Review by Shezma for Opeth - In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall (2010)
2 hours and 45 minutes live album. I have to start with this to explain why I can't give this a higher rating. I love Opeth, being one of my favorite progressive metal bands of all time honestly. Especially Blackwater Park which is covered in full and is still really good here. Then they add a song from every album from Orchid to Watershed with some really solid choices such as Advent and Harlequin forest. Remember this is a live album, and 2 hours and 45 minutes.
This was probably an absolutely amazing show to attend, but I personally am not a fan of listening to live albums. This is not a terrible recording by any means, the venue sounds well mic'd and the soundscape of the room holds up well enough but this isn't my jam. For a live album, it is one of the best I have heard in that regard, many are terribly novelties with bad acoustics and too much echo or crowd noise. The crowd here is noticeable at points, but don't take away from the music being played. Mikael does some crowd work explaining how happy he is to be performing there and explaining why they're there and he has some good charisma and I enjoyed listening to his bits and happy they got to do this. Felt nice and perfect blend for a show of this magnitude for them, wasn't overly preachy but got the point across for the crowd. Some bands talk too much, others don't talk at all which can be even more awkward but this felt just right.
If you're into live albums, this is absolutely worth it because it does that well. I on the other hand would rather be there, then hear most live recordings when the original Blackwater Park album is right there. I understand this is in two parts with the first half being Blackwater Park and the rest being a single song from other albums but I still had to break this up into 4 different listening sessions to get through it. 2 hours and 45 minutes. I like to listen to my albums in one go, I can't do this here and unfortunately there's really nothing here for me that stands out enough for me to not just go back to the original album versus the live album. Good for a one off, and again one of the better live albums I've heard but I won't be going back to this.