 Apparently Steven Wilson once said that the future of Prog Rock is in Metal.
Whether Wilson said that or not - it's true.
But not just any metal. We'll have to invent a new genre description
for the music we're talking about here. Progressive Metal would
have been the perfect moniker but that term has already been adopted by the
Dream Theaters of the world. Perhaps we could call it nu prog.
A number of metal artists are evolving way past metal. Acts like
Orphaned Land, Kayo Dot and Green Carnation have moved us beyond metal into
something that is a fascinating new combination of heavy, death, doom, and black
metal, combined with acoustic and folksy music, tinges of jazz, electronica,
and space music, and yes, symphonic prog.
The whole brew is masterfully blended with the traditional elements of
progressive music - wonderful musicianship, complex structures with little
evidence of the verse/chorus/verse format, and long songs that move through
interesting shifts in tempo, time meters and keys. This stuff is really
progressing - in the truest sense of the word - probably faster and in more
interesting ways than any other genre.
Opeth is at the forefront of this movement, and they have achieved
something that has escaped almost every other prog-whatever outfit: They
actually
sell! They fill venues across the world, and are beginning to find
acceptance in music's mainstream. On the one hand, any
modern-day headbanger will appreciate their blend of death metal growls and
ripping double-bass, and the bone-hard distorted riffs. On the other hand,
there are long sections of elegant, mellow music that could have emanated from
Camel - which was band-leader Mikael Åkerfeldt's favorite 1970s prog band.
The staff at Sea Of Tranquility has taken the time to review Opeth's entire
back catalog. Click here for a full list of these reviews, which
collectively amount to 16,000 words and constitute one of the most comprehensive retrospectives of Opeth's music,
anywhere, ever.
Click on each item to see the review.
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