Blackwater Park
Opeth (2001)
*****
*****
Looking at some lists of the "best music albums of the decade," I noticed some consensus top choices ("Kid A" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" to name a few). I won't deny that these albums are musically innovative, but honestly the only "top album" that really grabs me is Arcade Fire's "Funeral." In choosing my top album of the decade, I will break from the mold a bit and choose an album from an oft-neglected genre - heavy metal.
Opeth is typically classified as "progressive death metal," a term which already looks like a handful but doesn't even begin to describe the type of music that they make. Mikael Akerfeldt's songwriting transcends all of the guidelines and stereotypes of metal, and can be enjoyed by both heavy metal fans, who will see the music as novel, and non-metal fans, who will find the music surprisingly accessible.
The defining characteristic of the band's music is the ability to weave together all different types of expressions and styles so seamlessly. One moment, you may be hearing raging screams over percussive distortion guitar riffs. Then comes a solemn piece on the piano or acoustic guitar, and then a jazzy segment with clean vocals. Yet as eclectic as each piece of Opeth's music is, all of it feels so natural and makes so much sense, and this is what sets Blackwater Park apart from the decade's other musical innovations.
Blackwater Park, for Opeth, is a starting point for what would eventually be a decade of consistently great music characterized by their trademark sound and songwriting style, and perhaps more importantly, production of the highest quality. However, in my opinion Blackwater Park is still their magnum opus - as an album it is the most cohesive of all their works, and its influence on their music and on many other bands is undeniable.
As is the case with all of Opeth's albums, Blackwater Park is meant to be listened to all the way through as one "song." Accordingly, the album is not really divided into "songs" as much as "movements," in the style of long-form classical music. With an average track length of about 8 1/2 minutes, each song contains musical themes that carefully develop and evolve into or are shoved aside by new ones - though once in a while you may hear a brief reprise and think, "whoa, we heard this 7 minutes ago... how did we get all the way back here?!" with an expression of amazed surprise.
But the musical complexity of the album isn't the only thing that makes it so great. Over the course of 67 minutes, the band creates an immersive musical atmosphere that approaches the greatness of my all-time favorite album, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. There is not a single bad moment to be found in either work, and each one brings a new experience upon every re-listen.
Typically, I listen to music (a wide variety of genres, might I add) while doing something else, like using my computer, studying, or walking somewhere. But there are some albums that I find worthwhile to just sit down, relax, close my eyes, and absorb - and Blackwater Park is one of a select few.
At this point, I encourage you to do exactly this: pop in the album, get rid of distractions, and absorb and appreciate this masterpiece. (Well, at the very least pop in the album...) Below is an extremely detailed listening guide for the album, which may be useful to skim if you're deciding whether or not to invest your next hour listening to some Opeth, but is intended more as a supplementary read while or after listening to the album, to deepen your appreciation. Yes, the guide is incredibly lengthy, but it just only scratches the surface of all the substance in this masterpiece.
*****
Opeth's Blackwater Park
Jason's extremely detailed listening guide
Blackwater Park opens with the fading in of a barely audible, eerie and dissonant noise, before coming in with a bang (0:28). The beginning of "The Leper Affinity" contains the hardest, loudest, and fastest music of the entire album. The opening riffs are sure to please any metal fan, and for those not used to this type of music, rest assured that these brutal opening passages are actually leading to something beautiful. By the end of the album, you will not even notice how "metal" much of the album really is! Already the music is getting pretty technical. Did you notice the triplet-duplet polyrhythms between the guitars and vocals in the first riff (0:43) and the fact that the music changes from 3/4 to 6/8 meter at (0:56)? Hopefully you didn't before I pointed it out, because the subtlety that Opeth is able to incorporate into their musical complexity is impressive. The transition at (2:12) is great. From a melodic death metal tone that sets the tone of the track, we go into a segment with a more thrash-influenced style (think Metallica) that is perfect for headbanging. After some development, we get a recapitulation of the same riff at (3:14) with a more slurred articulation (again a subtle detail), which is the perfect setup for the slow, melodic segment at (4:05). The solo guitars here sound like they're really singing - crying even. (4:46) is the first part of the album that would make someone familiar with Opeth but not with the album go, "oh hey, this is an Opeth album." Acoustic guitars, clean singing - the balance and contrast this has with the heavier portions of the album is what makes the album shine. And here, the high production quality of the album, which is marked by an uncharacteristic amount of clarity for a metal album, is at its most obvious. The way that this somewhat jazzy/funky portion gradually builds back up to the original theme from (5:38) to (6:53) is masterful and has some great rhythms. The music eventually calms down into a pretty piano segment (8:52) that is just filled with longing. Thinking about this track as a whole, it follows a classical sonata form (A-B-A-coda), which is interesting in that A) it doesn't follow the verse-refrain format that is too popular in music today, and B) it develops a "B" section (the slow part) that is so different from the "A" section, yet each transition flows so naturally. This track alone is already a masterpiece, but we're only getting started, because the piano solo segues right into the second track.
"Bleak" is a beautiful track that stands out in an already great album, and its greatness need not be explained, though I will proceed anyway to note some details. The themes in the first three minutes of the song are based on the exotic-sounding Arabic and Hungarian scales, and right away the great consonance between the acoustic and electric guitars is amazing and is a testament to the album's production quality. The expressive quality of the growling vocals always intrigues me - it is completely devoid of the anger that runs rampant in death metal vocals, and Mikael Akerfeldt does an excellent job conveying the emotions found in the lyrics. The cadence at (2:39) is awesome - even though it's on an acoustic guitar, it's possible the most jarring moment in the album so far. At (3:08) is a super-technical lick that leads to the second main chunk of the song, which has an incredibly catchy clean vocal part. This is sung over a guitar riff whose notes could easily be the instrumental for a hard rock song, but here is played and produced with such a legato quality that for a rhythm guitar part, it is incredibly lyrical. The passages at (4:26) to (5:59) are pretty straight up - the bass part in particular is quite cool. For some reason Eric Clapton comes to mind. The band makes a smart decision at (5:16) to hold the pause for longer than a full four counts. We expect them to come back in, but they trick us and don't come in until a beat or two later. At (6:00) begins the development of a great multilayered atmosphere, though it is still easy for a listener to follow. Then, of course, at (7:21) comes back that cool part again from a while ago - though for some reason I feel like it has a more powerful quality to it this time around, especially once the vocals transition back into death metal growling. As the track is wrapping up, the drum part goes into double at (8:43), which is pretty sweet, before the track ends with what sounds kind of like an electric guitar dying.
"Harvest" is some nice easy listening after two long, complex tracks. It is done the entire way through with soft, clean vocals over an acoustic guitar backing. The two vocal parts sound pretty much perfect together, whether they are singing in octaves, in harmony, or in unison. Interestingly, the drummer sounds like he's using brushes here, which brings a nice contrast to the harder drumming found previously. Obviously it's a huge deviation from heavy metal standards. The music seems pretty straight up this time, but the key signatures are going all over the place! The song opens in E minor before going into C minor for the first main vocal part ("Stay with me awhile") and then into A minor for the next ("Into the orchard") before standing on B minor ("Wilted scenes for us"). The chord progressions don't really make any sense to me, but Opeth makes it work. At (3:13) is... wait for it... another key change! This time into D minor. The guitar solo here isn't too melodic, but is very emotional. Not much else to say... just relax and enjoy this one.
After a track that is simpler and closer to a regular song, we dive right back into all-out Opeth mode with "The Drapery Falls", whose opening lead guitar riff reminds me a little of King Crimson's epic track "In the Court of the Crimson King." The bass part under this riff is excellent too - it dances around the fretboard with a little bit of a groove to it and while the fits with the music around it, it also has a personality of its own. This intro is one of those moments where you can really "lose yourself to the music" as Eminem would put it, and it leads perfectly to the next section that starts at (1:46). This passage is noticeably bare compared to the musical multilayering of much of the album and is reminiscent of the "B" section of "The Leper Affinity," especially in the vocal effects and absence of a drum part. After some crazy acoustic guitar chords, in comes the drums and some passionate singing at (2:47). The first time around, this phrase dies back down into bareness, but the second time it segues into a long crescendo, eventually leading to an intense passage with the first death metal vocals (5:06) that we've heard in over ten minutes. This is some great songwriting here! If the album had a "plot curve," this could be the peak right here. At (5:35), the band puts aside melody and just grinds out some huge power chords, leading to an insane dissonant vamp at (5:50) in 5/16 time that after a while transcends even trying to make sense but somehow leads flawlessly right into the next section at (6:09). The rhythm becomes a little more clear now - it's 5/8 (or 10/16), with the beats grouped 3-3-2-2 (like the Mission Impossible theme), and a couple of measures of different lengths tossed in every now and then. Finally we go back to a straight 6/8 at (6:49), which is what we've been accustomed to for much of the album. Still, the intensity is not at all waning. The riff here is vamped for a while, but at (7:19) it goes into double time, but with the beats grouped 3-3-2-2-2 instead of a straight up 3-3-3-3 or 2-2-2-2-2-2. For some reason, this reminds me a little bit of Green Day. The big shocker comes at (7:47) when all of the instruments suddenly drop out. But don't let this brief acoustic guitar / vocal duet fool you, because it alternates rapidly with some really heavy stuff, complete with double bass drum pedaling action. Eventually, the original theme of the track makes its reprise at (8:41), which by now should be no surprise, as the band has largely been following an A-B-A sonata form for most of the tracks. As the double bass drum beats become more prominent, the music fades into nothingness, which is the ideal ending considering the track to follow.
"Dirge for November" is probably the track in the album that focuses most on using music to create a pure mood rather than a mood concealed within a melody. Unlike the other tracks, you can't really sing along to the tunes in this track, and if you tried to, you're missing the point. The beginning of the track is very obviously bare, and the tempo is very rubato, which is an art that is largely disappearing and often misinterpreted when actually performed. The suspension and resolution at (0:08) and the dissonance at (0:18) are simply astounding. This passage can be thought of as a kind of introduction to the rest of the track, starting at (0:45), which is more cohesive. The name of the game from this point on is "4," because that seems to be the number of times each riff is repeated. But it's clear here that Opeth is aiming for a slow, deliberate development of the mood - a constantly shifting atmosphere would be disorienting. The beginning of the instrumental passage is the closest we really come to a melody, and features the electric guitar playing with such a muted sound that it almost resembles the sound of a nylon-strung classical guitar. At (1:43) is the sudden entrance of the distorted guitars, which play a variation of the previous riff. By the time the vocals reenter at (3:27), the themes have become almost hypnotic. This trance-like death metal is sustained until (5:45), when the music dies down to a clean guitar riff that is not at all melodic but contains some beautiful chords and sweeping arpeggios. Out of all the great tracks on the album, this might be the least "memorable" for its lack of melody - but that doesn't diminish the track's greatness. Just kick back and absorb the music, the mood, the ambience.
After the fading out of the guitar in "Dirge for November" comes the fading in of a ominous repeated, dissonant, broken chord on the acoustic guitar in "The Funeral Portrait", which is followed by a thrashy section at (0:30) which makes you remember that, yes, this is an album that you can rock out to when the time is right. Not much commentary is needed here - most of the track is straight up and easy to enjoy. The short interlude at (3:53) seems to be kind of jazz fusion influenced, with the acoustic guitar and drums having a little back-and-forth conversation. The track then gradually becomes more atmospheric and less rhythmic, starting with (4:07), which still has hints of thrash with the tight rhythms on the bass drum, and eventually leading to (4:28), which has a foggy feel despite the near blues-iness of the guitar solo and the jazzy drum beats at (4:43). And of course, what long Opeth track would be complete without a recapitulation of the first theme (5:28)? The coda section starting at (6:33) is really interesting because its chord progressions seem to be heavily influenced by classical music theory. This is especially evident in the iv-iib-V7 chord progression at (6:37), which is hardly ever used in music nowadays. At (6:48)... three-part vocal harmony mixed in with counterpoint... Bach would be proud! The change into double time at (7:16) should by now not come as a surprise. We get a little bit of double lead guitar action as the track fades out to...
"Patterns in the Ivy", which at a mere 1:52 in duration is clearly meant as an interlude between two beastly tracks. Just relax and enjoy the beautiful contemporary harmonies of this acoustic guitar / piano duet.
Finally we arrive at the big ending - the title track of the album, "Blackwater Park", which might be the least technically complex track in the album - centering almost entirely on the D Hungarian scale - but it is still pure awesome. It starts with a march-like feel that at times (1:25 in particular) reminds me of the opening riffs of Metallica's classic "For Whom the Bell Tolls". The opening sections are definitely influenced by 80's and 90's metal (Pantera comes into mind), and even though a true metalhead will never get sick of the key of E, Opeth switches things up here by going into drop D tuning, which I tend to associate with lots of oomph and slower, steady beats. When the heavy guitars suddenly drop out in (2:41), we're left with a beautiful clean guitar riff that will be vamped over and over again while various other parts interact with it - very much in the progressive rock style - like the electric guitar part at (3:44) that has a vocal quality to it (though the vamped riff is replaced briefly by an acoustic guitar at this point). This is the last track of the album, and you can probably guess that this serene section is preparation for an epic ending. Indeed, the music fades back in at (5:10) and is even heavier than it was at the beginning of the track. The use of the kill switch at (6:37) and at various points later adds some rhythmic flavor and gives Opeth even more bonus points. The riff at (8:07) is a reprise of the clean guitar riff vamped in the previous section, and obviously has a completely different feel this time, played in octaves on a distorted guitar - so grand, orgasmic even. Once again, the riff is vamped, but this time there is more development going on, with the rhythms going into double time at (8:51). The passage starting at (9:14) marks a kind of final climax of the album before the brief, disorienting "pause" at (9:37) and denouement at (9:48). As the track and album wind down, layers of sustained electric guitar notes pile on top of each other starting at (10:56), much like the end of "Master of Puppets", until (11:19). Here you may be expecting the album to end with a grandiose, shredding away of the strings, which is understandable because a lot of bands like to rock out like this before they end their show. It will probably be surprising, then, to hear the album end with a single, staccato, power chord, followed by the gradual fading out of an acoustic guitar over the course of a minute. And so we are reminded of the famous ending lines of T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" - "This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper."
*****
For the lyrics to Blackwater Park, click here.
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