Opeth
"Watershed"
Released: June 3, 2008
Genre: Progressive Rock, Death Metal

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Is it pompous? Yes. Is it grandiose, and lengthy? Yes. Does it take more than one listen to understand fully? Yes. Indelibly human, thoroughly tragic and hauntingly beautiful, 'Watershed' is an album that I won’t soon abandon.

AS I SIT in front of a computer on a bleak, somewhat violent June evening, the CD that I bought earlier in the day is starting to make more and more sense. With thunder rolling in the background, suddenly what seemed odd in the somewhat sunny day is blatantly obvious and insightful.

Mournful acoustic guitars and synthesizer create tense, darkly beautiful melodies while soft voices remind me just how bleak the world can be before all explodes into a violent cascade of spine-meltingly dense metallic weight.

And so it is with most Opeth releases. “Watershed,” the band’s ninth full-length possibly more so than most, for here is presented a gloom that is not oppressive, but noticeably heavy nonetheless.

While “Watershed” lacks the icy dread of 1994’s “Orchid,” the brooding, abyssal melancholy of 2001’s “Blackwater Park” or the druggy, depressed haze of 2005’s “Ghost Reveries,” negative emotions flow through the proceedings like Acheron through Hell.

But perhaps this is too simple an assessment. Pigeonholing this group of primarily Swedish musicians is about as easy as getting John McCain to win the Democratic primary. Songs meander and twist without a definite roadmap, journeying through many different thematic areas before reaching their final destinations. Acoustic requiems twist to reveal dense, jazzy excursions, while dreamlike ambience quickly turns into a rude awakening of nightmarish metal riffage.

Even more straightforward songs, such as the surprisingly short (for Opeth, anyway) “Coil” pass between many different transitions before disappearing in a flash of sonic smoke. The magnificent “Heir Apparent” is simultaneously Opeth at their most introspective and most mind-bendingly destructive.

Is it pompous? Yes. Is it grandiose, and lengthy? Yes. Does it take more than one listen to understand fully? Yes. I cannot think of time better spent, however. Albums that must be slowly digested over time are few in number in recent years (I can think of maybe five others that have been released while I’ve been in high school) and are limitlessly rewarding. Being able to slowly peel apart an album to bare the inspiration behind it is an experience that I have come to cherish, and this album is a fine example of such an instance.

New drummer and Legolas look-a-like Martin Axenrot makes his presence felt for the first time on an Opeth album with “Heir Apparent,” and judging by the results I seem to have forgotten why I was sad that former drummer Martin Lopez left back in 2005.

Axenrot’s interplay with longtime bandleader, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt and new guitarist Fredrik Åkesson (formerly of fellow Swedish metalheads Arch Enemy) is palpable, and his rapid-fire bass drum work puts Metallica’s “One” completely to shame.

Indeed, every member of Opeth truly stepped up to the plate with “Watershed.” Keyboard expert Per Wiberg tones back his psychedelic touches that defined “Ghost Reveries” and instead focuses more on supporting the rest of his bandmates. His soft piano on “Burden” and “Porcelain Heart” add greatly to the band’s already formidable acoustic repertoire, and his Camel-esque additions to “Hex Omega” and the aforementioned “Burden” similarly serve to make an already impressive band that much better. How Opeth functioned without a keyboard player for 15 years I’ll never know.

However, this is nothing new for the band. Opeth have built their careers upon constantly one-upping themselves, and have consistently done so for their last five albums or so, constantly adding newer and more diverse elements to what used to be a stereotypical Scandinavian death metal outfit.

So what is new here, you ask? The contributions of a female vocalist (Nathalie Lorichs), for starters, on opener “Coil.” Or possibly the willingness to incorporate humming into the opening of “Lotus Eater,” or the fact that someone is detuning Åkerfeldt’s guitar at the end of “Burden” while he is in the middle of playing an acoustic piece, finally concluding in an echoed demonic laugh. Or finally the realization that Åkerfeldt almost never resorts to his trademark death growl, instead relying almost entirely upon his icy, chillingly melodic voice.

Similarly, Åkerfeldt’s lyrics have retained their high quality from “Ghost Reveries,” and each song is shaped by his dark poetry. “This skin is a mirror/ The eyes hover with ignorance/ Hell throbs from your lips/ Sucked in and safe from the world of sleep,” he ominously pines on “Lotus Eater.” Remaining suitably melancholic throughout, his words never pass into self-pitying, emotional overkill.

Such is the music of Opeth. Emotion is bared for all to see, but is shown as if through an old photograph, torn and faded by the passing of time. Indelibly human, thoroughly tragic and hauntingly beautiful, “Watershed” is an album that I won’t soon abandon. As with all quality music, the songs take on a life of their own and continue in my mind long after the last note ends. Judging from the music contained within, it may be a cursed, bleak and miserable life, but life nonetheless, and a life that must be recognized.