For Week Ending:
11 March 2023

Opeth - Deliverance & Damnation [Reissue] (2015)

[Death Metal (Progressive)]

If I asked you what is the most important piece of music in heavy music history, you are probably going to say the opening bars of Sepultura's 'Roots', or the solo in Black Sabbath's 'Heaven & Hell', or maybe even the moment the wall of guitars crash in at the start of Metallica's 'Battery' or when Tom Araya lets out his blood curdling scream on Slayer's 'Reign In Blood'. They are all good tries, but you are wrong on every count. The correct answer is (of course) the last four minutes of Opeth's 'Deliverance'. Every wonderful moment of those four minutes sums up everything early Opeth and these two albums were about. Both amazingly beautiful and damagingly heavy at the same time, and perfectly executed in syncopated progressive glory. It is debatable whether these albums needed to be remixed for this package (especially the lighter touches of Damnation), but Deliverance is certainly presented here with more punch and clarity, and packaging them as a singular album as originally intended is great. This is Opeth in their prime - able to switch from brutality to whimsey within moments, and Akerfeldt's voice is just sublime, whether singing or growling. The musicianship and song writing are exceptional as always, and it could be argued that they were never this heavy (or wonderful) ever again.