History Music / Opeth

* ''Ghost Reveries'' (2005)

* SongStyleShift: Many songs, mainly pre-GenreShift, have frequent shifts, usually between heavy sections with death growls and gentler sections with acoustic guitars.

* SelfDeprecation: Much of Mikael's [[DeadpanSnarker snark]] during their live shows usually revolves around calling the next song "The most boring song on the album" and mocking the [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible pretentiousness]] of their music. [[StealthInsult Or maybe mocking their fans.]]

* BreatherEpisode: While songs like "Hours of Wealth" and "Patterns in the Ivy" count, the best example is ''Damnation'', which is wedged between the heavy ''Deliverance'' and the extremely dark ''Ghost Reveries''.
** And just to remember some other breather songs, there's "Silhouette", "Requiem", "Madrigal" and "For Absent Friends".
*** And subverted as well, as the heaviest song on "Ghost Reveries", "The Grand Conjuration", is stuck between the two lightest and shortest songs on the album, "Hours of Wealth" and "Isolation Years".
** "Burden" is a very peaceful, if mournful, prog-rock ballad, which follows the extremely heavy "Heir Apparent," and very heavy and experimental "The Lotus Eater."
** "Benighted" from ''Still Life'' is a very mellow, acoustic song between "Godhead's Lament" and "Moonlapse Vertigo." It is also much shorter than both songs.

* DeadpanSnarker: Mikael is pretty renowned for this. See his speech under SugarWiki/FunnyMoments.

* EpicRocking: Their longest song, "Black Rose Immortal", lasts 20:14 and many of their songs exceed 10 minutes in length. Eight minutes is probably about Opeth's average song length.
** The average is currently 7:31.5 (not counting live and re-release tracks).
** Another fun number fact: as of 2016, the band has released twelve studio albums (Sorceress included). They come with 94 tracks total, 25 of which are over 10 minutes long. And then there's the bonus tracks, live albums, compilations...

* GenreShift: As mentioned above, ''Heritage'' and all studio albums after it have no metal influences.

* ''Deliverance'' (2002)
* ''Damnation'' (2003)

* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Mikael
** TheLancer: Fredrik
** TheSmartGuy: Martin
** TheBigGuy: Axe
** [[SixthRanger Fifth Ranger]]: Joakim

* ''Blackwater Park'' (2001)

* ''Still Life'' (1999)

->''"If one cut the source of the flow\\
And everything would change\\
Would conviction fall\\
In the shadows of the righteous?\\
The phantasm of your mind\\
Might be calling you to go\\
Defying the forgotten morals\\
Where the victim is the prey"''
-->-- "'''Ghost of Perdition"'''

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Martin ''Axenrot''. It certainly helps that his nickname is "Axe".

Starting with 2011's ''Heritage'', Opeth underwent a GenreShift to ProgressiveRock, with which they had already experimented on ''Damnation''. This continued on 2014's ''Pale Communion'', and the band members appear to have no interest in returning to their metal style. The shift has predictably met with mixed reaction from existing fans, though it has won them some new fans as well.

* Martin "Axe" Axenrot: drums (2006-)

+ Music/JudasPriest, Music/{{Camel}}, Music/{{King Crimson}}, Music/{{Yes}}, Music/{{Genesis}}, Music/{{Hawkwind}}, Gracious, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Music/{{Slayer}}, Music/IronMaiden, Music/DreamTheater, Music/{{Death}}, Music/BlackSabbath, Music/DeepPurple, Music/CelticFrost, Music/KingDiamond, Music/MorbidAngel, Music/{{Voivod}}, Music/PorcupineTree

** "For Absent Friends" is titled after a song by Music/{{Genesis}}.

* ToAbsentFriends: The song "For Absent Friends", titled after the Music/{{Genesis}} song of the same name.

* LighterAndSofter: ''Damnation'' and everything from ''Heritage'' onward.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally around 9, but they go all over the place. ''Damnation'' in particular is pure 3/4.
** Interestingly, many individual songs vary wildly between rankings, such as "Dirge for November," which starts about a 2/3 for the first couple minutes, then rockets straight to a 9 pretty much without warning before going back to 2/3 territory for the coda. Almost every song on ''Watershed'' has these extreme variations as well, with "Hessian Peel" being probably the most extreme example (unless you count the transition from "Coil" to "Heir Apparent").
** Their 2011 album, ''Heritage'', would be in the 3-7 range for the most part. It's quite a bit more straightforward and less scattered than other Opeth records (except, of course, for ''Damnation''), so it's much easier to rank on this scale. ''Pale Communion'', their latest, follows in a similar vein.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Orchid'' and ''Morningrise'' are pretty much the odd balls of the band's catalog: They have a surprising amount of BlackMetal riffs and have much longer compositions than anything before it (with songs such as "In Mist She Was Standing" off ''Orchid'' clocking at fourteen minutes and "Black Rose Immortal" off of ''Morningrise'' infamously clocking at '''''twenty minutes'''''). ''My Arms, Your Hearse'' was when the band's more progressive death metal style kicked in due to Mikael becoming annoyed at the FollowTheLeader bands ripping off riffs off of the first two albums.

* CoverVersion: The band has covered Music/CelticFrost, Music/IronMaiden, Music/DeepPurple, Robin Trower, Marie Fredriksson, Music/AliceInChains, and (at a recent live show) Music/BonJovi.

!! Opeth shows examples of:

Opeth isn't a band for everyone, however. Their songs are extremely long (the average clocking in between eight and ten minutes) and musically complex. This makes their music very difficult to listen to without some dedication. A large majority of their songs demand repeated listening for full appreciation. This can make listening tedious to those who find the music alienating either for its lack of simple accessibility or death metal sensibilities. One critic put it this way: "It is very hard to be a casual Opeth fan, due to the length and complexity of their songs."

* Mikael Akerfeldt: vocals, guitar, bass on ''My Arms, Your Hearse'' (1990-)
* Fredrik Akesson: guitar (2007-)

* Joakim Svalberg: keyboards (2011-)

* David Isberg: Original guitarist and vocalist (1990-1992)

** TheLancer: Mendez
** TheSmartGuy: Fedrik
** TheBigGuy: Axenrot

* ProgressiveRock: ''Damnation'', ''Heritage'', ''Pale Communion''. Most of their metal albums have at least one song that fits into this style as well. (''Watershed'' has ''four'').