Track Listing

1. Moor
2. Godhead's Lament
3. Benighted
4. Moonlapse Vertigo
5. Face Of Melinda
6. Serenity Painted Death
7. White Cluster

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106325 in Music
• Released on: 2003-03-24
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
Swedish death metal outfit Opeth are as well known for their forays into symphonic and progressive territory as for their grinding riffs and skull-crushing power. STILL LIFE continues to refine Opeth's unique fusion: balancing atmospheric interludes (the lush acoustic guitar passage on "Benighted" is a good example) with slash and burn black metal (as on "Godhead's Lament").
Lead vocalist Mikael Akerfeldt's satanic growl sends mortal chills up the spine, but his singing can also be surprisingly melodic, as it is on "Face of Melinda". Opeth exhibit plenty of technical mastery, but it's their multi-part compositions and their ease in switching between styles that make the material on STILL LIFE so compelling

Customer Reviews

the best
ok you,ve read the reviews and your probably no wiser as to which opeth album to buy first. i,ve listened to them all countless times over the years and this is the one to buy first.. its a masterpiece. then buy blackwater park, morningrise, my arms your herse, orchid, deliverence, damnation and ghost reveries ... in that order. by the time youve soaked them all up and learnt them Opeth will have released their next album. so now you know what to do there's no excuse... get off your ass and go buy!!

THE BEST OF THE BEST
Opeth really are fantastic but this is exceptional, the best albumn i have ever heard, and this comes from someone who listens to virtually no other death metal bands, indeed i am usually into flamenco! So never be put of by the narrow minded people who lump Opeth into that genre and leave it at that, they do everything and do it all so well. Death metal vocals are not easy to listen to if you are not use dto it.....however with time you begin to appreciate them (i cant do it!) especially after seeing them live (5 times for me) he really can just switch between his amazing melodic voice and then his 'demon of the fall' voice without litres of water.
It is in this album that they really hit the spot for me, it satnds in the middle of their early work which was more raw and unforgiving and the newer albums where the become i think a little more experimental than the had done in the early days. Still life combines the best of those worlds and every song is a classic pact with amazing guitar riffs and fantastic song construction the twists and turns in the music are quite unpredicatble, never boring and always rewarding. Softer beuaty is acvailable in the Face of Melinda and Benighted whilst white cluster and serenity painted death show the heavy monster they can be. The Moor however stands out to me as the best song to open an album.....after years the hairs stand up still when it reaches the end of the buildup when Aekerfelt begins to roar.

Stunning, as ever
Still Life is, for me, Opeth's most accessible album, and the best starter for those not from an extreme metal background (as I certainly wasn't when I first heard them). The first song that drew me in was Face of Melinda, a stunning track that remains one of my favourites. It took me much longer, and seeing them live a couple of times before I _really_ got to appreciate the death vocals on some of the other tracks. However, it does not take long to start getting into them, and perseverance even if you are not at first a fan yields huge rewards. This album, as other reviews mention, is a concept album; the story is (at least in comparison to other Opeth work) fairly easy to follow, and is well documented elsewhere. I am undecided as to whether (as other reviewers argue) the story adds to or detracts from the overall quality, but it at least makes the lyrics more interesting to read. When reading the next section, bear in mind that there isn't a single Opeth song ever that is actually bad, and any criticism is relative to Opeth standards, which stand not just head and shoulders above the rest but dwarf them.

The album opens with a typical Opeth plucked acoustic guitar riff that breaks out into The Moor, a good opener, but not one of my favourite tracks. Of course it is a fine song, but by Opeth standards, fairly run-of-the mill. It is easily surpassed by the raging Godhead's Lament, a song containing one of the best riffs ever written, and an excellent mix of death vocals and singing. The next track, Benighted, is not one of Opeth's most inspired works, a slow ballad that lacks some of the intensity of their other slow and/or quiet tracks. It is fairly unrepresentative of the body of Opeth's slower work (try Credence on My Arms, Your Hearse or Harvest on Blackwater Park), but still a pleasant interlude with good acoustic guitar work. Moonlapse Vertigo, the following track is almost entirely death vocals and heavy guitars, and has a fine instrumental break in the middle. The unsurpassed Face of Melinda comes next, and never disappoints after any number of listens. It is split roughly in half, the first section acoustic guitars and the second heavier, but is sung throughout. Serenity Painted Death has some excellent excellent riffs and is one of the best heavy tracks. The only annoyance is that the guitar cuts out at the end; it sounds like a mastering error but I read that it was deliberate because Opeth were bored of using a fade. Still Life closes with White Cluster, a good, heavy track that completes the album well and brings the story to its inevitable conclusion.

This album is a metal classic, with some of Opeth's best work. If you don't already have it then you've unfortunately missed out on the first two pressings with their card slipcase, but a Digipack is hardly worse and irrefusable at this ridiculously low price. Buy this, then buy Blackwater Park, then buy all the other albums and marvel at a career that comes as close to perfection as is possible.