Watershed | 
 enlarge | Artist: Opeth
Label: Roadrunner Records
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $11.98
You Save: $7.00 (37%)
New (47) Used (13) Collectible (1) from $8.18
Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 1576
Format: Enhanced
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 179362
UPC: 016861793623
EAN: 0016861793623
ASIN: B0018CWWFK
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Coil | | • | Heir Apparent | | • | The Lotus Eater | | • | Burden | | • | Porcelain Heart | | • | Hessian Peel | | • | Hex Omega |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
2008 album from the forward-thinking Swedish titans, who seemlessly and fluidly combine Metal, Classic Rock, Prog, Folk and Free Form Jazz. With this, their ninth effort, Opeth continue to shake things up, turn the corner and push the limits of their sound. And the results are breathtaking. Ultimately, Watershed sounds at once completely like and absolutely nothing like previous Opeth records. Watershed takes all that is Opeth, and goes where Opeth have never gone before.
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| Customer Reviews:
 stunning album from a great band August 29, 2008
Scott Hedegard (Fayetteville, AR USA)
Opeth is, for all intent and purposes, Mikael Akerfeldt, the guitarist and vocalist of one of rock's most versatile and brilliant bands, regardless of genre. Yes, Opeth got its start as death metal, but it's so much more. "Watershed" is more tuneful than "Blackwater Park", the classic Opeth CD. There's more singing, and only a little grunting, which is good, because Akerfeldt has such a great voice.
Opeth aren't afraid to put lots of classic rock and even classical music touches in its stew. One can hear strains of heavy Pink Floyd at one point, blazing guitar riffing and soloes, and even flutes and strings. Most amazing of all, it all works. No single track outshines another - "Watershed" is a masterwork that must be taken in whole.
One metal website apologized for awarding Opeth 10 stars, its maximum, while describing them. That writer simply felt that this band was so good it was off the scales. I'm inclined to agree. Opeth is incredible.
So far, Watershed is the best album of 2008! August 23, 2008
John Besse (Florida)
Opeth's last release, Ghost Reveries, was named top album of 2005 by many sites across the internet. This time, Opeth is back with 2008 release Watershed, and a lot of expectations from the fans. Watershed features new guitarist Fredrik Akesson (Arch Enemy) and new drummer Martin "Axe" Axenrot, who's been filling in for Martin Lopez since the Reverie tours.
Throughout their career Opeth has been notorious for diversity while maintaining a distinctive style of music, and Watershed proves that Opeth has not lost their golden touch.
Watershed begins with beautiful, "Coil." Coil is a soft and tranquil song with a soothing twelve-string and nylon acoustic touch with layers of keyboards. Mike sings very melodic on Coil and brought in Axe's girlfriend Nathalie Lorichs as a guest vocalist on the song to add a more refining touch. Coil is on the shorter side, just over three minutes in length, but it's a very pretty song and a wonderful addition into the Opeth song catalog.
As always, Opeth paves the way from melodic transitions into heart stopping, death metalesque styles of music. "Heir Apparant" is roughly nine minutes of epic Opeth metal without melodic vocals, but the diversity comes from some dark acoustic interludes and a slide guitar solo. Heir Apparant is dark, brutal and probably the heaviest song they've written since "Wreath" the Deliverance album.
Enter "The Lotus Eater" as track number three. The Lotus Eater is the perfect display of Opeth's diversity and progressive nature packed into a nine minute song. This song has wonderful solos, heavy blast beat drumming, lots of death growls, but the song balances out with melodic guitar and vocal work, some jazz twists and a mellotron solo. Simply put, this song is amazing and a pleasure to enjoy.
A note to all of those progressive rock fans out there: don't feel as if Opeth's neglecting you with Watershed. Instead, it's quite the opposite. "Burden" comes to Watershed as a little homage to the mid 70's Scorpions style ballads. This song has it all for the musicians. Burden starts off with a keys intro and leads into full band accompaniment with Mike's melodic vocals. The simplicity of the melody on Burden allows for countless guitar solos (about: four at the end, concluding with a harmony arrangement and three lead guitars over vocals melodies throughout the song) a keyboard solo and amazing guitar and vocal harmonies.
If there was a weakness to Watershed, it's definitely here with "Porcelain Heart." Honestly, this song is way too long at eight minutes. Porcelain Heart rehashes up some of the riffs from Ghost Reverie's "The Grand Conjuration." But to add fuel to the fire, this song feels like it was a copy and paste job through Pro Tools (recording software). This is a very pretty song, with only clean tone vocals over lots of nylon guitar work. Porcelain Heart also has its heavy moments and plenty of double bass drumming, but the song just feels jumbled and a bit too long. Personally, I feel the five minute radio/music video edit of Porcelain Heart should have been the album version.
"Hessian Peel" is definitely the hardest song to portray in words. It's nearly a twelve minutes epic, with lots of progressive transitions. Starting off with a bass note drone, leading into some bluesy riffs and a wonderful melodic feel, Hessian Peel transists into a death metal segment back into a beautiful acoustic segment only to finish heavy and drop into a bass guitar and keyboard finale. This is definitely a must hear song to any Opeth fan or newbie getting into the band.
"Hex Omega" is a wonderful song that's perfect for closing out the album. Dark, eerie and proggy, Hex Omega seems to be the least memorable song on the album, but it has this great vibe to it.
Overall, this Opeth - Watershed is a must have album for any progressive metal fan. As of now, it's still my pick for album of 2008 and is the perfect follow up to Opeth's last release Ghost Reveries. Check it out, Watershed is a must hear!
 Not up to previous works August 21, 2008
Rodrigo (Rio de Janeiro, RJ Brazil)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I love Opeth, but this album somehow looks like the work of some cover band, and not a good one... The fact is that I was not able to connect with this album. The songs did not work well and, of course, are not in the same league with what they did in their previous albums. Some good moments, and that's all. Not recommended.
 Exactly what I expected August 19, 2008
Michael Rowland (Greenville, Tx. USA)
This album doesn't fail to please. If you liked Deliverance and Blackwater Park, then you will like Watershed. Brutally heavy riffs, plenty of melody, and of course, excellent musicianship. Exactly what I've come to expect from Opeth.
Amazing August 12, 2008
P.J. of Azrafel (Nevada)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I bought this album, I had high hopes, as Opeth seems to be about the only Swedish metal band that hasn't lost their edge yet. When I gave it the first listen, I was far from dissapointed.
The band's addition of Per on the keys has helped to add a great deal of atmosphere to their music. The songs are beautiful and complex, long as always. The album flows, more like a symphony than a collection of seperate songs.
Opeth explores a jazzier side to their music in this album, and some wonderful Jeff Beck-like guitar features at times.
I cannot reccomend this album highly enough. If you already like Opeth, you'll like this. If you are just looking for some good music, this is the best album to come out this year.
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