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And of course they don't use distorted guitars! Now Opeth are turning Pop? Well... you mentioned Serenity Painted Death, which I actually think is the worst track on Still Life: at one point Akerfeldt uses a clean voice, creating a really awful melody (about halfway through the song), one of the worst moments from Opeth, but thankfully it lasts only a few seconds. The experimental pieces you mentioned, apart from that sad moment in Serenity Painted Death, are truly successful for me. Moonlapse Vertigo, Godhead's Lament, The Moor, Face of Melinda... I would mention them all. Just because a band plays with distorted guitars, it doesn’t have to be death, right? You say they’re not heavy, but my friends... Opeth want to be heavy in a cerebral way; come on, it’s obvious. If you’re comparing me to classic death metal bands, we’ll never make it through the night. If you want a canonically standard death band, don’t listen to Opeth... I don’t care if they’re death, prog, bullshit, crap; what matters is the result. The SYNTHESIS. Labels are just there for specialized journalists to spout some nonsense in their reviews.

incomplete because there are some interesting ideas in Damnation, but it seems monotonous and the songs could have been developed and elaborated better. The songs are a bit repetitive and do not suggest very different emotions from one another. The album never rises in tone; it remains at a decent level from the first to the last minute without any bursts of brilliance. The best tracks are Morningrise and Still Life (artistically and qualitatively), but Blackwater Park is subjectively the one I identify with the most. However, it is inferior to these two.

I don’t want to contradict you all the time, but um... some songs from Damnation are nice, but I think it’s an incomplete and monotonous album... one of the least interesting by Opeth for me personally, even though as an experiment it’s not a complete failure. I still kind of like it. But it’s not very original. Enjoy your listening, Death...

It's not about being fanatical; you could say they're a normal group, but saying they suck for the reasons you've suggested just doesn't make sense to me, that's all.

But if you go back and read your first post, you'll understand why you were attacked..

It’s the fans and certain critics that present them as something they are not.

But the proposal is anything but hybrid, and let me explain why... Opeth are not death metal, but they have undeniable death influences; they are not prog, but they have undeniable prog influences; they are not blues, jazz, folk, doom, or gothic, but they have influences from those genres... that’s why the sound of Opeth is hard to define with a label and therefore, original, and hence unique... "Yes, of course, Morbid Angel range from doom to grind in always different ways..." that doesn’t seem like a great variety of genres, even if they are probably the least "closed" and the most "experimental" (!) in classic death metal. Obviously, if you only listen to Metal, you won’t understand me. I can listen to Dream, Power pop, as long as it’s done well and of quality. I hope I made myself clear.

Sorry if Opeth always do the same thing, as you say, regarding Morbid Angel with ONE song you have their entire discography, huh...

But do you see how you're approaching this all wrong? What do Death and Morbid Angel have to do with it? Sorry, but you're thinking like a metalhead, and you're mistaken. Because Opeth are not just Metal. This is elaborate music that, personally and artistically, is worth more than Morbid Angel. Critiques are fine if they make sense, not if you say Opeth suck because they don't have death riffs. I mean, that criticism doesn’t hold up at all, do you realize that? And do we want to consider Opeth not progressive? That’s perfectly fine, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a really great album. There’s no rule that says an album has to be prog and/or death to be truly great. Not at all.

I am a fan of Opeth, but if you give a 5 to this album, you have to give a 12 to Morningrise and Still Life. The sonic analogies, as you call them, are there; it’s pointless to protect Opeth from any criticism just because they are now a cult band.