Fraxinus

After SO many years (I bought it as soon as it was released, convinced by a friend who was a shopkeeper), I still can't assign a rating to this album, even though in the past I felt much more certain about its intrinsic value. No, this key stone cannot be given a rational evaluation; there's no point in my trying. You have already said everything, so I’ll just say that it's an album detached from time, yet a direct consequence of what human society was/is/will become. Kudos to the reviewer, in any case.

Bought today. Twenty-four sesterces that I think will turn out to be very well spent. After all, in my heart there is room for Motorpsycho; there is plenty of space, and there always has been. I will dedicate myself to this ivory double album...

If only I could find it, alas...

Lime and limpid green the sound surrounds the icy waters underground.

This album truly marks the artistic moment from which Opeth cease to be a "fine congregation playing Swedish death metal" and become something much more personal, enduring, and original. The style thickens and crystallizes, the ideas are fully explored, and the result is genuinely excellent. How I wish, though, that they had developed the piano intro far beyond those few, melancholic and mesmerizing bars!

Orchid, which I am revisiting these days after years, still feels a bit rough around the edges, in my opinion. To put it better: there are indeed some good ideas, but they come through in death metal stylistic elements that are still very much Swedish, and you can feel it. No, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I think Akerfeldt and the band have been able to do better once they fully developed their creative maturity: starting from My Arms Your Hearse onwards, speaking personally. However, it remains a nice album that I bought as soon as it came out after reading excellent reviews about it. And to think that back then they were considered worthy successors to Edge of Sanity…

I can't express myself on the album yet, as I've only "nibbled" at it, listening to it not even too well on YouTube. It inspires me quite a bit, even though it has a certain smell of moss and lichen, if you know what I mean. After all, it was Akerfeldt himself who stated in interviews that he desired a more "earthy" sound during the recordings of Heritage at Atlantis Studio (yes, the one that has been active since 1960!). However, I would like to say something about the uproar regarding the abandonment of the growl: there is definitely a group of devotees very attached to the death metal stylistic features (and for goodness' sake, Mikael's deep and dark growl appealed to me as well), but I think there are also countless other listeners who can perfectly overlook that style of singing, without making it a disease or branding the Swedish band with infamy because of this artistic choice. Moreover, let's face it, regardless of the intrinsic value of this album, it seems positive that someone so well embedded within the music industry decides to make somewhat courageous choices, perhaps even risking that aforementioned and notorious group of devotees. I greatly appreciate Opeth, I have several of their albums and I've seen them live twice; I believe that, regardless of how successful Heritage may be, they still have a lot to say... with or without growl.

No, thank you. After the peaks reached from '73 to '75, this little disc is truly the antechamber of the commercial emptiness of that decade, at Queen's house. Insignificant, despite a few catchy and danceable bass grooves.

Uselessness, complete with a blowjob pose on the cover, to subliminally -or not- entice even more gullible people to open their wallets.

An exceptional record, in both of its "incarnations." An hour to get lost in for decades...