July 2020 Feature Release - The Infinite Edition

It's now July 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 look forward to hearing your thoughts on these releases.  

This month's feature release for The Infinite is 2001's classic "Blackwater Park" album from Swedish progressive metal legends Opeth. It represented the culmination of a decade of development for the band is generally regarded as not only Opeth's finest work but one of the greatest releases for the progressive metal subgenre as a whole. If you're a fan of progressive music in general & this record is not already engrained in your very psyche then you really should take a good hard look at yourself. We're interested to see whether you think "Blackwater Park" is all it's cracked up to be. Is it Opeth best record? If not, what is?

https://metal.academy/releases/155

I recall this was my gateway record into Opeth and I was astonished from the off at how progressive and expansive it was.  I wouldn't say it was my favourite Opeth record as I think Ghost Reveries would hit that spot over this one but there's no denying that this was a record released by a band who were at the very top of their game.  As the album cover suggests there's lots going on beneath the gloom and atmosphere and you simply have to accept that invite from Daniel to go and explore this record if you have not heard it before.  You won't be disappointed.

My only criticism is that it is a tad too long for me even though I acknowledge this was an album written by someone who had a lot to say.  I really need to write a review on this record at some point.

4.5/5

My relationship with Opeth goes right back to their 1995 debut album "Orchid" & I religiously checked out every subsequent release & invariably got a lot of enjoyment out of them however I can't say that I ever regarded an Opeth record as a genuinely classic release until "Blackwater Park". For me, it was the culmination of everything they'd been working towards for the previous decade & it finally opened me up to the sort of adoration that Ben had been throwing at the band for 5 or 6 years up to that point. It's not my favourite Opeth record. That honour belongs to 2002's follow-up "Deliverance" but there can be no denying the class & consistency of "Blackwater Park". It's a wonderful record in my opinion.

4.5/5

You've forced my hand Daniel, Blackwater Park is my favorite album of all time and I've been too afraid to write a real review for it since it's sometimes difficult to put into words how important certain albums are. I've been a massive Opeth fan for quite some time now, even with their modern Progressive Rock style, and surprisingly no other album by them has dethroned Blackwater Park. I love Still Life, Ghost Reveries, Orchid, Deliverance, all of them, but Blackwater Park still sticks out to me as their most polished and interesting even after all these years. Expect a very, very long review by the end of the month. 

5/5 (the best)

I've just gotta add my praise and love for this record, sitting as it does slap-bang in the middle of Opeth's Triple-Fives: Still Life, this and Deliverance (Still Life taking the title for me). Not many bands have ever managed a run of albums that awesome before and definitely  not since.

Opeth are the pinnacle of progressive metal and their discography does not have a clear bad album. Even when they decided to move away from prog-death to accessible prog-rock in the 2010s, Opeth were still able to deliver with relative consistency and quality. But this stretch, from My Arms, Your Hearse to Ghost Reveries has to be one of the greatest runs of albums by any act. Blackwater Park is considered the opus of the bunch and while I do disagree with that claim (Still Life is a perfect 10 for me), I can see why this band was so influential/popular during this time and how they were able to break boundaries in the heavy metal genre. The rulebook does not apply to Opeth and I think we can all agree that we are better for it.

9/10

I did my review, here's its summary:

It's official, I love Blackwater Park! Opeth was the one missing piece of my progressive puzzle ever since I started listening to progressive metal, and now that I've actually listened to Blackwater Park, my interest for Opeth has finally reached the point of listening to them full-time. Now I plan on someday listening to their other albums like Still Life, which seems to had expectations that ended up beyond shattered. Blackwater Park is an album that no other album can match musically. The album has many long progressive death metal songs, and I especially love the 10+ minute epics. There are a couple shorter acoustic tracks, one of which is an interlude. Many of the songs can range beautiful bliss to brutal bleakness. Blackwater Park has some of the best qualities in a progressive metal album and by a progressive metal band. It is an album that fully reveals Opeth's ambitions that make it an electrifying experience. I finally enjoy the one band missing from my progressive metal life. Thank you, Opeth!!

5/5

2,800 words later, it's finished. I hope I never have to write another review as long as this one. Thanks for giving me the motivation to finally pen something like this out.

https://metal.academy/reviews/17294/155