Track Listing

1. Coil
2. Heir Apparent
3. The Lotus Eater
4. Burden
5. Porcelain Heart
6. Hessian Peel
7. Hex Omega

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15402 in Music
• Released on: 2008-06-03
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Enhanced, Special Edition

Album Description
The Special Edition includes three bonus tracks, 5.1 audio mix of the entire album, extensive video content, expanded artwork and more.Special Edition includes DVD with bonus tracks. The forward-thinking Swedish titans, who seemlessly and fluidly combine metal, classic rock, prog, folk and free form jazz, continue the time-honored Opeth tradition on Watershed, their second album for Roadrunner Records. With this, their ninth effort, Opeth continue to shake things up, turn the corner and push the limits of their sound. And the results are breathtaking. Ultimately, Watershed sounds at once completely like and absolutely nothing like previous Opeth records. Watershed takes all that is Opeth, and goes where Opeth have never gone before.

Customer Reviews

LEADERS OF A NEW ERA
Thats exactly what Opeth is not only today, but almost a decade now. At least since the magnum opus Blackwater Park was released. Akerfeldt is in my opinion if not the biggest, probably one of most talented people in music industry today. And am not talking only about the area of metal, am talking about the whole music scene of the planet. His ability to create sounds that get deep inside of you and always haunt you is absolutely magnificent. His ability to find always the best possible musicians to support him as the vehicle of Opeth is even more magnificent (Martin is a MONSTER behind the drums). And we should not forget Mikael's vocals which remain perfect. His ability to change his vocals in such a level and bacome at one moment a growling monster ready to rip you, and again return in a melodic harmony that makes you dream of other spaces is indeed terryfing.
Above all is the songs of cource and i believe that is a waste of time to repeat all the time tha same again and again. If you think of listening to Watershed just stop thinking. Buy it and you will remember that Opeth is a group of artists that worth their money until the last cent.
We are talking probably about the real meaning of intelligent music here.

My second Opeth disappointment
Opeth is without a doubt my favorite band of all time. I was looking forward to Watershed a great deal. Unfortunately, it left me in the same frame of mind as Deliverance. I realize I'm in the minority of Opeth fans in saying this, but Deliverance was my least-favorite album of theirs. At least, until Watershed came out -- it now takes the bottom spot. Production is great, augmented instrumentation (strings, oboes) are a nice touch, Mikael's clean singing continues to impress. But the simple fact is that Martin Lopez is a god among men and no one can possibly replace him, period. Other reviewers have commented on the album's lack of focus and I agree. I'm all for being eclectic and embracing diverse influences, but the entity being influenced must have some innate cohesion, which Watershed doesn't. I've done my duty by purchasing and listening to it a dozen or so times, but to be honest I doubt it will make an appearance in my CD player more than once a year. I hope they get back on track with their next release because as I said at the outset, they are absolutely my favorite band.

Opeth - Watershed
I don't write many reviews so this will be my short analysis of the Watershed album.

Don't worry about the line-up change, the drumming is fantastic and does not fall short of Opeth's high standards. The new lead guitarist can shred, which opeth have lacked for so long. Don't get me wrong, Peter was a fantastic guitarist, but the new, ex-arch enemy guitarist is beter suited for the Death Metal side of things. The song writing is very diverse.

First of all there is Coil. A mellow, clean vocalled track with some female vocals which are realy nice. It sorts of starts where ghost reveries left off.
Then there is Heir Apparent. People are confused about this track, this is not Opeth's heaviest track, that would probably be the moor or Dirge for November, this is Opeth's most BRUTAL track, the most typical death metal song they have done. Very fast, good guitar solo, very low vocals, with perfect synths adding a sort of black metal feel at certain points.

Lotus eater. An other fast brutal track, more singing but lots of growling involved, this track has a very Dream Theater moment with the keys, base and drums taking the lead for a groovy breakdown.

Burden. A mellow soft track with echoed vocals and smooth guitar and key solos toward the end. The track finishes with a beautiful sounding acoustic guitar piece.

Porcelian Heart. The single, a spooky track, softer but far more atmospheric. The single is a cut, shortened version of the track.

Hussain Peel. Very Ghost Reveries. Starts soft with an atmosperic build up to some great death metal moments.By this point you are thinking, "thank goodness" because you havn't heard death metal on the album for some time now. After the brutality there is a short pause and then into some great, groovy singing still with heavier feel of things.

Hex Omega. Not a soft track but there are no growls on this one. It's sort of like a Fair Judgement. It's a heavier track but it's not metal.

Overal i love this album, it is a much softer Opeth album but it is also more typically death meatal.

Yeah Opeth have changed but they are still amazing, they have not decended. They have diversified even more, but it's a good thing.