The Flashcards: Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001)

70+/100

Genre: Progressive Death Metal/Rock

One of the essential and phenomenal albums in the progressive metal world. There are even memes out there of people orgasming while listening to this extraordinary album. Yes, not just an eargasm due to how pure the bliss is—so, what about me?

I’ve already forgotten which tracks I tried in the past, aside from the Pale Communion album, but the acoustic intro of "Harvest" serves as my only flashback point and the safest bet for my ears. What else? Yeah, yeah, yeah, the opener, "The Leper Affinity" is good, cool, dynamic, and emotional when the clean vocals kick in. The title track acts as a solid, signature prog-death metal finale. "Bleak" leaves behind some noise at the very end, so I obviously and completely ignored it altogether. The follow-ups, "The Drapery Falls" and especially "Dirge for November" are the closest options to my preference of death/doom metal. Meanwhile, "The Funeral Portrait" reverts back to those proggy dynamics, so I cast that one aside too. "Patterns in the Ivy" still doesn't quite sink in, even though it's an instrumental featuring acoustic guitar and piano components.

Consequently, even this flagship Opeth album still fails to possess my soul—it's just a tiny bit better than Ghost Reveries. If forced to choose, my top picks would be "Dirge for November" and "Harvest". That's all.

Tracklist:

1. The Leper Affinity

2. Bleak

3. Harvest

4. The Drapery Falls

5. Dirge for November

6. The Funeral Portrait

7. Patterns in the Ivy

8. Blackwater Park

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