Review Summary: Perfectly executed Opeth. Their magnum opus and their breakthrough album, a pure progressive classic.
Opeth is arguably the most innovative band in recent times, their extremely original contrast of heavy and soft, light and dark in their music is something to behold. They seamlessly go from death metal to 70's prog rock on a dime. It's unbelievable to first time listeners and continues to be awe inspiring even if you've heard their music countless times. Morningrise is no exception to this and to me is the bands magnum opus. Five songs ranging from 10-20 minutes and each one is nothing short of a masterpiece, words can hardly do these songs justice.
In General:
-Mikael Akerfeldt is one the best vocalists out there. His growls and screams are so demonic and guttural you'll think Satan was singing. Yet he manages to keep his growl oddly understandable. Hi's clean vocals are absolutely beautiful, he can sing quietly or powerfully but always his clean vocals are the most beautiful I've ever heard.
-John DeFaralla's bass playing stands out a lot and really adds a substance that Martin Mendez' fails to do on recent Opeth albums.
-Morningrise is relatively soft for Opeth. While there are heavy distorted riffs and blastbeat drumming it never gets to the point of brutal death metal like some recent Opeth albums have, like Deliverance. The heavy sections of the songs tend to be much more like melodic death metal.
The Songs:
Advent-
Clocking in at 13 minutes this is really a song to behold. It starts off with a kick a$$ riff with blast beat drumming behind it. Quickly the song fades to bass driven softness but just as fast comes back with heavy sinister riffing. The first lasting soft section doesn't come until 3:17. The song continues to switch between heavy and soft. Starting at 8:30 Mikael does some echoing of vocals. The coolest echo is where he screams, "Survey the slopes," then echoes it back in a powerful clean singing voice. It sounds really amazing. There's a sweet bass solo at 9:35. Overall this song exemplifies what Opeth is very well.
The Night And The Silent Water-
This song is a slower, ultra emotional song about the death of Mikael Akerfeldt's grandfather. It starts with a heavy distorted somber melody and soon after this intro Akerfeldt lets loose one of his most demonic screams ever. Overall this is a beautiful song. It is slower and doesn't pack the excitement and thrills that Advent did but I think it was the perfect song to follow Advent. If this was another balls to the wall Opeth song it wouldn't stand out near enough.
Nectar-
Speaking of balls to the wall Opeth, here comes Nectar. After a quick drum opening ultra melodic In Flames sounding twin guitars come in and it sounds really epic. It stays melodically heavy for a while before an acoustic breakdown around a minute and a half into the song. Soon after this breakdown the song explodes into a mid paced melodic heaviness, with a beautiful guitar melody. At 2:40 comes one of my favorite moments of the whole album. Akerfeldt screams, "I swear I will always love you," and double bass drumming meets the beautiful melodic guitar riff. Soon after this there is a decent solo. Opeth solos never blow my mind but there always good. The song continues switching between heavy and soft. However one thing I find curious is that at 8:50 they play something that sounds exactly like The Grand Conjuration from Ghost Reveries with the exception of a hopping bass that stand out more. I thought that was really interesting.
Black Rose Immortal-
Ah, Black Rose Immortal, clocking in at 20:14 and not a second to short. This (along with Ghost of Perdition) is my favorite song by Opeth and one of my favorite songs of all time. This song gets right to the point and after a quick opening drum roll, the song explodes with a power and evil sounding riff. One of the best I've ever heard from Opeth. It's hard to pick stand out parts from a song this long but I'll try. Around 7:27 an awesome bass line that sounds like the theme of an action movie leads into an amazing heavy lead guitar line. At 8:10 a sweet but short drum breakdown leads into an amazing solo. Up to this point the song has been predominantly heavy. But after this the song stays soft for a while then switches between heavy and soft like usual. At 16:36 a totally unexpected amazing, heavy and chaotic solo complete with double bass drumming in the background, breaks through the softness. Towards the end of the song Akerfeldt lets loose a demonic scream and an evil riff repeats until the end of the song.
To Bid You Farewell-
This is probably the most beautiful song ever done by Opeth. Not a single growled vocal can be found in it and not a single distorted guitar can be found until late in the song. It opens with a jazzy melody. Great acoustic guitars complete with jazzy bass and drums, it's just plain beautiful. When Mikael Akerfeldt starts singing his vocals are full of emotion. After the first verse there is a great bluesy solo. The jazzy melody and great singing continues. Except as the song goes on the drums slowly pick up and everything gradually gets louder step by step. At 7:05 distorted electric guitars comes in. But it doesn't sound chaotic it sounds ultra majestic. Soon after Akerfeldt lets loose his powerful clean voice and its truly awe inspiring. Later on the song slows down after a drum breakdown and not long after the electric guitars go away and the acoustics come back. So does Akerfeldt's singing. All in all this is just a beautiful song, genius.
The Good:
-Akerfeldt's vocals.
-The riffs, oh god the riffs.
-DeFaralla's bass playing.
-The perfect execution of Opeth's style over 5 long, progressive, genious songs.
The Bad: (And I'm nit-picking)
-Anders Nordin's drumming isn't nearly as good as Martin Lopez' in my opinion.
-I would have liked a couple more brutally heavy segements a la Deliverance.
-Akerfeldt's vocal while amazing arn't quite what they are now.
Recommended Tracks:
-All of them.
In conclusion this album is Opeth's magnum opus and is pure genious. While some of their other albums are nearly as good, like Ghost Reveries, Morningrise was their real breakthrough album in my opinion.
