Opeth-Still Life

Taken From MusicianForums.com

"Still Life was Opeth's fourth album, after Orchid, Morningrise, and My Arms, Your Hearse. It was the first since their debut that actually featured a full band, rather than temporary members or studio musicians. After these albums - all regarded in one quarter or another as classics - Opeth were secure enough to delve deeper into their own self-contained world. Hence why this album features their most complex riffs, their most melodic acoustic passages, Michael's most expressive and technically impressive vocals, and - hey! - it's a concept album about a girl named Melinda. Like the follow-up, Blackwater Park, it's named after an obscure 70s progressive rock band.Writing about Opeth is never easy. Tool aside, no metal band has created such an enigma, and commands so much loyalty and respect amongst their fanbase. Of everybody who likes Opeth, I'm willing to bet more than half of them would put Opeth in their top 5 favourite bands. How many bands can geniunely say that - or, at least, how many bands with such a large fanbase? As such, to a fan, you almost feel like your review is always going to be inadequate. As Metal Observer put it, how can you do justice to such a band in mere words? Still Life is an especially difficult case, being my favourite Opeth album, and one of my favourite albums full stop.

The Moor kicks off the album. It's the quintessential Opeth album opener, showcasing everything about the band. It opens with atmospheric, mediaeval acoustics, until 2.30, when the albums first riff kicks in. There's a great, if fairly simple, harmonized lead at 7.30, which leads towards a hummed vocal melody at 9.30, that you're liable to still be singing 2 weeks later. It then crushes back into more heaviness.And thus we find the one frustrating thing about Opeth - you NEED to go into at least that much detail to describe just one song! Obviously, anybody who owns an Opeth album will know this. This album is no different, although, ironically, the two songs that have the most simple interplay between light and dark are, for me, the two highlights. Benighted is almost completely acoustic (there's some clean electric guitar - you certainly won't find any distortion here) and is a lesson in atmospherics. It's on a par with anything Pink Floyd ever did. I'd struggle to think why anyone except the most brutal and unforgiving death-metalhead wouldn't love this.
The other track is Face Of Melinda, which starts with one of my favourite acoustic riffs ever, and has some great lyrics and strange harmony (those trademark tritone Opeth chords appear in full force here). Michael has a way of taking ugly, discordant, non-diatonic chords and making them sound beautiful, like they make perfect sense. Face Of Melinda gets heavy towards the end, with a great, lurching riff that almost feels like it's coming out of the speakers at you. The rest of the album suffers only from not being as instantly memorable as those two tracks. That's no insult, though - Opeth fans will know that quality is assured with this band, and the rest of the album is no disappointment - it's just got longer tracks and more heavy bits. Even saying it isn't memorable is a bit of a fallacy - although Benighted and Face Of Melinda are the ones you'll be humming after hearing the album, when you play again you'll be humming along to the clean parts of the other tracks without even realising it! This, for me, is the clincher with this album over all the other Opeth efforts. The clean sections are absolute revelations; they're the reason I was anticipating Damnation so eagerly.Another reason I hold this in higher esteem than, say, Orchid is the lyrics. There's always been something about concept albums that draws me in, lyrically. The reason I don't listen to more death metal is because the lyrics are often awful (at least, that's been my experience). Opeth are a massive exception to that rule. Despite flirting with pretension, Mikael's songwriting ability is absolutely top-notch. The concept of the album can be descibed as follows -
- Man returns to hometown after being kicked out of his former home for being a heretic. (The Moor)
- Man sees childhood love (Melinda) he came home for. (Godhead's Lament)
- Man gets the idea that he will ask Melinda to elope with him. (Benighted)
- Man follows Melinda to her house under cover of night, lest he be seen by anyone who knows his crime. (Moonlapse Vertigo)
- Man meets Melinda and finds out she is already married. Still, he convinces her to run away with him. She agrees because, even if she is married, she still truly loves him. (Face Of Melinda)
- As they try to elope, Melinda is killed for her crimes against her husband. Man swears he will avenge her, even if it kills him. (Serenity Painted Death)
- Man is hung. (White Cluster)

Obviously, this does NO justice to the story, but at least it's a rough outline!As you can see, the two songs I have picked as highlights are the two most direct love songs, both of which deal with eloping with a childhood love. Both have an element of nostalgia and yearning that is absolutely captivating; it's a feeling that only heightens once you realise the whole story.

Every track on this album is a stunner. The album as a whole, thanks to great sequencing and the concept, is even greater than the sum of its parts. This is the ideal introduction to Opeth; even more so now that the digipack re-issue can be found for a much cheaper price (I picked it up for £7, and Blackwater Park for £15). Haven't you heard enough good reviews, enough hype? It's all justified. This is a modern classic.5/5.

Recommended Downloads -Benighted
Like many pre-Damnation Opeth ballads, it carries a Medieval feel. Benighted is arguably Opeth's most beautiful song, showcasing a perfectly judged guitar solo, a wonderfully melodic opening, and breathless, intimate vocals from Mikael.
Face Of Melinda
The album's best track by a whisker. It operates like a spring, winding tighter and tighter, building in tension, before unleashing the payoff. The payoff, here, is a lurching riff that manipulates volume swells to make it seem as if rising out of the floor to get you. Before all that, though, there's some wonderful guitar playing, including an intro that lands somewhere between a fanfare and serialism, and a distant, haunted melody.
The Moor
Described in more detail above. Of the more typical Opethian songs on here, this is the pick, featuring the best blend of clean, beautiful atmospherics, acoutsic passages, and nuts-out riffing. You should start here if you're new to heavy Opeth, and if you're new to this album; it does kick off the story, after all, and like any good openers, it makes you want to hear the rest of the album."