one of my long-time favourite bands is the swedish progressive death metal band opeth. (if measured by band t-shirts i possess, this is my absolutely favourite band.) over their existence – they had their 20th anniversary last year –, their sound shifted from a more “foggy forest” style to a more progressive one. in this post, i want to shed light on the older period, when they did their “famous melodic progressive forest death metal”, as someone fittingly called their style back then.

let me begin with one of my most favourite songs, under the weeping moon. its from their 1995 debut album, orchid. when i first listened to it, it reminded me a lot of the soundtrack of one of my favourite movies, dead man, which was done by neil young. and the first time i saw opeth live, which was 2005 in zürich, they played this song as well.

the second song is another song from orchid, called the apostle in triumph.

the third song is the night and the silent water from the 1996 morningrise album. a song about mikael åkerfeld‘s grandfather, being sick, and who died before the release of the album. this is another one of my favourite opeth songs.

the fourth song is the moor from the 1999 album still life, which is still one of my most favourite albums ever. not only the sound of this song is great, the interweaved melodies, which make you think you’re walking through a foggy moor, but also the twisted, complex lyrics, such as:

the sigh of summer upon my return
fifteen alike since I was here
bathed in deep fog, blurring my trail
snuffing the first morning rays
 
weary from what might have been ages
still calm with my mind at peace
would I prosper or fall, drain the past
the lapse of the moment took it’s turn

the fifth song is face of melinda from the same album. the album is a concept album, centered around the story of an outcast returning home to take his girlfriend with him. the girlfriend’s name is melinda (after whom mikael later named his first daughter). this song tells the part of the story where the storyteller meets melinda, and asks her to come with him. the first half of the song is rather calm, until it becomes more heavy, when he meets her:

i took her by the hand to say
all faith forever has been washed away
i returned for you in great dismay
come with me, far away to stay

the sixth song is from the blackwater park album, which was opeth‘s breakthrough. the song’s bleak; a dark, angry, powerful song, with beautiful and calm intermissions.

the last song is blackwater park, also from the blackwater park album. bleak and blackwater park are my favourite songs from this album, and some of my most favourite opeth songs. another powerful, fast song, featuring a wonderful calm instrumental part over 2 1/2 minutes long. (for other bands, this would be a full song. it’s good that opeth is not other bands…)

bolt thrower is a (in my opinion totally underrated) death metal band. being around for over twenty years, their name being a reference to the tabletop warhammer, they produced eight albums with always the same bolt thrower style. their sound was once described to me as like a freight train, crashing into a terminal station with full speed: they’re not that fast, but their impulse is so strong that they feel like steamroller rolling over you. lyrically they are centered around war and its consequences.

let me start with a track from their newest album, those once loyal, called the killchain. an incredibly goovy, powerful tune. its hard to not somehow start moving when listening to it, or even start headbanging.

for the rest of this post, i want to present one song of each of the four newest albums. let me begin with the 1994 album …for victory.

the next song is mercenary from the 1998 album mercenary. slower than the above two songs, but nonetheless powerful.

the fourth track is 7th offensive from the 2001 album honour – valour – pride.

finally, the last piece is those once loyal from their 2005 album those once loyal:

to those once loyal now wreathed in crimson
solemn reminder of silent sacrifice
to the once loyal forever wrapped in glory
in white crossed acres – lines of sorrow laid

arena is a british progressive rock band i saw live in 2007. here, i want to present four songs from their albums contagion and pepper’s ghost. the first song is never ending night from the 2003 album contagion. its a calm song, already displaying one big feature of arena: beautiful and catchy melodies.

the second song, riding the tide, is an instrumental song from the same album.

the pepper’s ghost album is a concept album, telling a story of five heroes in 19th century london. bedlam fayre is the opener:

the album is ended by a 13 minute song called opera fanatica, including some opera elements. this is one of my favourite arena songs.

enslaved is a norwegian black metal band, fonded 1991, which eventually shifted more in the direction of progressive metal. let me begin with a track from their 2001 album monumension. this track, hollow inside, is mostly calm, more like progressive rock, until during the second half, a louder passage appears.

the next two tracks are from their album isa. these two tracks make the album my favourite one from enslaved, and i prefer to listen to them both in a row. (unfortuantely, i didn’t find a video on youtube playing them right after each other. too bad.) the title song, isa, is full of power, with some progressive aspects, while the second song, ascension, reverses this relation. especially the last 2 1/2 minutes of ascension are just amazing.

(and yes, i already raved about ascension several times on spielwiese.) the next song is from their 2006 album ruun, and the one following after that from their 2008 album vertebrae. both are good examples of enslaved songs intertwining black metal with nice progressive parts.

the last (metal) track i want to present is the opener from their newest album, axioma ethica odini. there was a fan video contest for this song, and the below video is the winner of this contest. the song itself

finally, here’s a bonus track from the monumension album. a true piece of viking “metal”. this is more like it would have sounded back then, than most other songs categorized as “viking metal”. calm music, a background choir, sung in old norse.

today i want to cover parts of the gathering‘s musical history, stretching from their breakthrough album mandylion to the release if_then_else. i used the title “a noise severe” since this is also the name of one of their live dvds, featuring their heavier side.
the first song of the gathering which caught my attention was leaves, which i already presented on spielwiese. it appeared on the mandylion album, which was the first the gathering release with their new singer anneke van giersbergen. leaves is my favourite song from that album (even from all their albums). the album contains many great songs, so it was not easy to decide for another one. in the end, i choose two. the first is sand & mercury, a more heavy tune:

the second is mandylion, an instrumental tune:

their next release was nighttime birds, of which the title track on most surfaces is my favourite piece. its style is similar to the heavier side of the mandylion album.

the next album was very different to the albums released before. very experimental, very progressive, much less metal. it came on two cds, the title track how to measure a planet? filling up 28 minutes of the second cd. a more catchy tune from that album is liberty bell, which comes with a music video:

the last two songs i want to present are from the if_then_else album, released 2000. the first is beautiful war, a nice instrumental track featuring trumpets instead of the usual keyboard.

the last song is saturnine, about someone being left alone. this song made me buy the album; in fact, it was the second i knew after mandylion.