Sweden has become a fertile birthing ground for many of the most transcendent metal bands in the world. In the early 80s, Bathory and Candlemass helped establish black and doom metal, respectively. As the 90s took shape, death metal was in full swing, Entombed perfected their buzzsaw sound, and At The Gates started incorporating melody. Soon, Opeth emerged to combine it all.
Started in Stockholm by vocalist David Isenberg, the band’s early lineups lacked consistency outside Mikael Åkerfeldt, originally recruited to play bass. By the time a deal was inked with Candlelight Records, Isenberg was out, Åkerfeldt had taken over and Opeth was introducing a new dynamic approach to extreme music via 1994’s landmark debut Orchid. As they say, the rest is history.
Their fourteenth album The Last Will and Testament is scheduled for release on November 22nd and is the latest selection of the Gimme Metal Vinyl Club. As evidenced by the record’s first single “§1”, Opeth will unleash their darkest album in a decade. Most notable is the return of Åkerfeldt’s trademark growls, absent from the last four full-lengths, as the band revisits their more ghastly and metallic past. While we wait for the highly-anticipated record to hit the shelves, let’s look back on the early days of the progressive metal legends.
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ORCHID
Orchid was recorded in March 1994 with Dan Swanö (Dissection, Marduk, Katatonia) at the then-burgeoning Unisound studio in Finspång. Officially released in Europe on May 15th, 1995, by Candlelight, the debut was unavailable stateside until the Summer of 1997 through Century Black.
Immediately, the record was divisive among the metal community. Putting flowers on the cover of any album rooted in extreme music will always raise some eyebrows. Even more so for a relatively unknown band.
Opeth’s greatest trick was blending atmosphere with intensity. See the mid-section of “Under The Weeping Moon” as a prime example. It’s moody and seamlessly transitions between death metal, folk, and progressive rock.
The record stood out because it was a bold and ambitious debut, yet raw and beautifully produced by Swanö. They displayed confident and expansive songwriting in ways that hadn’t been done much before. The album’s critical success laid the foundation for the band's later works, which would continue to push the boundaries of both metal and progressive music.
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MORNINGRISE
In 1996, Opeth returned to Unisound to record under the watchful eye of Swanö. Their sophomore effort Morningrise was released in June of that year in Europe by Candlelight Records and in June of 1997 in the United States by Century Black. Despite the delayed rollout, the record was highly anticipated in the extreme metal scene.
This is the album where it felt like the band was settling into the sound that would come to define them. While their debut was a unique trip of its own. Morningrise finds Opeth embracing the progressive qualities of their songwriting, including much longer tracks. Åkerfeldt and crew immediately exhibit confidence and competence with the thirteen-minute opener “Advent.”
Like their earlier material, the album encompasses elements of familiar inspiration, but it’s the expert way the band fuses it all that is remarkable. Opeth does not rely on repetitious riffs and rhythms that many metal bands use to extend their songs. The songs on Morningrise are immersive and dynamic. The album demands attentive listening and rewards those who give it their time.
MY ARMS, YOUR HEARSE
The evolution of Opeth continued in 1998 with the release of My Arms, Your Hearse. The album features many firsts for the band, including a coordinated worldwide release date of August 18th. It is also their first concept record and the initial collaboration with producer Fredrik Nordström.
Up until this point, this is the ensemble at its darkest and heaviest. Ironically, the album also finds the band at their most melodic. This is when Åkerfeldt truly established himself among the unique and elite vocal talents in all of extreme music. His guttural vocals rumble with depth few can reach, and in the same song, he incorporates clean singing that, at minimum, is adequate. He would further develop his melodic voice on subsequent albums, but in My Arms, Your Hearse, the potential was clear.
The record features a few tracks that would go on to be fan favorites, including “Demon Of The Fall” which to this day, is likely to be included in all of their live sets. My Arms, Your Hearse is often the most revisited album of the band’s first three due to how close the songwriting is to their current material. Chronologically, that makes sense, but Opeth has released many albums since, that do not hold the same amount of favor among fans and seemingly the band themselves.
- Dan Craley