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Rating: Being a huge fan of Opeth for almost five years, I noticed the absence of the Swedish group's latest release, The Roundhouse Tapes, their first live album after only studio albums and the DVD Lamentations recorded at Stephen's Bush Empire on September 23, 2003, which unfortunately only included Opeth tracks under the record label Music for Nations (RIP), and especially from the band's prog rock album, Damnation, neglecting tracks from masterpiece albums for melodic death like Orchid and Morningrise. Fortunately, in 2007 Opeth filled this gap in their discography with The Roundhouse Tapes, recorded at the Roundhouse in London on November 9, 2006, during the Ghost Reveries Tour. The album's name harkens back to the 1979 demo by Iron Maiden, The Soundhouse Tapes. This album, besides being, as I've already mentioned, the band's first live album, is also the last album with guitarist Peter Lindgren and the first with Martin ''Axe'' Axenrot behind the drums, who is also the drummer for the death metal group Bloodbath. The album consists of two CDs, one with 6 songs and the other with 3 songs, bringing the total duration to approximately 96 minutes. Now, let’s move to the actual review.
The album opens with the short intro "Through Pains to Heaven" taken from the 1979 film by the German director Werner Herzog Nosferatu, Prince of the Night, a remake of the 1922 film by Murnau Nosferatu the Vampire. After this intro, the first song we find is "When", from My Arms, Your Hearse, a song that starts with a violent death metal section, with Akerfeldt's growl that's almost terrifying. Then, the song enters its reflective and progressive rock part with gentle arpeggios interrupted by Axe’s blast beats that take us straight to hell... the entire song is a succession of slow, mid-tempo, and ultra-fast tempos. The next piece is "Ghost of Perdition", from the group's latest album, Ghost Reveries, which also starts with a more violent section, and when Akerfeldt sings with a clean voice, the audience sings along with him, making the song much better than the album version. Then comes the beautiful song "Under the Weeping Moon" from their debut Orchid and then to "Bleak" from Blackwater Park, where Akerfeldt opens with the words ''absolutely black metal nonsense'' and the audience screaming...the song opens with evil riffs and the usual fantastically evil growl before leading us with sweet arpeggios to a very sweet and reflective music, interrupted by Axe's sharp rolls; the song, unlike the CD, has some slightly altered riffs. Then with "Face of Melinda" from Still Life (their most progressive album excluding Damnation), a progressive rock piece entirely sung in clean voice by Akerfeldt, creating a very melancholic atmosphere interrupted in the finale by Axe's drumming, which with sharp hits leads us to the last song, "The Night and the Silent Water" from the album Morningrise, considered by fans and critics the group's best. The song had never been performed live until the Ghost Reveries Tour as it is dedicated to Akerfeldt's father who passed away during the Morningrise recordings, making its presence on the album a real gem...the song starts with a mid-tempo interrupted by prog arpeggios that introduce the great Akerfeldt's growl, then arpeggios create a lot of pathos, reminding us of the Camel influences of the Swedish combo, then the growl returns and a violent mid-tempo takes us to the end of the CD.
The second CD opens with "Windowpane" from the group’s acoustic album Damnation, the song takes us to a '70s atmosphere where the progressive rock influences of Camel, Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis are easily discernible. The song is like a leap into the past and a tribute by the band to the groups that have influenced half of their sound. After thanking the audience, we arrive at the next song, "Blackwater Park", from the eponymous album. The song is a burst of killer violence, here the influences of Morbid Angel and Death are very strong in a song that for 12 minutes takes us into total destruction interrupted by some sweet arpeggios. After the presentation of the band members, we arrive at the last song of the CD and of the album, "Demon of the Fall" from My Arms, Your Hearse, where it starts immediately with Akerfeldt's growl with a mid-tempo, some arpeggios and then goes full throttle again bringing us violently to the end of the album.
My rating for the album is 4 because I believe Opeth are a band that technically I think is among the best in today's global metal scene along with the Canadians Cryptopsy and the Swedes Meshuggah. Furthermore, the album is very well produced and it almost feels like being at the concert, but unfortunately, I think what Opeth lacks is the inability to fully engage the audience, but I believe this flaw will be improved in the future.
LINEUP:
Mikael Akerfeldt - guitar / vocals
Peter Lindgren - guitar
Martin ''Axe'' Axenrot - drums
Martin Mendez - bass
Per Wiberg - keyboards
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Ghost of Perdition (10:56)
Ghost of Mother
Lingering death
Ghost on Mother's bed
Black strands on the pillow
Contour of her health
Twisted face upon the head
Ghost of perdition
Stuck in her chest
A warning no one read
Tragic friendship
Called inside the fog
Pouring venom brew deceiving
Devil cracked the earthly shell
Foretold she was the one
Blew hope into the room and said:
"You have to live before you die young"
Holding her down
Channeling darkness
Hemlock for the Gods
Fading resistance
Draining the weakness
Penetrating inner light
Road into the dark unaware
Winding ever higher
Darkness by her side
Spoke and passed her by
Dedicated hunter
Waits to pull us under
Rose up to its call
In his arms she'd fall
Mother light received
And a faithful servant's free
In time the hissing of her sanity
Faded out her voice and soiled her name
And like marked pages in a diary
Everthing seemed clean that is unstained
The incoherent talk of ordinary days
Why would we really need to live?
Decide what is clear and what's within a haze
What you should take and what to give
Ghost of perdition
A saint's premonition's unclear
Keeper of holy hordes
Keeper of holy whores
To see a beloved son
In despair of what's to come
If one cut the source of the flow
And everything would change
Would conviction fall
In the shadow of the righteous
The phantasm of your mind
Might be calling you to go
Defying the forgotten mortals
Where the victim is the prey
03 Under the Weeping Moon (10:27)
Once again I've cried
Unto the moon
That burning flame
That has guided me
Through all these years
The lake from which you flow
With eyes of fire
Once unlit but now alive
This energy, sparkling
Like a morning star
The morning star
Riding the fires of
The northern gold
I've searched the eye
I laugh under the weeping moon
I am the watcher in the skies
Nor the emeralds know my mark
Glisten to mark their presence
Set the enigma ablaze
Searching...
Finding...
Burn the winter landmarks
That said I was there
Burn the spirit of cold
That travel through my soul
04 Bleak (08:39)
Beating
Heart still beating for the cause
Feeding
Soul still feeding on the loss
Aching
Limbs are aching from the rush
Fading
You are fading from my sight
Break of morning, coldness lingers on
Shroud me into nightmares of the sun
Moving
I am moving closer to your side
Luring
You are luring me into the night
Crying
Who is crying for you here
Dying
I am dying fast inside your tears
Plunging towards bereavement faster yet
Clearing thoughts, my mind is set
Devious movements in your eyes
Moved me from relief
Breath comes out white clouds with your lies
And filters through me
You’re close to the final word
You’re staring right past me in dismay
A liquid seeps from your chest
And drains me away
Mist ripples round your thin white neck
And draws me a line
Cold fingers mark this dying wreck
This moment is mine
Help me cure you
Atone for all you’ve done
Help me leave you
As all the days are gone
Night falls again
Taking what’s left of me
Slight twist, shivering corpse
Ornated with water, fills the cracks
Clasped in my limbs by tradition
This is all you need
05 Face of Melinda (09:57)
By the turnstile beckons a damsel fair
The face of Melinda neath blackened hair
No joy would flicker in her eyes
Brooding sadness came to a rise
Words would falter to atone
Failure had passed the stepping stone
She sworn her vows to another
This is when no-one will bother
And conceded pain in crumbling mirth
A harlot of God upon the earth
Found where she sacrificed her ways
That hollow love in her face
Still I plotted to have her back
The contentment that would fill the crack
My soul released a fluttering sigh
This day fell, the darkness night
I took her by the hand to say
All faith forever has been washed away
I returned for you in great dismay
Come with me, far away to stay
Endlessly gazing in nocturnal prime
She spoke of her vice and broke the rhyme
But baffled herself with the final line
My promise is made but my heart is thine
06 The Night and the Silent Water (10:28)
And so you left us
Jaded and gaunt, some September
Wilted with the seasons
But hidden inside the delusion
I saw your eyes, somewhere
Devoid of death
The aura poises amidst the storm
In solid tears I linger
A parlour glade, moonlit sorrow
Lonely resting pools
Relics of the moon-dogged lake
Whisper: "All your words are missgiven"
Am I like them?
Those who mourn and turn away
Those who would give anything
To see you again
If only for another second
Your face was, like the photograph
Painted white
We did not speak very often about it
What does it matter now?
Cloak of autumn shroud
I gaze, dim ricochet of stars
I reckon it is time for me to leave
You sleep in the light
Yet the night and the silent water
Still so dark
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