Opeth – Still Life

"She is water drops over the pyre

a thistle in my hands

Stained and torn, aged and brown

virtuous shell with kindred innocence" 

There is something surreal and transcendental about Opeth, I remember reading an interview where their former guitarist Peter Lindgren described their music as 'death metal with emotions'  and that could be a good approximation of the band's sound. The best Swedish metal band in my opinion, they have this undeniable Swedish melancholy in their music, the sadness that can be heard in every Swedish export that includes the great ABBA. Every note, every word that you hear from Opeth is the vision of Mikael Åkerfeldt, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and the sole original member of the band, his influences are as diverse the music he writes. For those who are unaware, Opeth oscillates between two extremes, the brutal heavy death metal side and the mellow, beautiful, melodic side and Åkerfeldt is a bipolar vocalist shifting from deep growls to delicate and emotional clean singing with ease.     

Still Life is their fourth studio album, their first album to feature Martín Méndez on bass. It's a concept album and has a story intervened in its seven songs. The album stars of with the best song of the album The Moor, the  guitar fade-ins and acoustic guitars for the first 2 minutes sets the mood and atmosphere for what is a very heavy song and in true Opeth fashion it's more than 10 minute long. The Moor introduce us to the story set in about in a pre-Victorian era. The narrator, the person in whose point of view Åkerfeldt is singing returns after several years to the place he was banished from. The narrator didn't have the faith he was expected to have (...I was foul and tainted, devoid of faith..) he was considered a hypocrite by the people (..Branded a Jonah with fevered blood, Ungodly freek, defiler..). The song breaks down into their signature mellow part at around the middle, where the female lead and the reason for the narrator's return is introduced.

"There is no forgiveness in these eyes  

for any of you but one.

Dispel the mist for now 

Melinda is the reason why I've come"

The people are not happy with his return as reflected in the next song Godhead's Lament, the song is one of the rare instance where there is a chorus, a 'sing along' one at that, it's infectiously catchy for an Opeth song. The song that follows is the shortest in the album, the song with no harsh vocals, the most straight forward song they have written up to that point. Benighted starts of with an acoustic guitar riff similar to the song Never Let Go by English progressive rock band Camel, Åkerfeldt was never shy about his progressive rock influences and the similarity seems to be more of a tribute rather that an act of plagiarism. In the song the narrator calls Melinda to come with him and wonders why she made the decision that disappointed him ("What came and distorted your sight ? saw you benighted by your fright"), the song has a blues rock solo right when the drums kicks in and Åkerfeldt's voice seems to be tender and airy, almost romantic.  

The dwellers get restless with every passing day, the leaders among them 'the council of the cross' as introduced in Moonlapse Vertigo learn about the narrator's past affair with Melinda and the reason for his return. The song is almost ballad esque with alternate clean and heavy parts and a sick guitar solo, the song fades into arguably the most beautiful Opeth song of all time Face of Melinda. Its lyrics alone is a poetic masterpiece following an AABB rhyme scheme throughout and its in this song the climax lie. Melinda dedicated herself to God and became a nun, still it doesn't stop the narrator from having her back ("I returned for you in great dismay..Come with me far away to stay") and in the final verse lies the twist 

"Endlessly gazing in nocturnal prime

she spoke of her vices and broke the rhyme

but baffled herself with the final line

my promise is made but my heart is thine"     

"My promise is made but my heart is thine" is the very essence of this album, I don't think I have heard a more beautiful lyric than this one in Face of Melinda, there is this jazzy feel to the song with fretless bass and drumming with brushes instead of a drum stick.    

  It's not a happy ending however, in Serenity Painted Death the council murders Melinda.

"Ripped from my embrace

Melinda reflects in shaftes

Red line around her neck

met the earth in silence" 

The narrator vows to avenge her death, however it turns to be futile as the narrator is hanged to death by the council in last song White Cluster. The narrator probably meets Melinda in the afterlife, I say probably because the song fades to a stop and then there is a short dreamy clean guitar part that follows, the song fading to silence might be his death and the part that follows might be the afterlife, thats how I see it.

Lets not forget the wonderful artwork by Travis Smith, he has worked with a lot of bands like Death, King Diamond, Katatonia, Avenged Sevenfold and Riverside among others and all of them are great. If you look closely, the reflection of the cross is made wrong on purpose, instead a blurred image of the narrator is drawn implying that the beliefs of the narrator is opposite to what that is represented by the cross.    

Opeth is undoubtedly my favorite band of all time, they have everything that I want from music, the darkness, the melancholy, poetic lyrics and the riffs that is so unique to Opeth. They are no longer a death metal band now, having abandoned the death metal vocals in their last three albums and I love the two eras of Opeth equally. Still Life is not their best record which speaks volumes about their discography considering I have praised the album so much. An Opeth album is an experience on its own, even if you don't listen to anything that is posted here thats fine by me but if this post made you to check out an Opeth song, consider me happy and fulfilled.