OPETH — Still Life (review)

OPETH — Still Life album cover Album · 1999 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
bartosso
Story of love and revenge

Still Life is definitely a beauty and one of numerous fantastic albums in Opeth's discography. Not as transitional as My Arms Your Hearse and not as successful as Blackwater Park, it still is Opeth at their finest. The songwriting is so solid and atmosphere so sophisticated, that I can even pass over the so-so production and less adventurous character of the whole compared to their previous album.

Opeth's music is based on extreme musical dualism. By going from soft smooth jazz vocals to diabolic growls, Mikael Akerfeldt sets the mood and takes the listener on a dark, almost gothic ride with powerful parts of distortion turning into acoustic guitar passages. And he does that with such intuition and talent that during these over 10-minutes long tracks, there's not a single moment of disarray. Pure soft beauty in turns with excruciating rage is the essence of this record. But this isn't only about feelings but also about musical eclecticism. In STILL LIFE one can find vintage progressive rock song structures, full of extended passages of symphonic guitar harmonies and jazzy rhythm patterns.

It's the only Opeth album I'd recommend to a die-hard progressive rock fan. Vintage feel and absolutely brilliant songwriting combined with extreme metal brutality may turn even the most stubborn fan of Jethro Tull and Yes into a headbanging metalhead. A classic of eclectic metal.
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