June 24, 1996 - Morningrise

Two and a half weeks after my last release and just a year after their debut "Orchid", Opeth released their second album "Morningrise" on June 24, 1996. It's the same line-up as their fantastic debut and it's the same style of progressive death metal, with an emphasis on the progressive! The original version of the album had no songs that were less than ten minutes long! I have a bonus track which clocks in at a mere eight and a half minutes, but that is some really progressive stuff, and one really long album! It also has a bit more singing from Mikael Akerfeldt, including Opeth's first song with all clean vocals. Let's see what "Morningrise" is all about!

The album kicks off with the near 14-minute "Advent" and Johan de Farfalla plays some solid bass to back the harmonized guitars of Akerfeldt and Peter Lindgren. After over two minutes Mikael finally adds some vocals and his scream sounds just as good as last album: hitting some nice high screams while also having an awesomely deep growl. They shift riffs and moods several times throughout the long song, but there's always some pretty fast and cool guitar and de Farfalla shows off with some pretty cool bass a few times as well. Even the quieter part midway through still sounds pretty good, and the rest of the louder parts show the same heavy and progressive style as their last album. Akerfeldt sings a couple times, and sounds solid, but never for long, but it's a nice change-up inbetween heavier parts. The end has just one guitarist playing, but it's an epic finish to a pretty strong opener. Up next is the 11 minute song "The Night And The Silent Water" and Akerfeldt and Lindgren play parts with two electric guitars, two acoustic guitars, and also with one of each, and each part sounds pretty cool in it's own way. Akerfeldt's singing in the acoustic part sounds really good and of course his growls are top-notch in the electric parts. There are some repetitive parts in this one though so while it's still quite good it's not as good as the opener. Track 3 is "Nectar" and it has some pretty sweet bass work by de Farfalla throughout as he not only keeps up with the guitars, but occasionally outperforms them! And the guitars are nice and fast too! There's even a guitar solo on this one that isn't too flashy, but it sounds pretty sweet still. There's a seamless transition from heavy to light around 7 minutes in and the new slower riff is really well done with some solid stuff from everyone. Akerfeldt sings briefly, but they nicely snap back to heavy with a loud scream and finish the song out with a pretty sweet new riff. The next song is "Black Rose Immortal" and it's the longest song Opeth have written, clocking in at just over twenty minutes! They kick right into a nice metal riff and Anders Nordin plays a nice drum fill to get things going. Akeefeldt's growls sound dark and awesome and it's hard not to headbang along to these loud parts. After four minutes the mood shifts to a quieter riff but there's still some cool guitars from Akerfeldt and Lindgren. They nicely ramp back into a loud and heavy riff with some pretty sweet guitars and some solid bass as well. There's a pretty cool guitar solo and then things fall very quiet as Mikael sings a short new verse and they take off in a new direction with a light but epic new riff. After a few minutes they segue smoothly back to a heavy riff and Akerfeldt screams a new verse that ends with him epicly whispering "black rose immortal". There's another short but cool guitar solo, followed by a soft verse with singing before they close things out on a nice loud note. There was a lot going on in these 20 minutes, but all these different riffs flowed together nicely and I think it's a pretty well done prog epic! Track 5 is the final song on the original album "To Bid You Farewell" and it's the first Opeth song to have only clean vocals and no growling. Akerfeldt and Lindgren play different guitar riffs, one faster and one slower and they both sound pretty solid together. De Fsrfalla's bass is cool as well and even though this is way lighter than your regular Opeth song, things sound really melodic and nicely done. After three and a half minutes we finally hear the first verse as Akerfeldt sings nicely overtop the light music and also plays some cool guitar. After five minutes things take a space-y turn as we hear some trippy guitar that reminds me a lot of Porcupine Tree. After a couple minutes of this they segue nicely to a heavier, more typical Opeth riff and Akerfeldt's singing fits even here. After a couple minutes of this louder riff they finish things off quietly to end a tamer but still solid tune. There is one bonus track to this already long album, and at eight and a half minutes it's the shortest song on the album! It's a demo of a song called "Eternal Soul Torture" and it really is a demo - with some very shoddy recording quality. Everything sounds like it's in the next building over and it's very muted. Despite the bad demo quality, the music is pretty solid with an instrumental intro that alternates between light and heavy before Akwefeldt's growl signals a shift to fast and heavy verse. I wish they would've just re-recorded this properly, because it sounds like a cool song, but the quality is hard to get by. Parts of this song actually ended up on their first album "Orchid", showing how old this recording is. I'm torn between the fact that the quality is terrible, but the song is solid, it's a conundrum for sure.

That is the end of "Morningrise" and I thought it was another pretty sweet album from these Swedish metalheads. Every song is a prog epic filled with lots of good guitars, whether they be heavy or light. Mikael Akerfeldt continues to have what must be the most powerful voice in metal and he even shows that without growling he can still sing a ten-plus minute song and things still sound good. The fact that I think their debut "Orchid" is even better than this latest album says more about how awesome "Orchid" was than it is that "Morningrise" wasn't good. I'm excited to see where Opeth go from here!