Album #105: Opeth - Deliverance

Opeth
Deliverance (2002)

Scandinavia has long been a massive scene in the world of metal, arguably dominating the more abrasively extreme subgenres (death, black etc etc.) Swedish metallers Opeth, led by the indomitable Mikael Akerfeldt, have long been one of Sweden's finest metal exponents, combining elements of death metal with a more progressive bent.

In 2002, the group recorded two simultaneous albums, Damnation and Deliverance. The former (released second) focused more on the band's softer progressive side, while the latter was heavier and more in keeping with the band's aggressive progressive death style. Opeth are a band I have heard great things about, so grabbing an album that best represents their style as a starting point made sense.

I wasn't prepared for what lay within though.

The Album

Deliverance is dynamic, fluctuating, moody, ethereal, heavy, demonic, exciting and sorrowful all at once. As a collective, the strength of Opeth is in creating long, sprawling pieces of music that explore many peaks and troughs; shifts between aggressive death metal sections and acoustically-driven 'prog' sections are plentiful, and when the band shifts they shift everything...even the vocals.

As musicians, all four members are highly skilled. Akerfeldt is an extraordinary songwriter, vocalist and guitarist, shifting seamlessly from deathly growls to a clean, sweet vocal; he shares lead guitar duties here with Peter Lindgren, and because it's hard to tell who is playing which solo, it's easier just to say that they're both damn good. Drummer Martin Lopez plays double kick passages that sound terrific but are, to be fair, the minimum technical expectation for a death metal drummer...but he's clean, crisp and dynamic around the kit.

As for the songs on the album, well there's only six in its hour-long running time...and one of those, the beautiful, jazzy acoustic/electric only tune For Absent Friends contributes all of 2.40 of those sixty minutes. The other tracks are all in excess of ten minutes, and not a single one of them could possibly be boring. They all feature those elements described in the first paragraph; some fucking insane death metal passages (though even they are combined with more melodic guitar riffs and the very progressive keyboard flourishes, provided by prog maestro Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree), some gentle, ethereal acoustic passages and a shitload of switches inbetween. 

While I thought all the tracks were great, the standouts for mine were Master's Apprentices and A Fair Judgment, and both for different reasons. Master's Apprentices spends most of the first five or six minutes being heavy as shit, possibly the heaviest track on the album. Akerfeldt sounds like he is being spawned in Hell itself, the riffs and drums are so heavy you feel them in the pit of your stomach....on an album with many heavy moments it takes something special to stand out as the heaviest moment. Then, suddenly, it switches; lush, rich vocal harmonies, acoustic guitars and gentle keys signal a purely progressive rock approach. This lures you in for a few minutes until Akerfeldt returns with his THROAT OF SATAN, and then somehow the riffs become even heavier and faster. It's just so enthralling.

A Fair Judgment, on the other hand, is mostly those purer prog rock passages. A solo piano plays a beautiful, yet mournful, piece for close to two minutes, before giving way to the group's standard prog metal massiveness. We then move to a picked acoustic guitar solo, which continues while being joined by the rest of the band (more amazing vocal harmonies here, and a guitar solo that's Knopfleresque), but then, not content with you being comfortable, Opeth destroy all that with a deliberate, slowly crawling metal riff section, which plays the song out. Again, there's so much going on, that you just can't stop listening...which pretty much sums up why the album is so interesting to listen to.

The Verdict

Deliverance is a damn fine metal album by a damn fine metal band. I have a funny feeling that Opeth will be one group I look more into - they combine progressive rock, which I love, with the savagery and technical prowess of metal, which I am slowly growing to love. Although the Cookie Monster vocals put me off occasionally, I was at the point here where the music was so fantastic that I found myself not caring.

Definitely worth a listen.

My rating: **** 

Standout Tracks

Master's Apprentices

A Fair Judgment

By The Pain I See In Others

Tomorrow, an album by a band called Slint. They play math rock. I don't know what that is, but I'm gonna find out.