UMUR
"The Candlelight Years" is a box set release by Swedish progressive death metal act Opeth. The box set was released through Candlelight Records in June 2008. It bridges the gap between Opeth´s ninth- and tenth full-length studio albums "Watershed" (2008) and "Heritage" (2011). The box set includes the first three Opeth albums "Orchid" (1995), "Morningrise" (1996), and "My Arms, Your Hearse" (1998), which were all released through Candlelight Records, hence giving the label the rights to release this box set.
In addition the the material from the three albums, "The Candlelight Years" features a few bonus tracks, where were not featured on the original albums. Some had however appeared on limited editions/reissues of the album releases. It´s a couple of 1992 demo tracks and covers of "Circle of the Tyrants" by Celtic Frost, and "Remember Tomorrow" by Iron Maiden.
The run of albums from "Orchid" to "My Arms, Your Hearse" show a band in rapid development honing their songwriting craft and their playing skills, but also searching for a musical direction, which they more or less found on "My Arms, Your Hearse". Both "Orchid" and "Morningrise" are very different in sound to the subsequent progressive death metal releases (before they dropped the death metal vocals and started to play progressive rock) and although the death/doom metal basis of the band´s sound is there on all three albums featured in this box set, the heaviness and riff styles are quite different. The first two albums use a lot of melodic harmonies and counterpoint melodies as the dominant riff style, while "My Arms, Your Hearse" are a darker, and more chord riff dominated affair (although it also features epic sollowfilled guitar leads and harmonies). Atmospheric and at times folky acoustic parts are a major part of the band´s style. The vocals also changed from the early blackened snarling growling to a deeper more pure death metal growling vocal style on "My Arms, Your Hearse".
All three releases are in many ways transitional releases in Opeth´s discography and while they are certainly worth a listen (especially "My Arms, Your Hearse"), they are early sketches of the more evolved and complete works Opeth would release in the early 00s. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.