splinter

I honestly don't really understand what the hell you mean by "mannerism" when you describe an album...

I find the disdain towards Watershed incomprehensible, just like that towards Ghost Reveries: new rhythms, more modern sounds, the addition of '70s elements creating a very unique mix with heavy guitar riffs, the orchestral additions of Hessian Peel, then Burden which contains perhaps the most beautiful organ solo ever, but also Ghost Reveries... the oriental sound of Atonement and Beneath The Mire, the rhythms of The Grand Conjuration, the heavily distorted organs of The Baying of the Hounds...

For me, they are the two boldest albums of the band; I would have continued down that path for another two albums before the current shift (which I would have tried as well).

I don't know, for you, your bands should endlessly repeat the formula of their best albums, I would get bored, even if all of them resulted in masterpieces; for me, if you believe in music, you have to acknowledge its necessity not to repeat itself too much, and you must learn to appreciate changes, even when one could have done better.

I actually found it more interesting than the previous two. The evolution of Opeth over the years is definitely something very interesting and fascinating to follow and discuss.

In Heritage, I admit I also noticed a tendency towards imitation and the lack of the Opethian imprint, although I enjoy listening to it and appreciated it nonetheless. A touch of extra personality is already present in Pale Communion; here, however, they really managed to play a cavernous and dark prog-rock as they wanted, and their signature can definitely be felt—this album sounds much more Opeth than it might seem.

A picturesque review that perfectly describes the chaos of the album. A crazy record from a crazy band! Too bad they broke up.

This song, by the way, was featured in a perfume commercial around 2001, but apparently commercials do not lead to greater visibility as one might think...

This is a great album, but I prefer the technological sound of Rage For Order and the more refined one of Promised Land.

"It's already all been given..." The biggest nonsense of the century; it sounds like a phrase written by some old-timer who hasn't listened to anything since '77 and doesn't know who A.C.T and Haken are...

Great album for sure, but I won't hide the fact that I prefer them later, when they became seriously eclectic and more unpredictable, although also more commercial. The triad Black Holes And Revelations - The Resistance - The 2nd Law represents the peak of the Muse's eclecticism for me. To hell with the critics!

When music becomes just a matter of image and not true music...

Once in the trivia section of Settimana Enigmistica, I found, among various curiosities, a small article that talked about the Magma; it simply stated that Vander, finding French unsuitable for what he needed to convey, invented this language that would be roughly a mix of Provençal French and German.