{"id":249,"date":"2010-11-08T16:56:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T16:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/2010\/11\/08\/an-introduction-to-opeth\/"},"modified":"2010-12-09T05:42:14","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T05:42:14","slug":"an-introduction-to-opeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/2010\/11\/08\/an-introduction-to-opeth\/","title":{"rendered":"An introduction to Opeth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m going to try to introduce you to a band called Opeth. Opeth plays progressive metal*, which sounds scary and inaccessible, and is, a little bit, especially because they use growled or grunted vocals in many of their songs. I&#8217;ll give you that: when you first hear growls, you might find them disturbing &#8212; or funny. They&#8217;re not something most people appreciate on first listen.<\/p>\n<p>But Opeth is about a lot more than a few grunts. Their singer is also an accomplished &#8220;clean&#8221; vocalist, and all the musicians are first-rate. The songwriting is complex and diverse, encompassing an elaborate and intoxifying combination of genres. The result is music of startling depth, beauty, variety, and power.<\/p>\n<p>So I&#8217;d like to introduce them to you one step at a time. At their quietest:<\/p>\n<p><script type='text\/javascript' src='\/mp\/swfobject.js'><\/script><\/p>\n<div id='09c0ec213108c7fcf4580e785c3fd87a'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\">Get the Flash Player<\/a> to see this player.<\/div>\n<p><script type='text\/javascript'>\n    var so = new SWFObject('\/mp\/player.swf','mpl','470','84','9');\n    so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');\n    so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');\n    so.addParam('wmode','opaque');\n    so.addVariable('playlistfile','https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/lj\/11-8-2010\/c2d981dca7832eb9644f8c73cb8ce04d.xml');\n    so.addVariable('playlistsize','60');\n    so.addVariable('playlist','bottom');\n    so.addVariable('plugins', 'googlytics-1');\n    so.write('09c0ec213108c7fcf4580e785c3fd87a');\n    <\/script><\/p>\n<p>Perhaps this is more accessible than you expected. Let&#8217;s add a two-part song structure (most of their songs go through three to five parts), and some distortion in the second half. This song is nearly eight minutes long, but be patient.<\/p>\n<div id='a7115acc7c7f0af543e50f4a9cc312c2'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\">Get the Flash Player<\/a> to see this player.<\/div>\n<p><script type='text\/javascript'>\n    var so = new SWFObject('\/mp\/player.swf','mpl','470','84','9');\n    so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');\n    so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');\n    so.addParam('wmode','opaque');\n    so.addVariable('playlistfile','https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/lj\/11-8-2010\/3a341936c23c758f1662ac2c634a58c9.xml');\n    so.addVariable('playlistsize','60');\n    so.addVariable('playlist','bottom');\n    so.addVariable('plugins', 'googlytics-1');\n    so.write('a7115acc7c7f0af543e50f4a9cc312c2');\n    <\/script><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re getting pretty kickass here. Same quiet opening, but then &#8212; louder, more powerful, killer riffs. Notice how strong the melodic core of the song is, even at its loudest moments.<\/p>\n<p>Get ready for the biggest shift: this next song is a fully-realized Opeth composition: loud parts, quiet acoustic parts, clean singing, growling, multiple movements, nine minutes long. Right off the bat you&#8217;ll hear the growling, and hopefully you&#8217;ll appreciate how it fits into the mood. A guest vocal by Porcupine Tree&#8217;s Steven Wilson opens up the clean section at 3:25, and by 5:20 we&#8217;re off in different territory altogether, before hitting the reprise.<\/p>\n<div id='67035c69ad3a4bea19f87a9f76ebe6d0'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\">Get the Flash Player<\/a> to see this player.<\/div>\n<p><script type='text\/javascript'>\n    var so = new SWFObject('\/mp\/player.swf','mpl','470','84','9');\n    so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');\n    so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');\n    so.addParam('wmode','opaque');\n    so.addVariable('playlistfile','https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/lj\/11-8-2010\/436aaf028b77167486fbf9629bf62a8f.xml');\n    so.addVariable('playlistsize','60');\n    so.addVariable('playlist','bottom');\n    so.addVariable('plugins', 'googlytics-1');\n    so.write('67035c69ad3a4bea19f87a9f76ebe6d0');\n    <\/script><\/p>\n<p>Yes, this is tough to listen to if you&#8217;ve never heard this kind of music before. But if you&#8217;re willing to put in the time to habituate to the new noises and wrap your head around the song structures, you&#8217;ll find yourself amply rewarded.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll leave you with one last track, which traverses a dizzying breadth of sonic terrain, at 0:00, 2:30, 3:30, 5:05, 7:15, 8:10, and a rhythmically interesting coda at 10:00 that I dare you to try to tap along with the first time you hear it.<\/p>\n<div id='0eeae602d477d495d4c1a8e928a6b46d'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\">Get the Flash Player<\/a> to see this player.<\/div>\n<p><script type='text\/javascript'>\n    var so = new SWFObject('\/mp\/player.swf','mpl','470','84','9');\n    so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');\n    so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');\n    so.addParam('wmode','opaque');\n    so.addVariable('playlistfile','https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/lj\/11-8-2010\/fc7655014aa72b8796c895daffedb7a6.xml');\n    so.addVariable('playlistsize','60');\n    so.addVariable('playlist','bottom');\n    so.addVariable('plugins', 'googlytics-1');\n    so.write('0eeae602d477d495d4c1a8e928a6b46d');\n    <\/script><\/p>\n<p>How many people do I expect to convert with this post? Realistically, zero. But it&#8217;s worth a shot&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>* Many people actually label Opeth in the sub-genre &#8220;death metal&#8221;, as opposed to its cousin, &#8220;black metal&#8221;. Though any music labels are generally imprecise, I think of &#8220;death metal&#8221; as &#8220;feeling bad about yourself&#8221; and its cousin, &#8220;black metal&#8221; as &#8220;feeling bad about everyone else&#8221;. I&#8217;ve never really gotten into black metal, this second genre, but I do have a few albums. It&#8217;s pretty extreme &#8212; there&#8217;s occasionally animal blood at shows, and the musicians sometimes do crazy things, including burning churches, killing themselves and even committing the occasional murder&#8230; all of which I agree is ridiculous. A friend of mine was shocked that I&#8217;d even consider listening to black metal, given such behavior, and at the time, I kind of had to admit his point. In retrospect, though, it&#8217;s very similar to rap (which we both listen to), in that both often glorify a violent, hateful worldview and occasionally live up to that promise in real life. In both cases, I don&#8217;t think you have to endorse the lifestyle to appreciate the music. Black metal is a little comical in its absurdity, but there are still some jaw-dropping moments (give yourself at least until the &#8220;clean&#8221; vocals about halfway through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e5VmZK3FcLw&amp;feature=channel\" target=\"_blank\">this video<\/a>), and impressive technical prowess (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JpHfskpS_-0#t=3m40s\" target=\"_blank\">the guitar work here<\/a>, a live version of the next song on the same album by the same band).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m going to try to introduce you to a band called Opeth. Opeth plays progressive metal*, which sounds scary and inaccessible, and is, a little bit, especially because they use growled or grunted vocals in many of their songs. I&#8217;ll &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/2010\/11\/08\/an-introduction-to-opeth\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1c91x-41","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boopidy.com\/aj\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}