Review by Rexorcist for Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001)

I remember the first time I ever heard this album.  I was jogging around the front yard on a fall afternoon, exposing myself for the first time to the incredible soundscapes of one of the world's most finely-tuned progressive metal albums.  Even though I'm a generally jovial guy, I really appreciate deep and dark metal (when it's done right), and Blackwater Park hit the bill so beautifully well that when I turned on Still Life afterwards, it felt kinda weak in comparison.  The album can be pretty dramatic, but not in an operatic or overdone sort of way.  You get the feeling of being trapped in a lonely, broken down log cabin or a swamp in midnight, desperate not just for someone to save your life, but for someone to give you some positive attention.  Akerfeldt's vocals barely even try to replicate this; it's all effortless resonance with soundscapes so authentically depressing that it almost matches My Dying Bride's The Dreadful Hours.  Speaking of that album, if I had to fault the album for anything, it would be my common criticism that despite the brilliance displayed, the song-by-song structure gets a little monotonous as you know what to expect by the end, as most Opeth albums act.  But this doesn't changer the fact that the album is brilliant throughout, and it ehelped me into the death metal scene without being a death metal album.  Perfectly depressing.