OK. Back after a long time. This time, instead of spilling my liberal guts out, I am trying something different - reviews of what I consider some of the best albums ever made. Starting with this masterpiece from Opeth ...
I have always believed that good music has three dimensions: Virtuosity, Complexity and Melody/Emotivity (well, the "catchy" part of the music). I am on this eternal quest to find music that has significant presence in all the three dimensions. After listening to this album, I can now safely say that there is atleast one band in the world that has come close to achieving this three-dimensional musical brilliance.
Opeth's music is well-known for its dynamics (mix of acoustic and heavy metal sections). Of all the Opeth material I've listened to so far, the transitions between the acoustic and heavy sections play very well in this album than any other. Morningrise had great acoustic and metal sections, but I thought that some transitions between sections were a little too abrupt - just my opinion. Now, to the actual album review ...
In short, Still Life is a concept album describing the story of a man (the narrator) who is banished from his village because his beliefs were different from those of the other villagers. He comes back to the village after 15 years to find his love interest Melinda ("The Moor") - hoping the villagers won't recognize him ("Godhead's Lament"). He manages to find her and tries to convince her to come away with him ("Benigted"). To his dissapointment, he finds Melinda married to another man. He still decides to have her back ("Moonlapse Vertigo", "Face of Melinda"), but something goes wrong in the middle and Melida ends up dead ("Serenity Painted Death"). Filled with rage, he goes medieval on the villagers (the councilmen, especially), until he is finally caught and is awaiting to be put to death ("White Cluster").
If I had to describe the first song "The Moor" in just two words, it would be this : Striking Dynamics. This song has it all. It has one of the greatest intros one could hope for in a metal song (just listen to it and you'll know why). A few amazing riffs, lyrics and a short acoustic break later, the song enters into a dreamy and beautifully crafted acoustic section, where Mikael displays his "other" vocal talent - after which the song ends in the same heavy note that it started. The amazing thing about this song is that it vividly portrays the picture of a man running swiftly through a moor (an open area filled with peat bogs) trying to get back into the village he was banished from (try to open up your imagination a little bit and you will immensely enjoy this song).
The second song, "Godheads Lament" is a monstrously heavy track with amazing riffs (er ... that description applies to just about any Opeth song). But, the highlight of this track is the bizarrely catchy rock section in the middle (the paragraph starting with "Searching my way ..."). Throughout this song, the narrator is trying his best to disguise himself so that that the villagers won't recognize him, and continuing his search for Melinda. He manages to find her at the end of the song ("In crumbling faith I saw her ...").
The third track, "Benighted" is a soothing all-acoustic track with a simple verse/chorus song structure. This song has an amazing outro, and it provides a much needed break after the sonic assault unleashed by the first two tracks. In this song, the narrator tries his best to convince Melinda to come with him.
The fourth track, "Moonlapse Vertigo" is my personal favorite thanks to some truly colossal riffs, and a positive and uplifiting (terms not usually associated with Opeth) chorus section at the end. This song carries the story forward, and is about the narrator's disdain for the village councilmen and his desire to protect Melinda from them.
The fifth track, "Face of Melinda" is something that anyone with any appreciation of rock music will enjoy. The first half of this song is acoustic, and it explodes at the end with some of the best guitar riffs I've had the pleasure of lending my ears to. A bizzare thing about this song is the entirely straightforward (yet poetic) lyrics that is unlike most other Opeth songs. During this track, the narrator painfully learns of Melinda's marriage to a another man, but still has difficulty giving her up. Melinda's stand on all this is clearly represented in the song's final lyric: "My promise is made, but my heart is thine". This song also features an amazing outro riff.
The sixth track, "Serenity Painted Death". Well, if "The Moor" had the best dynamics, then this track has the best variety. This track starts with two 'amazing/epic/melodic/sad/heavy' riffs that Opeth can now come up with in their sleep. These give way to a 80's Sabbath style mid-tempo heavy riff that is almost impossible to avoid headbanging to. It gives way to a bizarre hiphop-style (gasp!) section where Mikael almost raps (gasp!) the paragraph "White face, ...", and the guitar almost does a turn-table like (another gasp!) sound. The heavy riffs continue and out of nowhere comes a Dream Theateresque epic solo and a chorus section. The song then enters a brief acoustic break, before exploding into a monstrously heavy section (the heaviest on this album) - with some violent lyrics. Then comes another epic solo that wouldn't sound too out of place on a Dream Theater album, followed by another chorus section, before ending with the "White face .." paragraph. I know that I am not doing any justice to this song by attemping to describe it like this, but all I am trying to say is that you can tear apart this one Opeth song, make 10 normal metal songs, and probably even release a hit metal album. This track is when the narrator finds Melinda dead and goes medieval on the village councilmen before losing his strength and getting caught.
The final track, "White Cluster" has been my least favorite track on this album for a while simply because I am always exhausted by the time I reach this track (I usually dont play this album out of order). This is another amazing Opeth song and if you loved the previous tracks you will love this one too. In this track, the narrator is awaiting this death by hanging ("The noose is tied ...").
If this is not the best heavy-metal concept album ever created, then it certainly comes close.
(this review is also posted at Amazon.com)
