UMUR "My Arms, Your Hearse" is the third full-length studio album by Swedish progressive death metal act Opeth. The album was released through Candlelight Records (Europe)/Century Black (US) in April 1998. It´s the successor to "Morningrise" from 1996 and there have been quite a few lineup changes since the predecessor. Bassist Johan DeFarfalla has left and has been replaced by Martín Méndez. Méndez was recruited very shortly before Opeth entered the studio to record the material for "My Arms, Your Hearse", so he didn´t have time to learn the songs, which resulted in lead vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt performing all bass parts on the album. Drummer Anders Nordin also left and he was replaced by Martin Lopez. So only Åkerfeldt and second guitarist Peter Lindgren remain from the lineup who recorded "Morningrise".

Stylistically "My Arms, Your Hearse" is the blueprint album for the sound Opeth would play and built upon on the next meny releases (until "Watershed" from 2008). A lot of the elements found on the subsequent Opeth releases (up until 2008) are found on "My Arms, Your Hearse". In that regard the first two albums stand as phase one of Opeth´s career and "My Arms, Your Hearse" is the beginning of phase two. "My Arms, Your Hearse" is generally darker, heavier, more brutal, and more consistent in style and quality than the preceding albums, and the songwriting is concise, intriguing, and varied. There are no parts here which don´t fit the song that they are a part of, or any unnecessary noodling or progressive ideas. Everything fits and belongs. Brutal riffs and death metal growling are counterpointed by mellow, melancholic, and atmospheric acoustic sections, male clean vocals, and epic melodic moments. The almost constant counterpoint or harmony lead guitar themes and/or riffs from the first releases are not the main guitar riff style any longer, although Opeth still deliver some beautiful, soaring, and epic leads when that is called for. Just take a listen to album closer "Epilogue" for proof of that.

The band sound transformed with new drummer Lopez delivering a more organic, fluent, and varied drumming style than the stiff and unimaginative playing style of Nordin. It´s a huge change and it has great impact on how well the tracks flow and how well the dynamics of the tracks work. While Åkerfeldt performs clean vocals on "Morningrise" (and a few on "Orchid"), "My Arms, Your Hearse" is the album where he ups his game and sounds like he means it. His clean vocals are tasteful and melancholic in tone, while his death metal growling is majestic and brutal. He occasionally performs some higher pitched screaming/snarling vocals, which provide some parts of the album with a blackened touch, but other than those moments and a few other sections, "My Arms, Your Hearse" isn´t particularly black metal oriented or even blackened death metal oriented.

"My Arms, Your Hearse" features a dark, brutal, and powerful sounding production job, which suits the heavier and and gloomy material well. It´s not as detailed or clear sounding as the next couple of Opeth albums, but there is a charm to the rawness and savage nature of this sound production, which no other Opeth album features. Soundwise its closest relative is "Still Life" (1999), but that´s only natural as it´s the direct succeesor to "My Arms, Your Hearse". "My Arms, Your Hearse" is often forgotten or just not mentioned when speaking of the greatest Opeth releases from phase two of the band´s career, and while I do agree that there are more accomplished releases down the line, this album is still a massive progressive death metal release, deserving much more attention than it gets, and a 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is fully deserved.

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.

UMUR "Morningrise" is the second full-length studio album by Swedish progressive death metal act Opeth. The album was released through Candlelight Records in June 1996. It´s the successor to "Orchid" from 1995. It took almost a year for Opeth to be able to release "Orchid" after the recording sessions were finished in mid- 1994, and they were keen on that not happening again, so after only playing a few show in the UK supporting "Orchid (1995)", they went straight into rehearsal and writing mode and was ready to enter Unisound Studio with producer Dan Swanö in March 1996 (same producer and studio used for recording "Orchid (1995)"). The "Morningrise" recording sessions were finished in April 1996.

Stylistically the material on "Morningrise" is a continuation of the progressive death metal foundation laid in "Orchid (1995)"), but further developed and refined. Featuring four tracks which are over 10 minutes long and one track which is over 20 minutes long, "Morningrise" is a highly progressive and structurally adventurous release. Opeth go all in here with loads of different riffs and sections on each track. Many of the riffs are counterpoint lead themes weaving in and out of each other or harmony themes played in unison, and you won´t find many "normal" death/doom metal riffs on this album. That doesn´t mean it´s not a heavy and doomy death metal release, because for all its intricate songwriting ideas (the album for example features many atmospheric, melancholic, and tranquil acoustic sections) and progressive and skillful performances, the foundation of the music is still death/doom metal.

Bassist Johan DeFarfalla´s performance needs a mentions as it´s out of the ordinary and his contributions are pretty dominant and important for the sound of the album, often complimenting the guitar harmonies with a third harmonic layer or a different counterpoint melody. Lead vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt has a snarling blackened growling vocal style, and occasionally also sings some clean vocals.

While the complex structure of the tracks are praised by many, to my ears main composer Åkerfeldt still wasn´t sure of the direction he wanted for Opeth´s music, and sometimes he overloads the songs with too many different songwriting ideas. Some sections work better within songs than others, and some transitions between different parts of the songs happen in an abrupt way which lack compositional elegance. While this isn´t a major issue, it still means that some parts of the album appear directionless and that some parts become a little tedious. Not because not enough is happening, but because some tracks lack memorable moments. The sound production is not great either. It´s a bit hard on the ears because the drums and the guitars have a harsh tone to them, which doesn´t really fit music in this vein.

Upon conclusion I think of "Morningrise" as a transition album for Opeth, where they got to try out a lot of different songwriting ideas and honing their craft as both composers and performers, and despite my above critique of the songwriting and the sound production, "Morningrise" is still a quality release and pretty unique sounding too. Both on the contemporary scene and within Opeth´s own discography. Quite a few lineup changes would take place between "Morningrise" and Opeth´s next full-length studio album "My Arms, Your Hearse" (1998), and with them also quite a few adjustments to their sound, which again supports my theory of "Morningrise" belonging to the transitional album catagory. Transitional albums are almost always extremely important for the development of a band´s sound, but they aren´t always the best representation of said sound, and the same goes for "Morningrise". Still a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

SilentScream213 Any band would be honored to release an album that could be considered the best ever in its genre. Opeth have not one, not two, but three albums that always sit neck and neck near the top of any Progressive Metal ranking, and the band fails at having an obvious magnum opus because any fan might name a different release. Such is the band’s prowess.

Still Life is the earliest of the aforementioned triad, being their last 90’s album and still rife with Death Metal. Personally, it ranks as my favorite of the three (and yet not my favorite Opeth album!). This is due to the fact that it is probably Opeth’s most passionate release, being a twisted tale of love, longing, hatred and revenge. The concept album follows the story of a monstrous man who was cast out of society (likely due to religious reasons) and despises the civilization, save for an old flame whom he returns for… the rest I’ll leave for you to discover.

It’s a perfectly delivered tale and Opeth succeed at swapping between styles and moods to fit the theme of the story. It has dark and brooding Death Metal representing the main character’s intense misanthropy due to his mistreatment. It has more melodic, longing guitar leads representing his loneliness and love that still burns. And it has slower, softer folk-inspired sections for the sparse moments of calm the characters are able to find. Of course, these are all trademark styles of the band, and by this album they had mastered each.

It's one of those albums that simply doesn’t have any flaws. It’s got a little bit of everything that makes Opeth a great band, and it’s got just about everything one could want in Progressive Death Metal.

Warthur This one's a bit of an oddity. Released as part of the promotional work preceding the release of Heritage, the title track is one of the studio cuts form that album, which saw Opeth take a hard turn away from their metal roots into more purist prog territory. However, by far the bulk of the material - and what most Opeth fans will be interested in - is their live appearance from 2009's Rock Hard festival, which would have been in the wake of the release of Watershed. As a result, you get a quick preview of what is essentially a whole new style for the band (though The Devil's Orchard is one of the more energetic tracks on Heritage) followed by a festival set played in the style they were about to shift away from.

I suspect a good many Opeth fans who track this one down will find themselves simply skipping the opening track most of the time - not because of any problem with its quality, but simply because if you're an Opeth fan who likes their post-Heritage direction, you already have Heritage, and if you aren't this ain't going to sell you on it, and regardless of which type of fan you are you're really here for the festival set, not the studio album track you probably already have heard on the album itself. Still, it's worth a listen, particularly to hear the band interpret some of their metal works live at the point when they had taken that direction of their sound about as far as it would go.

Warthur This release captures a compelling live performance from Opeth, hailing from right towards the tail end of their metal era; Watershed had been out for nearly two years when this April 2010 concert were recorded, and the band were still some months away from entering the studio to record Heritage, heralding their stylistic shift from prog metal to a more purely prog-based approach.

In this case, the results are excellent. The band are working with songs which have had extensive road testing. Moreover, the format of the concert makes this an apt tribute to Opeth's past before they moved on to a significantly transformed future - for the concert is divided into a first act in which the entire Blackwater Park album is performed, and a second act in which the band pick out and play one song from each other their other studio albums to date in chronological order.

Blackwater Park is, of course, a stone cold classic - an album where the band's prog influences and death metal roots achieved a seamless fusion, carrying enough of their past to be an appropriate album to focus on for this journey through their career whilst also exhibiting enough of their innovations to suggest the seeds of future developments. The second half of the set allows the band to take us on a whistle-stop tour of their musical evolution, and the "one song per album" approach allows them to showcase the absolute cream of the crop, with the band erring towards epic pieces to perhaps give each album a fairly expansive showcase. (All of the songs in the second half are over ten minutes long except Hope Leaves from Damnation - and none of the songs there hit the ten minute mark.)

With the recording of Heritage a few months after this concert, an entire new chapter of Opeth's existence would begin - but this concert is an excellent summation of their previous incarnation, and will be of interest to all Opeth fans.

kluseba I really like a few studio albums of this band, especially "Blackwater Park" and "Watershed", so I bought this slipcase compilation by Koch Records with three studio albums and this exclusive live CD. That's why I will just talk about what I hear and not what I see on this release.

And what I hear is not very positive. The band divided its set in two halfs, the first one is based on their acoustic stuff from the "Damnation" album. The acoustic album has a really introspective atmosphere on the album, but it doesn't work at all on stage. Each song seems to be alike, the live versions sound exactly like the studio versions, the band has no contact with the silent and hypnotized crowd and there is no magic in the air. After a few songs, this first part of the album makes you fall asleep because of its infinite boredom. The most interesting song is the only one which is not included on the "Damnation" album, "Harvest", which develops a magic warmth and gives me at least some goose bumps and chills.

The second half of the album is a lot heavier and more progressive and wakes the crowd up a little bit. But the heavier song are performed with a lack of passion and intesity and work less well as the studio versions. The band does some routine work but I can't feel any passion in it. This part is a little bit more enthousiastic than the first part, but not by much.

Another problem of this release is - due to legal problems - that the setlist is mostly limited on the three last albums and not very diversified. That's a sad thing because the early works of the band had some magic moments and something powerful and fresh.

I can't recommend this CD (or even DVD) and would give the advice to listen to the studio albums instead.

AtomicCrimsonRush "Big gig today, people, big gig".

Okay, I finally got around to seeing Opeth live at Royal Albert Hall with a bunch of fans, and as usual with Opeth, as far as I am concerned, it is a real hit and miss affair. Parts of the concert send me into bliss with gorgeous guitars and vocals and amazing dextrous lead guitar with choppy riffs, and parts make me search for the skip button. Okay let's get past the first point of concern for me; the concert is perhaps designed for the younger target audience who prefer death metal growls over actual singing. To be honest there is a heck of a lot of gravel voice vocals on this, more than I expected or wished, as I have 4 albums and there are definitely large chunks without growling on albums; though not so here. Unfortunately, this live performance really focuses on the heavier side of Opeth with only the occasional let up in speed and growling. When Akerfeldt sings clean vocals it is mesmirising so I wish he'd shut the dang death growls up as it is really not that impressive. The band play all of Blackwater Park but I would have preferred Still Life.

Another point about the DVD is that the crowd are rather a subdued lot. Their preferred colour is black and mostly guys are present with a smattering of females. The crowd stand still, not much bouncing and moshing as they are there to listen I guess, not have a full body thrash work out. They are definitely into the music and enjoying it, but it is not a mosh session, which shows how different Opeth are in comparison to death metal bands that incite a virtual riot when playing live. The crowd are head banging and raising the horns as you expect. You can hear then yell out stuff during the pauses between tracks, at times quite amusing too.

Yet another point to make about this live DVD is it really is a no frills concert, a bit of smoke and some cool lighting, occasional strobes and an ominous glowing logo with the large screen showing pictures of forests and water, and album covers, to generate a part of the atmosphere, with nice swirling lights cascading across the transfixed crowd. The band pretty much stand in the one place and thrash one track after another, and head bang during the instrumentals. They don't speak much at all at first. At one point Akerfeldt pretends he is going to say something and then stops and just plays; quite a humorous touch. At the end of 'April Ethereal', Akerfeldt begins to open up, he does mention that the band have gone through changes; "a few people have been (pause) fired (laughter) and we have a new lineup". He then intros the guys that are new to rapturous applause. Then he mentions how he used to write when he was too poor to afford a demo and recording equipment. He just wrote things like the Morbid Angel riff 4 times, freaked out bridge and the Bathory section. Ironically I referenced those two bands on my review for Still Life ("The growling reminded me of the black metal I used to listen to with the likes of Bathory or Morbid Angel.") so I wasn't far off the mark as Opeth definitely are influenced by this extreme metal sound. Akerfeldt mentions that Still Life is their most complicated album and then proceeds to play the awesome 'The Moor' from this.

From the beautiful acoustic guitar, it leads to the familiar distorted riffs that blast in without remorse. Akerfeldt's growls are brutal and soul chilling. There is a clean vocal chorus and it is so refreshing. I longed for more of this. At 6 minutes in the riffing stops and we have an acoustic interlude, a moment of respite. The Damnation style clean vocals chime in and they are so good, like a different band. I was drawn into the music at this point. At the end of 'The Moor' Akerfeldt asks "was it good?" which is funny as obviously the response would be a massive roar. He tells the tale of how Steven Wilson emailed him once. The crowd roars at hearing that name mentioned in their presence. He goes onto say that "we hooked up, had dinner, kissed, and I asked him to produce the next record which was gonna be Blackwater Park." But Steve was also involved in Deliverance "making it more sick and evil and twisted" he continues, and he says they should play something nice as they are in such a nice environment "but we want to be bad." I kind of like these moments as it shows the humour of the band and their personalities come through.

Another point about this section of the concert during 'The Wreath', is that Akerfeldt snaps a string and does a very fast guitar switch. His hand signal to the roadie is interesting as he just stops playing but keeps growling away. The roadie just hands him a new guitar and plugs it in as Akerfeldt screams "cover me with sweat" and he just hooks it over his shoulder and starts playing it as if nothing happened. Well worth checking that out. Axe's drumming should be commended too as it is fantastic, though many might miss the style of Lopez of course. I liked his cymbals with holes in them. 'The Wreath' is a thrashy fast thing that has the cookie monster vocals, (I know, I stole that phrase from a reviewer here but that's what it is) and I prefer Oscar the Grouch vocals myself. 'The Wreath' comes from my least favourite Opeth album but was tolerable due to the amazing chord changes and structure.

In the pause between the songs, a girl yells out that she loves Akerfeldt, and he replies "how you doin'?" as he seems quite shy and nervous which is better than being obnoxious of course. The girl has leaped over the barricade and as she is escorted off by guards everyone applauds. Akerfeldt says it's a long show for a metal singer but luckily he still has a bit of voice. At this stage I was hoping that meant he would sing some quieter stuff. He does the beautiful 'Hope Leaves' from Damnation and of course it is a highlight for my ears. I love that album and every song on it is compelling; in fact that is how I came to know Opeth so it is personally one of my favourite moments of the show. The purple and blue lights with sparkling logo give the stage an ethereal appearance.

Then next is a moment of brilliance from Ghost Reveries, 'Harlequin Forest'. I must admit the concert was improving for me as the band moved onto the more progressive sound. The concert ends with Watershed's 'The Lotus Eater', which is of course is excellent as always. Akerfeldt mentions the leaving of Peter and Martin and intros the new members again. Axe has dyed his hair just for this concert, he says. This track is a masterful progressive thing with amazing time changes and innovation throughout. This time Fred breaks a string, or has a technical goof, and stuffs up his solo and it is quite humorous how he plays silently while the roadie tries to rig up a new guitar. Akerfeldt and the others watch with amusement as Fred is hooked up. The crowd quietly clap observing with interest. When Fred begins to play again there is a roar and the whole thing is an unforgettable moment. The band could easily have edited this out but kudos for keeping it in as it provides some entertaining and interesting footage. I believe in the interview mention is made of how a camera man stepped on a pedal and screwed up the sound, and these moments are what make this concert so compelling, as it is a raw concert DVD with all the mistakes unedited but left for us to talk about. There were some conversations about this section with the guys I watched with. It actually provided more intelligent conversations than the rest of the DVD which were basically phrases like, "awesome, unbelievable, shredder, what's he on about, Axe is better, I miss Lopez, and, shut those bloody growls up." At the end the band have a photo opportunity with lots of Opeth addicts and after a bow it is over with a standing ovation.

The special features are generally similar to Pain of Salvation, and Dream Theatre DVDs, in that they show a lot of behind the scenes stuff, tour footage, some interviews, fans spouting off "I am dead serious when I say Mikael Akerfeldt is the reincarnation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart", and a few outtakes from songs. They sign CDs and apparel, take photos of fans and talk at the fans meet and greet, one says "best day ever" and another is shivering with excitement. The sound check was intriguing, done in front of some chosen fans. I like the comment when they are heading down the stairwell to the stage and we hear someone say "It's Spinal Tap." We see a bit of the clean up afterwards, meeting fans back stage who are terminally polite and grateful and Fredrik turns to the camera and says, "you are nothing without your fans never forget that", and there are roadies loading the trucks while the band have a quiet drink with friends. In the truck Fred talks about the mistakes but said they were part of it all after months of build up and the tension they felt. We see Opeth hanging round bars and visiting a Deli with an eccentric owner, and we see them in the trucks getting drunker and funnier.These moments were highlights for me and held more interest than the actual concert.

Overall, this is a great concert for Opeth addicts of course, there are quieter moments but you have to search for them, but it delivers the heavier side of the band with brutal aggression. That is the target audience and it definitely is an extreme sound, and the Opeth fans sitting with me are obviously under the impression that it is a flawless DVD. Seeing past the fan boyism it really is not a masterpiece at all but certainly an excellent live record of the very special event. Personally I look forward to them touring Heritage as that would be worth seeing.