History Music / Opeth

* LoudnessWar: Their metal albums are pretty squished, even the ones Music/StevenWilson produced. ''Damnation'' isn't that dynamic either. By the time of ''Pale Communion'' they had stopped doing this.

** ''Ghost Reveries'' was intended to be one surrounding the turmoil of a man who commits an unconscionable act (symbolised by killing his own mother), but Mikael abandoned the idea of having the whole album qualify after writing "Isolation Years", which didn't fit into the concept. Several songs still reflect the original idea, however, so it could be considered roughly two-thirds of a concept album.

* SincerestFormOfFlattery: Mikael has stated that the song "Ending Credits" off ''Damnation'' is "totally a {{Camel}} ripoff". Given how he's also said how much of an influence they are to him, the song becomes more of a tribute than a FollowTheLeader kind of thing.

* Johan DeFarfalla – bass, backing vocals (1991, 1995–1997)

Opeth's discography:

Current Band members:
* Mikael Akerfeldt: vocals, guitar, bass on ''My Arms Your Hearse''
* Fredrik Akesson: guitar
* Martin Mendez: bass
* Martin "Axe" Axenrot: drums
* Joakim Svalberg: keyboards

Past Band members:
* David Isberg: Original guitarist and vocalist
* Johan Defarfalla: bass (1991–96)
* Anders Nordin: drums and piano in ''Silhouette'' (1991–96)
* Peter Lindgren: guitar (1991–2007)
* Martin Lopez: drums (1996–2007)
* Per Wiberg: keyboards (2005–11)

Guests:
* Nathalie Lorichs sang the second verse and chorus on the song "Coil" from ''Watershed''.
* Music/StevenWilson of Music/PorcupineTree has provided backing vocals on ''Blackwater Park'', ''Deliverance'' and ''Damnation'', and was producer for those albums.
* Renowned Swedish flautist Björn J:son Lindh played flute on the song "Famine" from ''Heritage''.
* Peruvian percussionist Alex Acuña (who has performed with many other notable musicians, including Music/ElvisPresley) also played on "Famine".

* Steven Wilson of Music/PorcupineTree has provided backing vocals on ''Blackwater Park'', ''Deliverance'' and ''Damnation'', and was producer for those albums.

* LoudnessWar: Their metal albums are pretty squished, even the ones [[Music/PorcupineTree Steven Wilson]] produced. ''Damnation'' isn't that dynamic either. By the time of ''Pale Communion'' they had stopped doing this.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/opeth-live-small.jpg
[[caption-width:300:The dudes themselves. Opeth logo visible in the background.]]
Opeth is a heavy metal band formed in Stockholm, Sweden, by David Isberg and Mikael Åkerfeldt. After the band was formed, David later quit and left the band; Mikael became the main vocalist and guitarist.

Opeth is a heavy metal band formed in Stockholm, Sweden, by David Isberg and Mikael Åkerfeldt. After the band was formed, David later quit and left the band with Mikael, who became the main vocalist and guitarist.

Opeth is a heavy metal band formed in Stockholm Sweden by David Isberg and Mikael Åkerfeldt. After the band was formed, David later quit, and left the band with Mikael, who became the main vocalist and guitarist.

In 1995, Opeth released their debut album ''Orchid'', which was critically praised for its unique style of death metal, having twin guitar harmonies, also adding acoustic guitar, piano, and clean vocals, something rather unusual for the Scandinavian death metal scene. A couple of years later, they released ''Morningrise'', which continued to explore the techniques used in ''Orchid''. While it was quite popular, Opeth noticed that other metal bands began to copy them and Mikael urged the band to change their signature style. This lead to the release of the dark ConceptAlbum ''My Arms, Your Hearse''. A couple of years later, they released the fan favorite ''Still Life'', in which they began to deconstruct their sound. However, they never went on tour because their music which, while well liked, was not mainstream.

This all changed with the release of ''Blackwater Park'', which many fans and critics considered then to be Opeth's magnum opus. After the massive success of ''Blackwater Park'', they began their first world-wide tour. Within a six month period of time, they released two albums: ''Deliverance'' and ''Damnation''. The former is considered to be the band's heaviest work while the latter is a more elegant acoustic based album. While ''Deliverance'' was well-received, ''Damnation'' instantly became a fan favorite, most notably the song ''Windowpane''. After extensive touring, they released 2005's dark and majestic ''Ghost Reveries'', which (just like other previous albums) became an instant hit. After the release of ''Ghost Reveries'' however, Peter Lindgren and Martin Lopez (guitarist and drummer, respectively) left the band, leaving Opeth's future in doubt. Nevertheless, in 2008, Opeth released ''Watershed'', which has been praised as their deepest and most mature work to date.

Opeth are generally accepted to be one of the poster children for ProgressiveDeathMetal. While they are firmly rooted in Scandinavian death metal, they have shown many elements of ProgressiveRock throughout their albums. They are known to combine elements of heavy metal, progressive rock, Scandinavian folk music, blues, jazz, and acoustics into their songs. While Mikael has stated that groups that inspired Opeth were ones like Music/{{Slayer}}, Music/{{Black Sabbath}}, Music/{{Death}}, and CelticFrost, he fully admits that other bands like Music/{{Yes}}, Music/{{Camel}}, and other progressive bands inspired the progressive rock side of them. They are well known to try something new even after an extremely successful album (à la ''Blackwater Park'' and ''Ghost Reveries''). They remain one of the world's most popular DeathMetal acts, and are considered to be engaged in the work of opening up that scene to a wider audience, as their acoustic, jazzy, and folkish elements can easily draw fans of those styles into a position to appreciate the legitimate musicality of the abrasive, sonically violent, and dissonantly deconstructive nature of the death metal soundscape.

Opeth is not 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."

* Johan Defarfalla: bass (1991-1996)
* Anders Nordin: drums and piano in ''Silhouette'' (1991-1996)
* Peter Lindgren: guitar (1991-2007)
* Martin Lopez: drums (1996-2007)
* Per Wiberg: keyboards (2005-2011)

* Steven Wilson of PorcupineTree has provided backing vocals on ''Blackwater Park'', ''Deliverance'' and ''Damnation'', and was producer for those albums.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Played with most of the time, though their 2011 release, ''Heritage'', probably beats the rest of their catalogue in this department.

** Song "Advent" features quite many sudden screams between the constant growls. "The Leper Affinity" has a solid one near the climax ('defeaning shrieks pierced the '''NIIIIIIIGHT!!''''). Also the start of "Ghost of Perdition", halfway through "The Grand Conjuration", etc.

** ''Still Life'' is about a medieval atheist who returns to face the Christian government and regain his love, Melinda (WARNING: Major {{Downer Ending}})

* [[MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness Moh's Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness]]: 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. Almost every song on ''Watershed'' has these extreme variations as well.
** It's actually sort of pointless to rank Opeth songs using this scale, since their songs, and indeed, even different parts of the same song have so much variation in them, it becomes less necessary to rank the songs individually, so much as to rank them minute by minute. A tedious chore, since many of their songs are well over ten minutes long.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Played with most of the time, though their latest release, ''Heritage'', probably beats the rest of their catalogue in this department.

Opeth shows example of:

* XMeetsY: Music/DreamTheater meets Music/{{Obituary}}.

Opeth are generally accepted to be one of the poster children for ProgressiveDeathMetal. While they are firmly rooted in Scandinavian death metal, they have shown many elements of ProgressiveRock throughout their albums. They are known to combine elements of heavy metal, progressive rock, Scandinavian folk music, blues, jazz, and acoustics into their songs. While Mikael has stated that groups that inspired Opeth were ones like Music/{{Slayer}}, Music/{{Black Sabbath}}, Music/{{Death}}, and CelticFrost, he fully admits that other bands like {{Yes}} and other progressive bands inspired the progressive rock side of them. They are well know to try something new even after an extremely successful album (ala ''Blackwater Park'' and ''Ghost Reveries''). They remain one of the world's most popular DeathMetal acts, and are considered to be engaged in the work of opening up that scene to a wider audience, as their acoustic, jazzy, and folkish elements can easily draw fans of those styles into a position to appreciate the legitimate musicality of the abrasive, sonically violent, and dissonantly deconstructve nature of the death metal soundscape.

** Their last 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.

* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "To Bid You Farewell", "Credence", "Epilogue", "Benighted", "Face of Melinda", "Harvest", "For Absent Friends", several others, plus the entirety of ''Damnation'' and ''Heritage'', both of which qualify as [[SurprisinglyGentleSong Surprisingly Gentle Albums]].

** ''Ghost Reveries'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was]] going to be an example of this trope. Mikael had intended for it to be about a man who thinks he's undergoing DemonicPossession and how everyone and everything seems to be turning against him, but then he wrote the lyrics for "Isolation Years", which had nothing to do with the concept, but he liked the song so much that he scrapped the idea of the concept album, and the album's final track order ended up disrupting the intended "flow" of the story anyway.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Sort of. For the ''Lamentations'' concert, the band wanted to play the song "Demon of the Fall" from ''My Arms, Your Hearse'' as an encore, but licensing issues with Candlelight Records prevented them from including it on the DVD, so the band waited until the cameras stopped rolling, then came back out and played it.

* BlackSheepHit: The band expected "To Bid You Farewell", off of ''Morningrise'', to be hated, because of how mellow it was (they have stated that they put it on there because they liked it). It actually became the most beloved song on the album, if not of their entire early material.

* ''Pale Communion'' (2014) (upcoming)

* XMeetsY: ProgressiveMetal a la Music/DreamTheater meets [[GrimUpNorth Sweden]].