Opeth - Watershed

[Kouler]

So, for those of you that have heard it, what do you think?

I personally love it, its very different from what Opeth has done before but in a good way, its quite refreshing.

My favourite tracks are Lotus Eater and Heir Apparent.

 

[Keane]

I was initially disappointed with the lack of growls, but I can see this album getting better after a few more listens. Still, I doubt I'll ever consider it as good as My Arms Your Hearse or Blackwater Park.

My favourite tracks are Lotus Eater and Heir Apparent.

Same here.

 

[knut]

The Locus Eater is an awesome track, and I don't even like Opeth much! I got this album out of the blue and I'm quite enjoying but I still can't get into their earlier albums.

 

[Pulse]

Just picked it up, Hessian Peel and Coil really stand out to me at the moment, beautiful harmonies and guitar work going on.

 

[PvtRyan]

I was initially disappointed with the lack of growls, but I can see this album getting better after a few more listens. Still, I doubt I'll ever consider it as good as My Arms Your Hearse or Blackwater Park.



Same here.

No growls? Interesting! I like the sound of Opeth, but I can't stand growls or grunts.

 

[Pulse]

Wait, it's in stores?

Damn.

When does the special edition come out?

EDIT: It comes out June 3rd. Jeez, don't say "I just picked it up" when you mean "downloaded it off of some torrent site."

Rapidshare, actually.

 

[knut]

So... how do you have the album, then?

 

[Pulse]

There are death vocals, but just less of them. Interestingly, despite the lower frequency of death vocals, there's actually more death metal musical elements than on any other previous album (arguably), such as blastbeats.

Well, what a devoted fan you are.

Well, what an asshat you are. I'm still going to buy the album when it's released in stores. How am I any less of a fan when I'll gladly go out and purchase a hard copy upon release?

 

[Laivasse]

Metal fans in particular should feel less guilty about pirating music. The marginalised nature of the genre means that the major distribution channels available to mainstream commercial acts tend not to be available to metal bands, which are typically on much smaller or independent labels.

I should not and do not feel any compunction to give high street retailers and big name labels their cut when they're more concerned with conning pocket money out of 12 year old girls than they are with stocking music that I actually give a crap about. I'd rather show support by going to gigs and buying merch, where most of the money goes direct into the artist's pocket. Hell, if most of my favourite artist's sites had a Paypal donations link I'd use it.

If Opeth don't think they're making enough, they have plenty of options open. They can get off of Roadrunner, which is a giant corporate zombie of a label and probably screws their artists out of millions (it's also a member of the RIAA, which has NO interest whatsoever in cultivating metal talent). They can make slightly more accessible music and rake in more money (at the expense of artistic integrity, but what's that worth when you have MOOLAH...!!!). They can get actual jobs, instead of acting like the patronage of music listeners is something they're entitled to. Or they can put up and shut up.

Sorry for the rant. I'm unsympathetic to piracy rants in general but when it comes to metal, where the industry simply doesn't work for most of the bands involved, I can't stand by and listen to talk about poor starving artists...

 

[knut]

Metal fans in particular should feel less guilty about pirating music. The marginalised nature of the genre means that the major distribution channels available to mainstream commercial acts tend not to be available to metal bands, which are typically on much smaller or independent labels.

I should not and do not feel any compunction to give high street retailers and big name labels their cut when they're more concerned with conning pocket money out of 12 year old girls than they are with stocking music that I actually give a crap about. I'd rather show support by going to gigs and buying merch, where most of the money goes direct into the artist's pocket. Hell, if most of my favourite artist's sites had a Paypal donations link I'd use it.

My thoughts (and actions, as I usually always buy a shirt and a CD at a gig, depending upon the band) exactly.

 

[PvtRyan]

Eh, I was just being sarcastic there. It just annoys me that most people these days don't bother buying their music (even if you do). Everyone tries to downplay piracy these days, but apparently, everybody who pirates is the exception. It's even worse with metal bands; even a popular group like Opeth (again, by metal standards, discounting the giants like Black Sabbath) doesn't make enough money to dedicate themselves solely to their music.

If they don't make enough money from the band to live off, then they don't do enough gigs. I think it's weird it's expected that a band should be able to live comfortably off making one album every two years. If a band manages to score a huge hit that allows them to do so, good for them, but I don't see how it should be the norm.

I generally don't buy CDs because I think it's an archaic way to distribute music and the music industry should get off its ass and get with the times. My ideal way to distribute music would be one where every artist has a website with their albums on it which you can buy through PayPal where 100% of the earnings go to the artist. I don't wanna give any money to a completely redundant chain in the link: the record label, especially not if the lion's share of my money goes to them. Fuck 'em, the sooner they go bankrupt the better. It's not like music would die as an artform.

The internet is the ideal distribution platform for music, because it's also way better for advertisement of the band than a record label would be able to give, through channels like MySpace, last.fm, YouTube, etc.