Blackwater Park

In the progressive death metal genre swedish band Opeth has been one of the top acts for several decennia. Blackwater Park is their fifth and one of their best. I can understand that not everyone is into this kind of music, but if you're open to it, there is a lot to enjoy. The album has a lot of variation in style and tempo. Even the grunting vocals are alternated by clean vocals often in slower (passages of) songs.

Let’s get one thing straight: death metal isn’t something I’m likely to seek out. This project has, however, forced me into this genre. And to my surprise there is a significant number of death metal albums that have appealed to me. And 100% of the Swedish death metal albums I have listened to I really love: Edge of Sanity’s Crimson and now this. Am I getting the cream of the crop or is all Swedish death metal good? This one has really impressive performances… if death metal could shimmer I think this album does and it has a real progressive feel - I guess I’m in the progressive Swedish death metal genre now? Great suggestion. Well worth my time!

I honestly think this album stands alongside Tool at the very top of progressive metal. It’s both brutal and beautiful in equal measure, shifting effortlessly between the two. For that reason, I have to give it 5 stars, it’s a masterpiece of its genre. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I’ve always had a soft spot for heavier music, and this absolutely delivers.

Appreciate some intense, technical metal for a change. While I've never been a fan of this genre's vocal style, I've always loved how intricately woven and multifaceted the guitar and bass parts feel. Definitely biased as a guitar player here, just enjoy a challenging album with some heavier instrumentals. Good add, the list has gone for lighter fare so it's nice to get something dense and technical.

It is so bleak and so crushing. Heaviness can be uplifting; here even the gorgeous acoustic guitar sections feel like a complete downfall. I fucking love it.

I often wonder why someone would pick a particular album for inclusion on this list. Typically this happens when it’s in a genre I am not super familiar with. Metal is one of those genres. I listen to some metal but I haven’t gone deep into it. I’ve seen Slayer, Anthrax, Jinjer live but don’t known all their songs. So when this metal album landed I was curious. So I asked ChatGPT- why would someone pick this to add to a 1001 must listen list. I actually think it nailed it. Here is the comment it made. I will say I agree with it. Someone would suggest Blackwater Park for a user-generated 1001 Albums list because it is widely seen as a landmark album: a record that takes death metal and makes it expansive, atmospheric, melodic, and genuinely album-shaped rather than just heavy song after heavy song. It has the kind of ambition those lists reward, with long, dynamic compositions, a very distinctive dark mood, and a blend of brutality and beauty that helped define progressive metal in the 2000s. Even people who would never call it an all-time universal favorite might still argue it belongs because it represents an important musical world at an exceptionally high level.

Always a 5 star album in my book. Flawless.

Absolutely rock solid. This one came through for me on a number of fronts that a lot of other metal acts tend to neglect, particularly in the mixing and the sequencing.

A death metal opera. Epic soundscapes that really push the envelope in all directions. Loved every bit of this.

Hell yeah!

I fucking love this record

Not really as growly black metal as it might first appear. There's quite a bit of twiddly noodling, sometimes crooning, sometimes power metal - it's got a bit of variety to it. Not to my taste, but what they're doing, they're doing well.

2001 was a ridiculously good year for metal - Toxicity, Lateralus, and this absolute classic. One of the best progressive metal albums I’ve ever heard, with some of the most stunning soaring melodies you’ll ever hear on a record so crushingly heavy

I just recently discovered Opeth and have been really getting into their music. I definitely will revisit this album. Very cool

Yeah Opeth does indeed bang quite a bit. Not as difficult of a listen as you might expect from the album cover - actually beautiful at times even. Always down for some death metal, very cool suggestion. Also cool to finally see one of these have a user score above a 3.

Never took my time for Opeth. An oversight for sure. Needs time and attention though.

The opening track was a tough one to get into. But the longer, more melodic song, I liked a lot

Opeth is iffy for me. The two albums preceding this one I think are excellent, the ones after are more hit and miss. Returning to this one now there is a lot of strong material, although I don't always agree with the songwriting choices and I'm still not huge on the title track. The album has grown on me enough that I can give it 4 stars. The power of riffs

So, more Scandinavian metal. As usual I am not a fan of the croak-screeching style of vocals, though they were more of an accent than the dominant theme in much of this. Aside from that it was solidly played, pretty conventional in its genre. Not so much my taste.

Better than I thought.

Killer

Progressive death metal, progressive rock. Ni fu ni fa.

Not the kind of music I normally listen to, but it was pretty good.

I have a specific rating system for this generator. Basically, and except for a couple of exceptions here and there, my own 5-star grading system only judges what I call the "artistry" exemplified by an album, because for me, that's the most important part to assess in a list of the best albums of all time no matter what the genre is (and what I mean with the word "artistry" will be indirectly explained later on in this review...). If I have to grade an album for its more general merits not necessarily related to a "ranking", I will just add another 5-point mark to that first grading, mostly used to assess the musicianship and production values of an album. Which gives me a 10-star mark that is very rarely just the first 5-star mark multiplied by two. Needless to say, Opeth's *Blackwater Park* gets a 5/5 grade for that part dedicated to musicianship and production values. The "artistry" part in another story, however... To put it in a nutshell, I think a lot of the professional critics who raved about this record and described it as a "masterpiece" are expressing a very common misconception: they think "branching out" from your original style during half of your album is *always* conducive to artistic success. But what *I* say is this: said success in that sort of artistic endeavor depends on many factors: compositional skills, the "execution" of your branching out, the careful use of dynamics in a tracklist, and the cohesiveness of the final result. All of which are playing a part for the reception of your work for both your initial target audience and new converts. Of course, the reception of *Blackwater Park* was an unmitigated success for Opeth, I don't need to pop the question to ChatGPT to have the answer to this question, lol. Guess I just saved two or three liters of water for the planet... So, that one point out of five for my grading of the "artistry". A quite encouraging start. Is the audience always right, though? And what about the other four categories? Let's break it down... Compositional skills: Opeth obviously know how to compose great material, whether in their initial death metal grammar, or for the prog-rock shenanigans. In that sense, they are "metal's answer to '70s King Crimson" indeed. So one point out of one for this particular aspect. The "execution" of your branching out, whether it feels formulaic or truly inspired to one's ear: not so convincing here. I can't help sensing some "mechanical" process going on in *Blackwater Park* -- everything sounds a bit streamlined to my ears. Maybe the input of Steven Wilson played a part in this. Wilson is a stellar musician, producer and engineer, but artistically speaking, he often come off as way too focused on cleanliness, and unfocused on details giving true warmth to a record, whether in his work for Porcupine Tree, the one for his solo career, or his other occupation as a remixer / master engineer of old prog-rock classics. Sure, Wilson did not write the music for this album. Yet Opeth still said how influential he was in the songwriting. 0.5 point. The careful use of dynamics in a tracklist: on a surface level the tracklist is well-balanced. The clean vocals and acoustic guitar-driven tracks are evenly sprinkled. Maybe to a fault, which only emphasizes the "mechanical" feel discussed earlier. And then, the devil lies in the details. "Harvest" is a very nice acoustic number, and a song reaching the level of the old prog-rock masters. But when the first half of "The Drapery Falls" surges, using very similar rhythms and tones, it screams "more of the same". Likewise, the death metal sequencing feels a bit repetitive in the second halo of the record. There are not enough surprises, which is detrimental to the initial compositional chops displayed by the band. 0.5 point. The cohesiveness of the final result: this is the end sum of all the aspects discussed before. The album really feels like you're listening to to very different bands, alternatively playing songs that neither rhyme nor reason. On paper, there were probably ways to "integrate" the two intents in a near-seamless whole. But the seams are so visible. 0 point here. Final tally: 3 points out of 5. Go to the rest of the users list and listen to Death's *Symbolic* and Edge Of Sanity's *Crimson*, where the prog rock influences are far better "integrated" (they are admittedly very discreet in the first example, but more prominent in the second). Even better if you can open this sort of "branching out" debate to black metal instead of death metal, go and listen to the stellar and gripping *The Spiritual Sound" that LA band Agriculture released last year, or the excellent *... The Beginning of the End*, released by Texan band Portrayal of Guilt last month. All those examples feel "organic", contrary to the aseptic aura of Opeth's *Blackwater Park*. A highly subjective take, of course, but one I'm ready to defend tooth and nail. "Extreme" music can't affect me when it's so clean-sounding. It feels like drinking tea served in delicate china porcelain in a gritty basement. It doesn't make any sense for me. 3/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums. 8/10 for more general purposes (5/5 for the proficient musicianship and production values + 3/5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 90 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 112 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 226 (including this one) ---- Yo, Émile. Je t'ai enfin répondu. Regarde sous... *Demon Days*, de Gorillaz. 😉

There's a reputation for this album in the black metal world. I'll take it on that and the diversity that this is a quality representation of the genre, but this wasn't for me

Rating: 5/10

god I hate metal - 4/10

Oh dear, this is well played and produced but the silly monster voice really puts me off. I'm really tired of this genre and there so so many of you that love this style of music.

I'm done with death metal. I might give it another go given the plaudits but not for some time.

I enjoy Opeth's style a lot, except when Mikael Åkerfeldt growls. But he does that too much, and it kills "Blackwater Park" for me.

I didn’t think I was going to make it through without skipping, but I ended up on the last track before I had to do skip because I had somewhere to be. Not as horrendous as I was expecting.

I had a thought in my head to check how much longer was left on this and I was on track 3. So I'm all set. 'Sweden's Opeth redefined what death metal can be' okey-dokey

Look, I got through two tracks, which at 10 minutes a pop counts as an honest effort. But I really wish you heavy metal weirdos would understand that you are occupying your own little niche that the rest of us do not care about and stop suggesting this shit as stuff we should try listening to. It didn't work the first time and it sure as hell isn't working the 47th.