunner made him quit smoking (notice the vocal change from Damnation/Deliverance to Ghost Reveries?) and his growl was actually helped by his smoking. Quitting smoking made his clean vocals better/stronger, and murdered his growl.

I recall hearing Deep Purple, Maiden, Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Crimson and the like referenced? Not death metal; more a '70s heavy prog rock thing, not nearly as mellow as Damnation. Though as far as I'm concerned, they could keep releasing mellow albums like Damnation and I'd still dig 'em. One of the few metal bands that I feel works just fine as a not-metal band.

Mikael does or did have a hellacious DM growl, but the band itself is hardly the br00tziest of br00tz; they, certainly by Blackwater Park, were more about mood and atmosphere anyhow. (Though live I felt they were noticeably heavier on the Watershed tour than on the Deliverance tour; I chalk that up to the drummer.) I'd actually like to hear him use the lower register of his singing voice on record more; he tends to sing a fair bit higher on record, and either cover the low part of his harmonies or transpose down live.

The metal aspect of what they do, while cool when they're in that mode, is a distant third at least to the mood of the noise they make and their generally nifty playing as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah I don't listen to Opeth for the growls anyway, though growling along with Mike is what taught me my growl, which is why I sound kind of like him.


One of these days I'll actually record some vocals.

Go for it.

As an aside, I'm interested in how this is gonna sound, like, the actual sound of it. Steven Wilson producing, of course, and Jens Bogren engineering, as per the last few (which sound lovely; the acoustics on Watershed are the best sounding acoustics I've heard on a metal record). But Mr. Wilson mixed this one as well; I've always liked his mixes, so I'm curious to hear what comes of this pairing. I expect an awesome snare sound and Martin Mendez even higher/clearer in the mix than usual, at the very least. Also, I wonder if Mikael used the on the record for amp modeling, not just effects, and if so, where? It's not as if he or Steven Wilson is opposed to modelers by any stretch.

Since I know there's a few fans on here: an issue of TapeOp a while back told me Steven Wilson did surround mixes for the entire King Crimson back catalog. Now who here has a surround system?

I have no surround system.

I haven't had a use for one since I got burnt out on movies in 5.1.

Y U NO LIEK?

I've understood about eight words in this thread.

These?

I feel like there is considerably less of a gap between a band like Opeth and one like Dream Theater, than is generally implied.

Immensely talented members, but combined, they make a sound that i find wildly rotten.

I can see the Dream Theater comparison with their newer stuff, basically anything after Blackwater Park, but there is something very very special to me about their music up to BP.

Quadraphonic sound was pretty neat...