Opeth
Morningrise

THE REVIEW

Look, I really don't know how to start this review! I mean, why do I have to do it? I'm not truly worthy of evaluating an album of such sublime beauty, even though I already knew from the start that, sooner or later, the second, beautiful, Opeth album would have to cross my humble lines.
We already know how impossible it is to find someone who criticizes the Swedish group: "Morningrise" provides tangible evidence of this impossibility, an almost perfect record that, in all its refined beauty and complexity, presents itself as one of the band's best albums, one of those that must be listened to hundreds of times after the first taste.
Personally, I'm very attached to this album because it's the one that introduced me to Opeth for the first time: an experience I recommend everyone to try. The complexity, imagination, and variety of stylistic and emotional forms, nothing short of astounding, is the feature that more than any other makes this group great, and in "Morningrise," it becomes all too evident: there isn't even a single song under 10 minutes! And yet, you'd be tempted every second to hit the play button again. With "Advent," the more progressive vein of Opeth immediately becomes clear: the atmosphere is evocative and emotional, while a slightly dark flavor, which will accompany all the other songs, comes to light, with a subtle nod to "Orchid." Delicate arpeggios close this piece of indescribable beauty.
The following "The Night And The Silent Water" is simply astonishing, decidedly out of the ordinary, no one else could have written it. The distorted solos, the magnificent and enveloping melodic openings, the acoustic breaks of inconceivable emotional intensity, the intense accelerations... two guitars intertwine with each other with astonishing harmony, natural transitions from growl to clean, from cold and aggressive sounds to warm, delicate and enveloping ones... I will never ever tire of listening to it; probably composing this song alone would have been enough for Mikael Akerfeldt to earn the title of absolute genius, writing some of the most spectacular riffs I've ever heard in my life... One of Opeth's signature songs, in my opinion.
Even "Nectar" is simply splendid: the group hardens, offering a fascinating charge and intensity, with an enchanting underlying dramatic sensitivity...
I just hope I haven't run out of words to talk about the immense "Black Rose Immortal"... The "song" par excellence: over 20 minutes, each more beautiful than the last. Opeth encapsulates an immeasurable complexity in such a natural compactness that leaves one speechless, to say the least. Emotions follow one after another, each single part of the song is alive in itself and strikes straight to the heart: 20 minutes composed with a creativity that calling miraculous is an understatement, different melodies intertwining exquisitely with each other and make the heart cry for how beautiful they are! After listening to such a song, it becomes spontaneous to wonder if it's legitimate to call Mikael Akerfeldt the best composer in the world... Honestly, I don't believe anyone else could have managed to write "Black Rose Immortal." A divine, inhuman song, I don't want to exaggerate but here it feels like being in contact with supernatural music! But the greatest depth is found in the semi-acoustic "To Bid You Farewell"... clean vocals, acoustic arpeggios, and intimate notes that awaken our most hidden feelings.
Ingenious, incredible, inconceivable, astonishing, divine.

If you don't love this album, you can't say you love music.