Opeth's Watershed review

I have been wanting to write this review for a long long time now...This album was released when fans were quite concerned about the departure of both their drummer and guitarist from the band. Fredrik Akesson and Martin Axenrot are the newbies (new only to the band, they were previously associated with bloodbath and witchery respectively) that worked on this album. I think I've listened to Watershed a whole lotta times that its about time I wrote a review.

I'm musically challenged quite a bit so the rest of the review wouldn't be filled with any of the technical stuff. It's solely wat i think about the album and how I feel when listening to it. First of all I can't help but notice that blabbermouth has given this album a 9.5 which pretty much means its an excellent album.

There are a total of 7 tracks in this album, the first song is titled Coil and its a swedish folk song, the song has Axe's girlfriend Nathalie Lorichs rendering vocals as well. Both Akerfeldt and Lorichs sound excellent and I like this song, but I've listened to it too many times to a point where it gets boring...as good as it sounds it does get a bit boring after a while.

The next song is "Heir Apparent" I consider this the best song in the album, the speed at which Axe ends up drumming is just stellar. It gets quite intersting towards the middle, you would know what I'm talking about when you listen to this song...I watched Opeth play this song and I have to say Axe did drum so perfectly it was just amazing :). My husband and I definitely consider ourselves privileged :)

The third song is the "Lotus Eater" it has the sound of Opeth but its nothing like the other songs that Opeth has ever done. It's really progressive and I absolutely love it, I love it so much that I don't even want to judge it. The bouts of silence followed by intense drumming is amazing. Listening to Lotus Eater just elevates my sense especially when the music gets real intense.

The 4th and 5th songs are Burden and Porcelain Heart and I'm not a big fan of both and I don't really have much to say. I find them both to be simple and lacking creativity. I have a problem with just trying to get to like the basic tunes of these songs. Others might very well like 'em, I don't like it simply because its not my kinda songs.

The 6th song is the Hessian Peel, I still remember, when I watched the DVD and heard Akerfeldt play I really couldn't believe the first verse was real. Its such a sadly pleasant bitterly sweet tune. I love the rest of the song as well...but the solo blows me away. Every time I listen to the solo I feel like I'm not here anymore.

The 7th song is Hex Omega its yet another brilliant song.

So, overall I love 5 out of 7 tracks the remaining two aren't bad but they are simply not as good as the other ones. I personally feel that Ghost Reveries is still the best album by Opeth and with this album is definitely not as great as Ghost Reveries but it's definitely close. Opeth with this album has taken a new direction and inclusion of Axe has definitely contributed to the change. This album is certainly great in terms of musicality but the quality of lyrics has certainly dropped. Most other bands run out of ideas when they get this old but Opeth seems to have the conviction to really make good music. In all I understand why blabbermouth gave this album a 9.5 and I certainly feel that the band deserves every single point.