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| OPETH – Damnation | |||
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Label: | Music For Nations | |
| Release: | April 22 2003 | ||
| By: | Dan | ||
| Rating: | 9.5/10 | ||
| Time: | 42:23 | ||
| Style: | Progressive Doom Metal | ||
| URL: | Opeth | ||
Weaker now, drawing fluid from me
You kill me I’m not afraid of what you have just done But of what you’ve just become And thus ends the second opus of OPETH’s double-CD project. I believe my mom put it best when she said, “This music is… crystalline.” And how so. If there’s any doubt that OPETH aren’t talented musicians and songwriters, this album will wipe it away. Obviously the most different thing about this album compared to OPETH’s others is the lack of aggressiveness and Mikael’s death growls. This album has no traces of death metal in it whatsoever. If you play it to a non-metal fan, they will most certainly say “But this isn’t metal!” The fact is, this album is more of a melancholy form of rock, or a lighter side of doom metal. But as usual with works of such quality, there are too many things going on to pin a specific genre to it. The acoustic sections are undeniably OPETH. They are faint whispers of Orchid and Morningrise, the band’s first two albums. The solos have are very Pink Floydish, except they have are much darker feeling to them. Not a depressed feeling though. It’s not the type of sadness that pulls you in and makes you mourn, but instead the type of sadness that makes you feel complete and clear-headed. It’s an ethereal experience that is hard to explain, and must be experienced in person. The other interesting thing about Damnation is the often jazz-influenced drumming. It’s a very nice contrast to the guitar-work and keys, especially in Windowpane and Ending Credits. The drums are very laid back and Martin Lopez kicks the bass-line almost throughout the entire album, finishing off each bar with the classic cymbal crash. On the other side of the rhythm section, Martin Mendez brings out his bass to create some really memorable lines, as opposed to his usual mirroring of Peter and Mikael’s guitars. It’s very rare that a bassist shines as much as Mendez does on this album. I’m sure die-hard fans of OPETH are aware of Epilogue, the final track on the My Arms, Your Hearse album, and the sheer beauty of it. I’d like to say that the track is back, in the form of Ending Credits. After the beautiful Epilogue, OPETH’s instrumentals were heavily lacking. For Absent Friends hardly deserves to be called a song, Madrigal was awfully repetitive, and Patterns In The Ivy, despite being quite beautiful, lacked passion. But Ending Credits could even rival Epilogue as the best OPETH instrumental. The guitar-work is amazing, and there is an unlimited amount of energy behind the song. I hope that Mikael is now done writing things like For Absent Friends, and has moved on to make more instrumentals like this one. The one problem fans might have with this album is the last track, Weakness. It’s easy to disregard the song what with the others being so amazing. It’s repetitive, and the main tune sounds like it’s being played by a very deep, pedaled xylophone. But somehow, Mikael manages to write some lyrics that complement Weakness and bring out the true feeling of it. I suggest reading the lyrics while listening to the song; you’ll hear it in the way it was meant to be heard, as a work of genius. Damnation is yet another masterpiece. It’s hard to believe after 6 albums the band can still put out such quality work. If other metal bands were half as good as OPETH is, the world would be a much, much better place. Synopsis:
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