Opeth

Opeth is a Swedish progressive metalrock band from Stockholm, formed in 1989. Lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth’s primary driving force since the departure of original vocalist David Isberg in 1992. Opeth has consistently incorporated progressive, folk, blues, classical, and jazz influences into its usually lengthy compositions. The longest Opeth song, the 20-minute Immortal Rose, features only five, but lasting 66 minutes.

About Opeth in brief

Summary Opeth Opeth is a Swedish progressive metalrock band from Stockholm, formed in 1989. Lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth’s primary driving force since the departure of original vocalist David Isberg in 1992. Opeth has consistently incorporated progressive, folk, blues, classical, and jazz influences into its usually lengthy compositions, as well as strong influences from death metal, especially in their early works. The band released its debut album Orchid in 1995, and has since released 13 studio albums, four live DVDs, and four live albums. As of November 2009, Opeth have sold over 1.5 million copies of their albums and DVDs worldwide, including 300,000 collective SoundScans of Blackwater Park, Damnation, and Deliverance in the United States. The longest Opeth song, the 20-minute Immortal Rose, features only five, but lasting 66 minutes, it features the longest, but shortest, song in the band’s history, “Black Rose” Opeth toured the UK in 1996 in support of Morningrise, followed by a 26-date Scandinavian tour. The group has been through several personnel changes, including the replacement of every single original member. Although their eighth studio album, Ghost Reveries, was quite popular in the U.S., Opeth did not experience major American commercial success until the 2008 release of their ninth studio album,. Watershed, which peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard 200, and topped the Finnish albums chart in its first week of release.

Opeth rarely made live appearances supporting their first four albums, but since conducting their first world tour after the 2001 release of Black Water Park, they have led several major world tours. The group began to rely less on the blast beats and aggression typical of death metal and incorporated acoustic guitars and guitar harmonies into their music; developing the core sound of Opeth. In 1990, Isberg asked former Eruption band member Mikael to join Opeth as a bassist. In this novel, Opet is the name of a fictional Phoenician city in South Africa translated as \”City of the Moon\”. The band name was derived from the word \”Opet\”, taken from the Wilbur Smith novel The Sunbird. In 1995 Opeth recorded their debut album, Orchid, with producer Dan Swanö in April 1994. Because of distribution problems, the newly formed Candlelight Records, the album was not released until May 15, 1995. After a few live shows in the UK, the band returned to the studio in March 1996 to begin work on a second album, titled Morningrise. The album was released in Europe on June 24, 1996, and followed a few weeks later in Scandinavia. After the release of the album, the group went on to tour the UK and Scandinavia for a few months. In 2000, Opth released their second album. The second album was titled “Blackwater Park” and it was released on June 26, 2000.