Opeth – Damnation (Koch Records)
THIS IS NOT METAL! And I don’t mean that in the “they’ve sold out” or “they’ve changed their style” or “they combine some elements of metal with other genres, but not enough to be considered metal” senses. No. This just isn’t metal. These guys released a metal masterpiece last year, “Deliverance”, and part of the deal was that they’d follow it up with an all-acoustic album, which is what this is. This is progressive, acoustic, mellow, soft pop/rock with production that makes it seem like it came out of the ‘70s. It’s smooth, easy listening music that manages to also be challenging and technical. There are simple acoustic guitars, lightly overdriven guitar solos, sparingly used keyboards, piano, mellotron, Mikael Akerfeldt’s amazingly soulful, laid-back, haunting, moody, joyous, clean vocals, intricate yet unobtrusive drumming, groovy bass lines, vintage sounding tones with cutting edge production values, etc, etc. I repeat, this is NOT a metal album. It is amazing, beautiful, powerful, emotional, but it’s not metal. There seriously isn’t an ounce of metal on this. Quit thinking it’s metal, damnit! And play this at all costs because it’s such a wonderful, beautiful, marvelous, stunning, astonishing, dazzling piece of work.

Tracks:
1) Starts out slow; it doesn’t change much in pace, but has an amazing interlude and some very neat solos. Acoustic guitars and bass, strings, piano.
2) Excellent staccato, heartfelt vocal delivery with some strange FX. More strings and acoustic guitars and cool drums. The bridge sounds a little like “Master’s Apprentice”.
3) More acoustic guitars, more heartfelt, pained lyrics by someone who has obviously felt extreme loss and despair. Excellent hi-hat, cymbal, and crash rhythms carry the song, along with a killer bass line; the drums on this one are just so amazing.
5) Some more odd vocal FX, and the guitars are very subdued, but they do churn out some awesome solos. It kinda builds up towards the end and then fades away.
6) More strings and mellotron and depressed/ing lyrics, with a steady piano riff that goes through the entire song and gives it that haunting, horror-movie-soundtrack feel to it. Awesome piano bridge, awesome guitar solo, awesome drums, just simply awesome.
7) Instrumental with strong Spanish influences that kinda sounds like the “For Absent Friends” track on “Deliverance”.
8) Closing song is far more experimental, with strange instrumentation and weird vocal delivery, piano-driven verses and almost no guitar. Very quiet, I dig it.