Opeth Best

Though Opeth have officially signed with Roadrunner, this double-live disc was released by former label Peaceville. This is welcome, because the band's first live offering, the DVD-only Lamentations: Live at Shepherd's Bush, was not able to focus on the first four recordings due to contractual problems. Apparently, this is worked out here, because all of the band's recordings are represented. That said, The Roundhouse Tapes, recorded at Camden Roundhouse, London, U.K., on November 9, 2006, is a double-disc set that captures this mighty band at their very best. The tour that Opeth undertook in support of Ghost Reveries was 18 months long; it began in June of 2005, and ended December 2006. They played 210 shows during that time. Given that this gig was near the end of the tour, it showcases the band at the zenith of their live powers…

While they have taken a different approach with each album, Opeth has a very distinct and instantly recognizable sound: somber, mysterious, and very serious. Their style falls at a meeting point between melodic Swedish death metal and '70s progressive rock, though without any of the technical busyness that description might imply. Morningrise is, as far as the metal scale goes, possibly their least heavy album; it also contains their longest songs - just five of them, ranging in length from ten to 20 minutes. The tracks all take their time developing, shifting back and forth from full-on metal sections (marked by distorted dual guitar riffs and growling vocals) to calm, acoustic guitar-based passages with more softly sung vocals…

This 3-CD set is sponsored by Arrow Classic Rock, the Dutch radiostation that is embraced by all Dutch progheads because they are the only radiostation that frequently plays many progrock classics and every week on Tuesday the known rock-journalist/producer Kees Baars (he is a personal friend of Geddy Lee) is the host for a two hour progrock show…

It is inevitable to avoid comparisons with Opeth when talking about Novembre's music. Surely, the same qualities Opeth fans adore can be found in Novembre's music, Novembrine Waltz in particular. However, it would be rather ignorant to look up to this amazingly talented and overlooked Italian group as one of the countless Opeth followers. Novembre have been in it as long as the Swedes and were as much pioneers of the melodic, atmosphere kind of progressive death metal as the above-mentioned collective. If you are a fan of such groups as Anathema, Agalloch, early Opeth, this will quite possibly make the list of your best albums ever.

It’s time for another deep dive into the horrors of mortality and the foul side of the supernatural. It’s time for Survival Of The Sickest, the sixth full-length album from Bloodbath, Sweden’s undisputed masters of old school death metal. Formed by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström (both of Katatonia), Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) and Dan Swanö (Edge Of Sanity) in 1998, Bloodbath devoted themselves to resurrecting the increasingly forgotten art of pure death metal. In 2014, they unveiled a new frontman - legendary Paradise Lost vocalist Nick Holmes, now redubbed Old Nick - and yet another macabre musical evolution. With a line-up of Renkse, Nyström, Per ‘Sodomizer’ Eriksson (ex-Katatonia), Martin ‘Axe’ Axenrot (ex-Opeth) and Holmes, the only way to go was grim…

Wishbone Ash are a British rock band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s. Their popular albums included Wishbone Ash (1970), Pilgrimage (1971), Argus (1972), Wishbone Four (1973), There's the Rub (1974), and New England (1976).

Soul Enema: "A creative and diverse Rock/Metal album, exploring vast melodic and rhythmic territories - from ABBA to Zappa, from King Crimson to King Diamond, between East and West and way beyond - in true progressive fashion. Like any reflection of the world we live in, it takes a wild ride over a wide emotional spectrum: sad, funny, perfectly sane, totally insane, very direct, quite obscure, and everything in between. We also had the great honor of featuring the instrumental talents of Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon), Yossi Sassi (ex-Orphaned Land, Yossi Sassi Band), Sergey Kalugin and Yuri Ruslanov (Orgia Pravednikov), as well as other wonderful musicians…