after writing about opeth’s forest era, i want to write about their recent albums, starting with deliverance. let me begin with their progressive rock side (i.e. no metal! for all of you who don’t like metal), with the song coil from their newest album watershed. a very untypical opeth song, very easy to listen to, yet beautiful.

the second song is from their 2003 album damnation, which is closely linked to the 2002 album deliverance. both albums were recorded at the same time; while deliverance features mostly heavy songs, damnation is a progressive rock album. to rid the disease is my most favourite song from the damnation album.

the third song is from the 2005 ghost reveries album. it’s a very beautiful instrumental progressive rock piece. somewhat spacey.

the fourth song is a balad from the deliverance album. the first song today which includes heavy parts.

the next song is also from their newest album watershed (which, not surprisingly, did very well on the charts especially in scandinavian countries). a very progressive, complex song, with some surprises.

the sixth song, the lotus eater, is also from watershed. if i recall correctly, it was the first song officially released before the album. a very nice piece of progressive metal.

the seventh song is ghost reveries, the opener of the ghost reveries album. another beautiful progressive metal piece.

the last song is deliverance from the album deliverance. a wonderful piece of progressive death metal, with a very interesting ending starting at 9:38. i once heard a rumor that the strange drum patterns for the ending appeared while fooling around with a drum computer, and in consequence opeth‘s drummer had to learn how to play this.

deliverance
thrown back at me
 
deliverance
laughing at me

if you like something heavier, you can try wreath, another song from the deliverance album.

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

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.

a very influential project is nine inch nails, founded and mainly driven by trent reznor. i first stumbled about nin when listening to a video called last poet, using the song hurt from nin‘s the downward spiral album. that song made me buy that album, and i already dedicated two posts on spielwiese to the song hurt. another famous song from that album is closer, coming with a rather disturbing music video:

another song i want to present is the hand that feeds from the album with teeth.

another awesome song from that album is besides you in time, which i already presented on spielwiese. another example for the more rocky side of nin is discipline from their newest album the slip, released in 2008.

besides rock songs, there are also very different nin songs. one example is the 7:33 minutes instrumental corona radiata (some speculations about the meaning of the title can be found here). it’s a track best listened to loud.

(remember to turn the volume down again.) the album the slip can be downloaded from its official site.

a very astonishing release by nin is the ghosts i–iv album. 36 tracks, created in a process of improvisation and experimentation. combined with the beautiful booklet, this piece of art is my favourite nin album (next to the downward spiral). i want to present four tracks from the album. the first is 2 ghosts i, a slow piano oriented piece.

the second is 12 ghosts ii. starting slow and calm, as the above track, it evolves into something more powerful after approximately half of the time.

the third is 14 ghosts ii, an impulsive, funky tune. hard to describe.

the fourth is 32 ghosts iv is centered around a single piano key, rythmically played. somewhat mesmerizing.

ghosts i can be downloaded for free on the ghosts homepage; you need to go to the order page and select the free version.