This band IMHO deserves way more attention than they're getting. The buzz in the underground is big over Opeth, but this band should be playing bigger venues than the 500 to 1000 seaters on this tour. I'm glad I caught these smaller gigs though. Onto the reviews..

As I mentioned before, I traveled to the Cleveland show at the Agora Ballroom. The ballroom is the smaller of the 2 venues in the building. The ballroom holds 700, while the theater holds about 1400. After the lame opening acts Opeth hit the stage. The opener 'The Leper Affinity' shook the rafters in the place: We entered Winter once again. Naked, freezing from the cold...

Brutal swirling melodies punctuated by Mikael Akerfeldt's wonderfully horrid growl.
The music seemlessly blends insanely catchy riffing with - for the lack of a better phrase - beautiful acoustic passages. Opeth uses a classic growling style mixed with clean vocals. Akerfeldt pulled off the transition betw/ both styles almost perfectly.

Met the guys after the Cleveland show by their bus. Both guitarists - Mikael and Peter - took the time to talk to each and every person in the freezing cold. Both Martin's were visibly missing! Must have been 25 of us out there. Got pictures and my discs signed! Way cool guys and extremely humble...

The setlist from both nights:

The Leper Affinity
Advent
Deliverance
The Drapery Falls
Godhead's Lament
Credence
Bleak
A Fair Judgement

E: Demon of the Fall

A snippet from my Chicago review on Opeth's message board on Ultimate Metal dot com:

I can't say enough about this band. The songs were played flawlessly, with the occasional broken string the only thing I could notice that went wrong. As in Cleveland, the energy level in this place was over the top with Mikael noticebly impressed with the crowd response. The sound was fantastic with everything audible in the mix. I'd have to say it was a bit better than Cleveland but not much. Martin's bass fluctuated a bit during a couple of tunes, but it was quickly fixed. Mikael's growls to me sounded even more brutal than Saturday. Might have been the hometown setting. Who knows?!

This was also my buddy Tom's first Opeth show and he was transfixed the entire time only occasionally glancing over in awe over these guys. We were all hanging out on the floor on the right side. I was wearing a Death Symbolic l/s. A friend of mine from the now defunct Chicago band LOTEC showed up on my recommendation alone having never even heard the music before. Opeth had a new fan on the way out. Watch the album sales soar after this gig! It was that fuckin' good!!!

But like, even their "brutal fucking death" song has three soft parts! I love this band.

I understand the irritation people feel when critics fall all over themselves to praise some band (deserved or not), while hundreds, if not thousands of other bands remain uncreditied or underappreciated concerning their contributions to heavy music. Do Opeth deserve all this credit? I suppose that's a matter of opinion.

quote:

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Originally posted by prozak666:
I agree. The worship of Opeth in the metal community explains why prog-rock fans disdain metalheads as musically illiterate.
http://bbs.anus.com/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=000107

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The usual, tired bollocks.

Further, you're wrong - logically speaking. That which assembles itself from different things and creates something distinctive has not been assimilated, but the opposite.