February 2022 Feature Release – The Infinite Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Infinite has been nominated by Andi. It's 1999's classic "Still Life" album from Swedish progressive metal masters Opeth. "Still Life" was my favourite Opeth album at one point & I know that it's played a HHUUGGEE part in Ben's life too. I'm sure that most of our members place it in a similarly high regard so let the vast proclamations of rapturous adoration begin!!

https://metal.academy/releases/154

Thanks Daniel for accepting my feature release submission! Here's my review summary:

My Arms Your Hearse might've been the first part of Opeth's perfect album streak, but this album is where their true balance of progressive and death metal really kicks off. Behold the absolute gem, Still Life! However, it's not until their following album Blackwater Park where the band reaches the ultimate pinnacle of their discography. Still Life helped create the blueprints for its sequel that would shine them a light from the flame of fame. While both albums have a perfect cauldron of complex riffs, haunting acoustics, and overall, groove-ish prog-death metal, Still Life has slightly more replay value. You can definitely listen to this album so many times whenever you want. Many songs have a nice contrast between beautiful blues-ish parts with clean singing and death metal sections with brutal screams. The concept of Still Life is told in a formula of love and death. You can enjoy listening to both the music and the story. Still Life is one of Opeth's most glorious masterpieces. This album's legacy is still alive!

5/5

Recommended tracks: "The Moor", "Benighted", "Serenity Painted Death", "White Cluster"

For fans of: Gojira, Disillusion, 2010s Enslaved

I must admit, I would not have included "Serenity Painted Death" on my monthly playlist if I had known that Still Life was going to be your featured album of choice Andi. And I must come clean: Still Life is my favourite Opeth album. An all time classic that has no faults, no matter how many times I go back to it. The atmosphere is unbelievable, the production is is prime form and the lyricism is absolutely haunting. It's the kind of loneliness that other artists can only dream of replicating. What pushes it over the edge for me is that it helped pave the way for the far more commercially successful Blackwater Park while seemingly doing nothing drastically different from that record structurally. This record gets slept on far too often when speaking about the almost decade long run of My Arms, Your Hearse through Ghost Reveries. I will have to give this one a proper review before months end.

10/10

"Still Life" used to be my favourite Opeth album too but it's slipped a little further down the list in more recent times. I think I've grown closer to the band's more polished later works in my old age & I'll always be drawn to the heavier records in their back catalogue. "Deliverance", "Blackwater Park" & "Watershed" (in order of preference) are Opeth's true classics for me personally but I'd also take "My Arms, Your Hearse" over "Still Life" these days. They're a great band who aren't capable of producing anything subpar though so there's no shame in sitting a little lower down my list when they possess such a strong discography.

4/5

Note: Seriously, how wonderful is the cover artwork. I used to have a "Still Life" t-shirt which I miss now that I look at that stunning piece of work for the first time in a while.

I own this on CD and have hammered the track Face of Melinda about a million times.  A couple of my non-resident clans are throwing up some interesting feature releases this month, will pull together some thoughts on this at some point.

In being a lazy bastard tonight I could not be bothered getting up off my fat arse to put the CD in the player over the other side of the room and so I listened to the digital remastered version online and they have absolutely killed all life in this version.  The guitars sound horrible and the whole tempo seems to have been made jangly.  Awful!  Why do they do this with perfectly fine records?  Just reissue the original for goodness sake.

Note: Seriously, how wonderful is the cover artwork. I used to have a "Still Life" t-shirt which I miss now that I look at that stunning piece of work for the first time in a while.

You gave it to me. Want it back?

Not if you've worn it. I know where you've been.

There are four albums I use as a yardstick to judge exactly how close friends I can become with people. These are Reign in Blood, A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Watching From A Distance and this month's feature release, Still Life. If you love all four of these albums then we are virtually bloodbrothers. If you hate them all then call me Nemesis. Opeth may have made better written, performed or whatever albums, but for me this has an emotional edge over those others that the band never matched before or after. Oh, and Serenity Painted Death absolutely fucking kills! I will try to conjure up a review over the next few days (or weeks) but suffice to say, this is an exemplary 5/5 album for me.