Well, after losing 2 key contributors to the band, Mikael Åkerfeldt didn’t think Opeth was going to be around much longer. They lost guitarist Peter Lindgren to corporate life. They lost drummer Martin Lopez to health problems. Just how replaceable is someone like Lindgren, anyway? The man had been Åkerfeldt’s artistic partner for 16 years of Opeth mastery. Perseverance…and an undying want to make music about dying…stayed within the genious that is Mikael Åkerfeldt; he still managed to put together a new album for longtime fans to devour like those dogs at the beginning of Willow. It is Watershed.
Åkerfeldt knows how to write music. Good music. Well constructed and masterful music. Immediate proof of that seeps up through the cracks in the first melody of “Coil,” the album’s opener. It opens the album with a foreboding tease of the windy mastery that is to come…and does so entirely slow, showing off the clean side of Mike’s vocals. It even features a female vocalist for the first time in Opeth history…which is achieved by new drummer Martin Axenrot’s girlfriend.
“Heir Apparent” flows forth from the out-tro of “Coil” seamlessly, flowing from the cool and calm side of Opeth to the imminent unleashing of Åkerfeldt’s dungeon-stretches of vocals accompanied by strong double-bass and gut-pulling guitar riffs smelling evident of the death Opeth. It sets the album up perfectly.
The album goes smoothly from there, honestly. There are some noticeable qualities about the album overall, though, that sets it apart as a new work.
They’ve most definitely added more of a keyboard influence to their overall sound. Just before Ghost Reveries, Per Wiberg joined the band as a backup vocalist and occasional keyboardist. Once Reveries-recording started, Wiberg had become a permanent member of the band. Reveries features Wiberg’s plastic-wanting-to-be-ivory playings but on a much smaller scale, mostly bleeding through only on the slower efforts of the album. Wiberg’s keyboards are much more present on Watershed, peeking out in almost every song. This, while adding a more rounded sound to the music, may be the album’s main drawback. In attaining Fredrik Åkesson, a serenely talented guitarist (formerly of Arch Enemy), Opeth has seemed to have lost at least part of the driving force that it had with Lindgren. (That is most definitely not to discount either Åkesson or Arch Enemy.)
Åkerfeldt’s vocals are both a professional progression and a backpedal to the overall Opeth sound. He has definitely found his singing voice’s potential. He has practiced and made perfect; there’s evidence in every song. That, however, withholds a key element of the album: there’s too much singing. The beastliness of Åkerfeldt’s growls adds much to the death metal side of Opeth. The clean vocals are very welcome at times but overall bring the heaviness of the music down a notch. However, with the jazz, folk, and progressive rock influences that inspire Opeth music, the “down a notch” sound may be exactly what Mike wanted in the first place.
Overall, Watershed is a solid album from a solid band. I think it’s an album that shows that Åkerfeldt can roll with the punches and still produce on a big level. It has the overly melancholy sound of known Opeth slow stuff. It has the drilling distortion of known Opeth hard stuff. It has harmonies and melodies that tell a heartbreaking story of their own without the need of words…something Opeth is flawless at. There are moments of this album that peak in ways that make you want to forget what you’re doing and just bang away with the intensity. It has its differences, sure. How could it not with two new additions to the band?
Watershed is not an artistic progression for Opeth. It’s not a step backward either. It is a stalemate, so to say, even though that puts a negative connotation on the whole thing when one is not needed. I most definitely do not think this is the last Opeth album to be produced. There is still more to hear from the Stockholm Swedes, just you wait. For now, listen to this album.
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