Morningrise

Untitled

Morningrise is the Swedish death metal band Opeth's second studio album. The album exemplifies Opeth's signature style, exploring the dynamics between the combination of heavy death metal vocals and guitar parts with lighter progressive and acoustic elements. The bridge depicted on the album cover is a Palladian bridge, located in Prior Park in Bath, England.

Metal Storm (webzine) simultaneously rated the album #7 out of the top 20 albums of 1996 and #65 out of the top 100 albums of all time.

Songs

The song "The Night and the Silent Water", is about the grandfather of vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt, who had died shortly before the recording of the album. For this reason, Åkerfeldt was never comfortable with playing the song live, and even stated in interviews that he did not like it. Later on, he had admitted a change of heart, stating that he believed the song to be a "masterpiece." "To Bid You Farewell," the album's final and least heavy song, was notable at the time for featuring no death metal vocals, something that was considered standard to employ in the rising contemporary Scandinavian death metal scene. This album also features Opeth's longest ever recorded song: "Black Rose Immortal", which lasts over 20 minutes. To date, this remains the only Opeth album where each song exceeds 10 mins. (Excluding the demo bonus track).

In interviews for the Lamentations DVD, Mikael Åkerfeldt stated that following the success of this album, he got tired of its style and the number of 'copycat' bands using the counterpoint melodies which litter this album and its predecessor. He goes so far as to say that he finds certain sections of Morningrise "unlistenable" and was compelled to change Opeth's sound for My Arms, Your Hearse accordingly.

Reissues

The album was released in Europe by Candlelight Records in 1996 with a sticker on a jewel case, and in the United States by Century Black, Century Media Records' black metal off-shoot a year later. It was reissued by Candlelight Records in 2000.

The 2000 reissue contains a bonus track for both normal and vinyl editions released by Displeased Records. It is a demo that was recorded around the same time as this album. The bonus track was also released on the limited edition tin box in 2003.

Track listing

All lyrics by Mikael Åkerfeldt, all music by Åkerfeldt and Peter Lindgren.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Advent"	13:45
2.	"The Night and the Silent Water"	11:00
3.	"Nectar"	10:09
4.	"Black Rose Immortal"	20:14
5.	"To Bid You Farewell"	10:57

Bonus Demo

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
6.	"Eternal Soul Torture"	Åkerfeldt, Lindgren, Isberg	8:35

Credits

• Mikael Åkerfeldt – vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar
• Peter Lindgren – guitar, acoustic guitar
• Johan DeFarfalla – bass, backing vocals
• Anders Nordin – drums, percussion