Review by SilentScream213 for Opeth - Deliverance (2002)

Deliverance. Opeth’s last Death Metal record, and one of the heaviest of their entire career. In somewhat uncharacteristic fashion for the band, opening track “Wreath” drops you right into the onslaught of pummeling rhythms, deathly screams, and one of the most ominous riffs the band ever wrote. The increasingly complex and odd-timed songwriting here just makes everything that much more disorienting – “Wreath” is a straight up challenging song that mixes the heaviest and brainiest of Opeth’s compositional prowess into one package that just completely annihilates you.

After that, you’re given a bit of space to breath… kind of. While “Wreath” is definitely the heaviest and most aggressive song on the album, that’s not to say the following tracks are worse in any way. Title track Deliverance focuses on pushing the band’s technicality and complexity to its limit, an over 13-minute epic of masterful musicianship and songwriting. “A Fair Judgement,” not forgetting what makes this band so special, reintegrates deeply melancholic moodiness, a Doomy dirge of Prog that shows the band had not sacrificed their emotional depth when honing their technical abilities and pushing the complexity of their songwriting.

The album is, pretty consistently, dark, ominous, heavy, and complex. More so than any of their previous albums. For that reason, it’s definitely a bit of an all-or-nothing affair; it’s the perfect fix if you’re in the mood for some uncompromisingly dark and brainy Progressive Death Metal – if not, prepare to drown in its unrelentingly ominous waves.