The group are mainly known for using black metal and death metal with their usually long compositions, more so in their early work.
The band is made up of Mikael Åkerfeldt, Martín Méndez, Martin Axenrot, Fredrik Åkesson, Joakim Svalberg. The group has been through a lot of changes throughout the years, but guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt has always been the main member of Opeth and stayed with it throughout its career.
Opeth has released over ten studio albums, live albums and several live DVD's during their career. They first released their debut album in 1995 called "Orchid".
The band achieved their biggest commercial success in 2008 with their ninth album called "Watershed" which made 23 on the Billboard 200. However, their previous album "Ghost Reveries" had become popular prior to this.
Opeth have sold over 1.5 million albums and DVDs internationally, as well as 300,000 collective sound scans of their albums in the US.
Mikael Åkerfeldt (the songwriter, singer and guitarist), said he was influenced from a young age by acts such as Iron Maiden, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Ryan Ogle from Blabbermouth depicted Opeth's distinct sound as incorporating "the likes of folk, funk, blues, 1970's rock, goth and a laundry list of other sonic oddities".
Progressive black metal, anyone? Opeth are probably your safest bet, with almost twenty-five years in the business; they blend a traditional black metal sound, if there’s such a thing, with genuine experimentation; elements of jazz, folk and classical have all been discernible over the course of ten studio records to date, and anybody doubting their propensity for the latter should probably know that their most noteworthy UK show to date came when they sold out the Royal Albert Hall - a gig that was filmed and released on DVD.
A neat feature of that show was that the band played their then-latest record, Blackwater Park, as the set’s first act, before returning to the stage to please the purists by performing - in chronological order - one song from every Opeth record to date. That’s the kind of career-spanning fare you should expect at one of their gigs, alongside furiously complex musicianship and sprawling sets that tend to clock in at around two hours. With their next record, Pale Communion, out in August, the Swedes have lined up a slew of UK dates for October; as one of the most technically gifted metal bands on the circuit, they remain one of their genre’s most intriguing propositions.
Joeg_67
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