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…)

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.

some years ago, while browsing my back then favourite cd shop, i stumbled about an album by a band called capricorns, having the somewhat strange name river, bear your bones, with songs such as broken coffin of the venerable king. when trying to look at the lyrics to see what they are writing about, i noticed that there are no lyrics. so i tried that album out, and was greeted by a 30 seconds beep, which then evolutes into a nice instrumental rockscape. i enjoyed it so much that i bought the whole album. here’s the first track:

the second piece i want to present is a song from their debut album, called comrades in tears. this one comes with a nice video with many time lapses:

the first post in this new project features the italian gothic metal band lacuna coil, featuring the two vocalists cristina scabbia and andrea ferro. most of their songs are very melodic, often powerful, featuring a beautiful mix of female and male vocals. the first song i want to present is fragments of faith from their 2008 album karmacode, my favourite lacuna coil album. a powerful song with a beautiful melody:

as a contrast, here’s a slower, also very beautiful piece from the 1999 album in a reverie. this is one of the songs which really fascinated me and caught my interest in the band:

finally, here’s a music video for the karmacode album song within me, which has a more typical tempo for lacuna coil songs:

note that their style changed a bit over the years, as for so many bands. while i really like the development leading to karmacode, i don’t like their newest album shallow life that much, though it’s still very good.