Opeth's Watershed

It happens every year. Every year there is a dark, unfriendly, complex, challenging record that I don't fall in love with until months after the year ends. 2006 gave us Scott Walker's Drift. 2007 gave us Nine Inch Nail's Year Zero. Alas, I found that album for 2008.

It isn't a surprise that Opeth had to grow on me. I haven't been an avid follower of metal or prog rock for the last decade. Ever since Pantara broke up and Dream Theater started making alienating 29-minute orchestral suites, I've been willing to take or leave either genre.

However, I can't ignore Opeth's Watershed. Does it have the brutal pounding drums and vocal growls that define metal? Yes, but only sparingly. The ballads on this record draw on and build for so long that when the metal tendencies do break loose, it's a breath of fresh air and not nauseating. I really wish more bands made records like this.

In "The Lotus Eater" and "Burden", Opeth cover more ground in 16 minutes than most bands will in a lifetime. The former trades off clean, hypnotic melodies with growling aggression while the band goes into overdrive. After about 5 minutes, a smooth acoustic interlude leads to an acid jazz keyboard solo that sounds like an except from Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. The later is a soaring power ballad that builds off of piano and extended guitar solos. I can't think of another band alive who would attempt any of this sequence (not even you, Dream Theater).

"Hessian Peel" is dreamy and memorizing until the midpoint where the aggression returns. According to the band, the song structures and the "blocks of sound" are inspired by Scott Walker's Drift. This album is just as musically adventurous and almost as haunting.

I think it's time for me to explore the entire Opeth catalog - it seems like I've missed the boat by ignoring prog-metal for this long.