Still Life (Opeth album)
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| Still Life | ||||
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| Studio album by Opeth | ||||
| Released | 18 October 1999 | |||
| Recorded | 15 April–29 May 1999 (Maestro Musik & Studio Fredman) |
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| Genre | Progressive death metal | |||
| Length | 62:31 | |||
| Label | Peaceville | |||
| Producer | Opeth Mikael Åkerfeldt[1] Fredrik Nordström |
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| Opeth chronology | ||||
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Still Life is the fourth studio album from Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth. The album was produced and engineered by Opeth alongside Fredrik Nordström.
Contents |
[edit] Style
Allmusic called Still Life a "formidable splicing of harsh, often jagged guitar riffs with graceful melodies".[2]
Like most of the band's albums, Still Life features the combination of death metal and progressive rock elements that is characteristic of Opeth's music style. With this album, vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt's death growl began to deepen considerably relative to the band's earlier albums. Still Life continues the band's experimentation with dynamics, and most songs contain at least two drastic dynamic shifts. The song "Benighted" is the only acoustic track, containing a blues-influenced guitar solo. This is also one of the band's few songs that follow a linear song structure, containing verses and a chorus. "Face of Melinda" is, for the most part, another ballad; while it does not contain death metal vocals, it does contain guitar riffs that are typical of the band's heavier songs. A fretless bass guitar along with brushes in place of conventional drumsticks were used in "Face of Melinda" to give it a jazzier sound.
[edit] Concept
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Like its predecessor, My Arms, Your Hearse, Still Life is a concept album. Front-man Mikael Åkerfeldt explains: "Still Life was not Satanic but an anti-Christian theme. It sounds pretty naive when I explain it like this. It kind of takes place a long time ago when Christianity had a bigger importance than it has today. The main character is kind of banished from his hometown because he hasn't got the same faith as the rest of the inhabitants there. The album pretty much starts off when he is returning after several years to hook up with his old 'babe'. Obviously a lot of bad things start happening with, as I call it on the album, 'the council.' The big bosses of the town know that he's back. A lot of bad things start happening. They see him as a hypocrite in a way. It's almost like a devil's advocate or whatever it's called."[3]
[edit] Release and reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [2] |
| Chronicles of Chaos |   [4] |
| Metal Storm | [5] |
| Sputnikmusic |  [6] |
Due to time constraints, the band was able to rehearse only twice before entering the studio. Delays with the album's artwork pushed the release back an additional month, and the album was released in Europe under the Peaceville/Snapper label on 18 October 1999. Due to problems with the band's new distribution network, the album was not released in the US until 27 February 2001.[7]
Still Life was the first album recorded with bassist Martin Mendez and the first Opeth album to bear any kind of caption on the front cover upon its initial release, including the band's logo.[8]
The album was re-released by Peaceville Records in 2000 as a slipcase version and again as a digipak version in 2003.[9] A third re-release came out on 31 March 2008, with reworked album artwork by original artist Travis Smith. This new edition has two discs, the first one being a remastered stereo mix of the album on Audio CD and the second one being an Audio DVD containing a 5.1 surround sound mix. The DVD also contains a live video for the album track "Face of Melinda" from The Roundhouse Tapes live performance in London. The remastered and remixed versions of the original recordings were done by Jens Bogren.[10]
[edit] Track listing
All songs written and composed by Mikael Åkerfeldt[11].
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Moor" | 11:26 |
| 2. | "Godhead's Lament" | 9:47 |
| 3. | "Benighted" | 5:00 |
| 4. | "Moonlapse Vertigo" | 9:00 |
| 5. | "Face of Melinda" | 7:58 |
| 6. | "Serenity Painted Death" | 9:13 |
| 7. | "White Cluster" | 10:02 |
[edit] Credits
[edit] Opeth
- Mikael Åkerfeldt − vocals, guitar
- Peter Lindgren − guitar
- Martin Mendez − bass
- Martin Lopez − drums
[edit] Production
- Fredrik Nordström − engineering
- Isak Edh − engineering
- Opeth − engineering
- Göran Finnberg − mastering
- Jens Bogren − 2008 reissue remastering and 5.1 remix
- Travis Smith − album art[10]
[edit] References
- ^ "STILL LFE - 1999". Opeth.com. http://www.opeth.com/home/discography/item/15-still-life-1999. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
- ^ a b Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Still Life review". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r521354. Retrieved 12 January 2008.
- ^ McCoe, Scott. "Interview with Mikael Åkerfeldt". Metalupdate.com. http://www.metalupdate.com/interviewopeth.html. Retrieved 12 January 2008.
- ^ Azevedo, Pedro. Opeth "Still Life". Chronicles of Chaos. http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/reviews/albums/2-1450_opeth_still_life.aspx Opeth. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- ^ Collin. "Opeth - Still Life review". Metal Storm. http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/review.php?review_id=23. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- ^ Fisher, Tyler. "Opeth Still Life". Sputnikmusic. http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/8345/Opeth-Still-Life/. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- ^ "Opeth Biography". Opeth.com. http://www.opeth.com/home/about-opeth. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- ^ "Current logo". Opeth.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2004. http://web.archive.org/web/20040221013513/http://www.opeth.com/biography/logo_01.html. Retrieved 25 January 2008.
- ^ "Blabbermouth.Net". Roadrunnerrecords.com. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Search&searchtext=opeth&x=0&y=0. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
- ^ a b "Opeth's Still Life Special Edition at". Peaceville.com. http://www.peaceville.com/opeth/stilllife/. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
- ^ "Opeth official website discography". Opeth.com. http://www.opeth.com/home/discography/item/15-still-life-1999. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
[edit] External links
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