04/11/02

OPETH / DELIVERANCE

This is a much heavier album than Blackwater Park as the opening tracks "The Wreath" demonstrates perfectly. Their Death Metal roots are far more obvious and to my mind a very smart idea, Blackwater is such a good album and the only way to follow something as successful as that is to do something different.

There are slower moments incorporated into the tracks and all the tracks except one are over 10 minutes long. This allows the band to explore the natural ambience of each track but somehow they don’t seem that long. The title "Deliverance" starts off very heavy with the gruff vocals and then slows into a more melodic piece with some very impressive vocals giving the song a very grandiose feeling.

If you buy this CD thinking it's Blackwater Park part 2, you could be disappointed, but this does not distract form the fact that Opeth have come up with another superb album that defies pigeonholing and genre. The power and the majesty of their sound cannot be denied and it wont go away.

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 62 minutes + 6 TRACKS