This Week I Listened to Opeth: Blackwater Park
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- Опубліковано 26 жов 2021
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Hey guys, its your good buddy Uncle Ben Eller, and this week i listened to Blackwater Park by Opeth, one of the greatest albums EVER!!! In this video i'm going to give you a track by track breakdown of what makes this album great, and hopefully inspire you to make it a part of your musical life! We are gonna break down individual riffs and pieces of these songs and talk about what makes them work from a theory and harmony perspective on guitar and bass. And probably get a good chuckle in here and there, too.
Playing my PRS Hollowbody into a Pepers Pedals Dirty Tree into a Mesa Boogie Dual Rec i just got, into the Suhr RL/IR box for direct recording.
What record should i listen to next week? Mastodon? Opeth? Van Halen? Metallica? Megadeth? Let me know in the comments!
This week, I listened to Blackwater Park by Opeth, but what should I listen to next week?
Orchid. Or In their darkened shrines by Nile. Or Prometheus by Emperor... 2000 was an incredible time for music.
Symphony X - The Odyssey
Rage - Soundchaser
Steven Wilson 😁
Waterloo - ABBA
I see Opeth, I click without a moment's delay
Bete, mauj kardi
Second this.
Same
@@vikasbiliye5023 😂
Same
The GOAT album
First time that a song frightened me.
My favorite album by any artist of all time 👍🏻
Honestly you could make an entire 40 minute video on the song Blackwater Park alone. That song is a masterpiece and heavy as fuck. This album is Opeth at their finest. Also, more Opeth videos would be amazing. As always, great video uncle Ben
Snap! Fully agree that is flawless.
I'd say Still Life is opeth's best album. Blacktwater Park is kind of a step down imo.
@@Celatra I think both are beautiful albums but I think blackwater park is the better album because of pretty much everything ben brings up. How unconventional and complex it is while being easy to listen to and feel. I don't understand how the fuck they do it.
@@gj4312 ..and you're saying Still Life isn't unconvential? Out of the two, Still Life is more creative and uses more keys than BWP. All songs on bwp except for Drapery falls are just stripped down Still Life songs. My Arms Your Hearse and Morningrise are also very unconvential. Its almost like unconvential is Opeth's trademark sound...
I love opeth and i love bwp. Was my first prog death album i adored. But I can't help but feel like it's a stripped down, simplified still life. Songs on BWP feel a bit forced too compared to Still Life
@@Celatra oh not at all. I didn't mean unconventional compared to other opeth stuff, all opeth is unconventional. They break the mold in everything they do. I just think for how easy it is for a novice listener to feel the subtle complexities of blackwater park is what makes it such a genius album. Much of the same applies to still life, I just think the effect that you get from blackwater park's depth and the intention behind it is second to none. Don't get me wrong, still life is absolutely one of my favourite albums of all time and I see why it could be your favourite of the two.
I wouldn't call them stripped down still life songs at all. That's just completely inaccurate, they're entirely different. I'm not even claiming that blackwater park is necessarily more complex than still life. I think the effect that it creates is more powerful and has stronger intent. I see nothing that is forced in there because while the ideas are complex, they are concise and brazen in their use.
I love this Rick Beato's Step Son Vibe format.
hahaha i'll take it!
Beato doesn't even know who Opeth is....
@@fcamiolayou would be surprised
@@fcamiola no I did see him mention it them one time but I see your point
What? I'm so confused. Uncle Ben is his own man and entity and just as good if not better than Rick betoe. I mean, beato not to be disrespectful. Rick is cool, but Uncle Ben is hella better. If Rick would not shy away from 7 string guitar and extreme styles of metal, I could see him being the king. But that's not Rick. He is a Beatles fleetwood 60's and 70's guy, whereas as a teacher, he should include and dissect everything, including Opeth, Dimmu borgir, Morbid angel to depeche mode. But the dood is hung up on the Beatles, stones, and the like from those eras. Rarely, he dabbles in other things.
Instant neuron activation by seeing the Opeth logo on the thumbnail
This album holds a special place for me. Huge marker in my life. The Drapery Falls intro is something else.
I have to admit I didn't finish your video. I got through half way and then I got too distracted listening to Opeth.
I've got a confession to make: I never listened to them properly. Now 3 hours later I still haven't finished your video, but I have a new appreciation for Opeth. Thanks!
Same, and now I can't stop digging deeper. The combination of Steven Wilson's production (from Porcupine Tree) and Opeth's evolving sound took this album to "Best of..." well, pretty much every list.
Lol
Omfg I was about to do the same!! Lmfao
I know a lot of people who hate opeth because their songs are too long, and I don't understand why. People will sit down for a 2 to 3 hour movie in a theater, but can't stand for a song that's over 3 minutes long.
Opeth arrangements are absurd... like doom metal or ambient levels of absurd. Ben does a great job of explaining why it’s ok, the key changes are a massive palette cleanser and reward your patience - but if your ears demand a change every 8 seconds (rap!) then waiting 15 or 20 is unreasonable 😂
I think the criticism is valid. I love opeth but even I think they go on for a bit too long sometimes. It's not the length that's the problem though, its simply them playing the same measure like 15 times when maybe 4 or 5 times would've sufficed. Long songs are great if there is enough variety. Regardless they're one of my favorite bands so hold your angry rebuttals please.
@@astrospect i always say that everybody can write a music piece that's 30 minutes long but almost nobody can write a song with that lenght
Check out Wobbler's Merry Macabre.
@@astrospect Ya I completely agree. Love Opeth, one of my favorites, but they're absolutely guilty of dragging the same thing out too long
Great video Ben as always. Speaking of misheard lyrics RE: Harvest, Mikael said once on a live show “When i came out of the recording room, everyone was laughing. I said, why are you laughing? Then Steven Wilson said “those lyrics sounded like “Born of cement, but it’s me who’s tomato”.
Now you'll always hear that. You're welcome ;)
Hahahahahaha wowwwwwww I’ll never unhear that!
God dammit!
Man I still remember back in high school in 2010 randomly going on Wikipedia and looking up and reading about different music genres, and finding a list of progressive metal bands and seeing Opeth pop up and decide to give them a listen, best decision EVER.
Harvest was the first Opeth song I heard. I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought it was going to be all mellow kind of acoustic stuff. Bought the cd the day it came out, and holy shit!!! Had a definitive effect on my playing. Great video. Thanks, Uncle Ben!
Friend of mine gave me Opeth's discography back in 2012 and said "these dudes are BRUTAL". Only album that had its metadata correct was Damnation...took me another four years until another friend re-introduced me to open my eyes.
The solo in Blackwater Park is actually Mikael. The cool thing about the dynamic between Peter and Mikael is that both of their styles compliment each other and neither of them ever really “overplayed”
Don’t get me wrong though I love Fredrik. Peter’s solos just sounded a bit more mysterious and evil. Especially Moonlapse Vertigo and Deliverance
His solos are like basic arithmetic compared to akesson’s calculus. Fredericks solos are so much better and interesting. Watersheds solos are perfect.
@@tylerjacobson8012 His solos are like basic arithmetic compared to
akesson's calculus. Fredericks solos are so much
better and interesting. Watersheds solos are perfect.
Moonlapse Vertigo is the song that finally got me to love and not just tolerate death metal vocals, true story. The solo duel (you know what I mean) is so great.
Yeah good call, even though it uses a really similar lick that Peter would later use in the first Deliverance solo, that one is Mikael for sure. You can always tell by the vibrato because Peter had a weird, smaller vibrato whereas Mikaels was always wider and bluesier.
Its painfully obvious which solo's are Mike and which a peter as soon as a bend of any kind is involved. peters are usually a little weak and out of tune while Mikes were very spot on.
I didn't Get into Opeth until 2019, but once I finally got it They're my favorite band. I still constantly listen to their 1995 - 2008 records and purchase the Garden of the Titans Bluray combo pack.
"So simple, so heavy...kinda reminds me of your dad's second wife."
I don't understand, how can you have met her?
Tell her I want my Whitesnake shirt back!
Bleak is my favorite Opeth tune. Nothing like a good build up, and Bleak has one of the best builds into the best riff section of all Opeth (in my opinion, of course) - at 6 minutes 40 seconds in the song.
sooooo good
Thanks for mentioning the bonus tracks “Patterns in the Ivy II” & “Still Day Beneath the Sun.” Great songs!!! 👍🏼
I've been waiting a long time for an Uncle Ben + Opeth video. My heart is full.
Hope you enjoyed it!
Mr. Eller you could fart on a snare drum and make it sound magical. I enjoy all of your content. Stay healthy good sir!
Yes! Patterns in the Ivy 2 is beautiful. I'm glad that had a mention.
Simply one of the best albums ever made. This video was a treat, great new format!
These videos are so awesome Ben. Huge respect for all the work you put into this.
Glad you like them! Thanks dude!
This was actually the album that got me into more "hardcore" progressive metal - anything with distorted vocals. I was 18 and a really big Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree fan at the time, but hadn't gotten too far into progressive metal beyond them. Imagine my surprise when Steven Wilson showed up on "Bleak" with vocals!
Still one of my favorites to this day, and I was very happy to snag a copy of the 20th anniversary issue. It sent me down an awesome musical road!
Thanks again for teaching me the outro of Dirge for November
Wow! Great idea for a video. Your insight allows me to appreciate the record even more! Outstanding work, thank you!
Was waiting for this upload! Nice!
Everything about this video is perfect. Love the theory inclusion, even though I barely understand it. Ace tones too. Great work!
Awesome Uncle Ben love the way you close up on your fingers hey doggy!
It’s crazy just how long opeth has been a part of my life. They are one of those handful of bands that have always been there and always will be there.
I think Lindgren just decided the musician's life wasn't for him anymore. I particularly enjoy all of his ethereal atmospheric stuff and flavor that he adds to their tunes. That being said, Frederik Akesson is an absolute monster player and someone who isn't talked about enough in my opinion. Dude is amazing.
agreed 100%!!!
It's more complicated than that, unfortunately. I've seen Akerfelt kind of shit on him while on stage (before playing The Drapery falls he called it a "shit song" and said he "stole it from peter lindgren") and he has basically said he kicked Lindgren out for not contributing to his liking, but I'm sure there was a mutual element.
100% agree to you 100% agreeing.
Both guys in the catalogue has made us spoiled.
@@bumrecordingstudios a couple of things: pretty sure that would be a joke about drapery falls being shit, I guess with only point of giving Peter credit for contributing to an Opeth classic. And he didn't kick out peter, he said it was more like as time went on and he started writing the music in his own (instead of together in the rehearsal room with Peter), he (mikael) was wasn't into the riff ideas Peter would send him when putting songs together and didn't want to just add Peter's riffs somewhere in the songs just to be nice to him, so in the end he was basically not using any of Peter riffs. In retrospect, Mikael has said he thinks this bummed Peter out. It was Peter who left the band, presumably with this changing of the creative process playing some part in his decision.
Sounds like you are confused. I was talking about Ben’s reply. I don’t know anything about what you are talking about here.
I can't wait for the MAYH album breakdown. Demon of the Fall is another all-time favorite
Opeth come up with the most original, engaging guitar riffs - both heavy and acoustic.
I spent many years in my 20s listening to this masterpiece album and go back to it from time to time.
Absolutely love this! Great job as always Ben, and kudos to the extensive knowledge of the theory behind their riffs!
PLEASE do Ghost Reveries next!
loved the video & format! More for sure!!
Thank you so much for posting this/creating this. This is my favorite Opeth album hands-down. It is a rock classic and is highly underrated
Awesome video Ben!!
Love the video. Definitely would check out more in this format.
The Funeral Portrait is probably the most underrated song in the album and arguably in their entire career, it's nasty and groovy and have some really iconic sounding sections with probably the most satisfying transitions Opeth has ever done, this album is my favorite album of all time, in any genre, the sheer amount of creativity and just smart songwriting in this album still impresses me to this day, would love to see you do one of this for Watershed, it's probably the most interesting in terms of songwriting from their "heavy" era
2001 was a blessed year, Blackwater Park and some of the best games of all time.
It was a great year for video games! Super Smash Bros. Melee is my favorite game of all time, and it came out that year.
@@alecneevel2897 forget SSB lol. 2001 was the release year of our lord and saviour of shitty games, Diablo 2 LOD!
Man I love this album. Blackwater Park, the song itself is just so nastily evil. The riff that starts at 1.56 minutes into the song is by far my favourite, and I love playing it on the guitar as well.. Can't help but dance with it kinda. Though I think out of the songs on the album itself my favourite song is 'The Funeral Portrait' as it is overall groovy, and has a decently fast pace which I prefer ( Given Thrash is what kind of metal I got into originally. ) and the ending when the clean vocals hits is just brutally beautiful. Dirge for November is top notch as well.
Listening to Opeth while driving by/ walking through the forest on a cloudy autumn day when the leaves are changing colors is an experience like no other.
Uncle Ben, you're legit as fuck. Opeth is my favorite band of all time, and this is the album that got me into them. Thank you so much for doing this!
This is so great. Love this!
Every time you make an Opeth video, I always end up watching it about three or four times
Okay you've convinced me. I'll listen to it for the third time tonight.
This video was excellent, really enjoying this format. And a great choice of album. I first got into Opeth when this album came out and to know it was 20 years ago makes me feel so old. Good to know Turkey has a great taste in tunes as well.
Awesome. Opeth is such a great band. Thanks for the song insights for "Blackwater Park" \m/
The Drapery Falls is my favourite too, man!
The "drapery falls" gives me goosebumps every time
I really liked this video. Thanks for making it.
Great video! One of my all time favorite Opeth albums and to me is the quintessential album for the start of Fall.
Honestly a masterful album and I can't fault anyone for having it as their fave album, yet it probably wouldn't make my top 3 fave Opeth albums (Damnation, My Arms Your Hearse, Still Life). That's the beauty with Opeth, their early discography is absurdly strong, even Orchid
edit: everyone unfamiliar with Still Life, check out Mikael's solo on Serenity Painted Death; I don't think he's ever come up with a better solo in the rest of his career
"Every note is everywhere"
Love your channel Ben...
Awesome video Uncle ben, thanks
Killer video for an immaculate album. Made me want to jump out of bed and grab my guitar! I loved this video style, it’s so cool to see the theory laid out like that. Also, I definitely contributed to the Turkey pets.
This man never fails to deliver!
Loved the bass highlight at 12:40 and awesome video overall
Thanks for doing this. One of the greatest metal albums of all time.
Bleak was the first Opeth song I heard . Immediately fell in love and spent the next couple of months digesting everything I could .
One of the things I love about this album, is it gives me a lot of Diablo vibes. I have to imagine the guys were fans of the game.
I always stayed away from Opeth, not intentionally, but they always felt like I band I wouldn’t be able to get into. I’m honestly not sure why. Then I watched a reaction from Alex Hefner, which was a song off of Watershed. I think it was The Lotus Eater. That song got me immediately hooked. I tried listening to that album and I actually enjoyed it a lot. I remember posting about it, and then a friend recommended me Blackwater Park. Game over. I was hooked immediately and I don’t think I stopped listening until the album was finished. That doesn’t happen very often. Absolute masterpiece of an album.
What a great breakdown! I'm blown away by your knowledge of theory.
EDIT: I'd love to see you do this for some others, Damnation, Deliverance, Ghost Reveries and Watershed. Your insight is awesome.
The minor combined with the major can only convey one emotion in my opinion and that is melancholy ... Which drips from this albums riffs
Uncle Ben that album was also my first, long story short I now I them tattooed on my arm and still love their work, awesome to see this video!
Great, great video for us music theory nerds and Opethians! cheers. Would love more like this on any and every Opeth record.
Man, Blackwater Park is my favorite album of all time, what a jewel.
Best Opeth line up ever. That rhythm section is phenomenal, complementing Micheal's inspirational melodies perfectly.
That tone is on point, Uncle Ben!!
to this day Bleak is still my favorite overall song
Thanks Uncle Ben! I remember listening to this album back in 2004. Thanks for bringing back memories.
My favorite album from my favorite band! Thanks Uncle Ben!!
I need more content like this!
That's a masterpiece. Thanks Ben.
I listen to Blackwater Park every Friday. A little gift to myself :) Thanks for this deep dive, I really enjoyed it!
We can never have enough Opeth. Keep it up!
Opeth in this era always felt uncovered rather than created. Thanks for the ear worm.
Love your analysis
Such a great video idea, definitely need more! Or you can go through the whole Opeth discography I wouldn't complain lol
I liked this a lot. I'd love to view more on Opeth's albums!
loved this. My favourite record probably.
I will be ever hungry for anything Opeth. Thank you Uncle BenOpeller.
Greatest band ever? Yes.
Hey, when the camera's positioned just right, it makes the spider's legs turn into Uncle Ben dreadlocks lol. I was super curious about Opeth around 2005, so I decided to just buy a couple songs at random. Went with Karma and The Leper Affinity. Only took me 1 listen of each one to realize that I had been missing something amazing, and ordered an Opeth box set the next day at work. One of the best musical purchases I have ever made. My favorite track on the record is Dirge For November. I just love how it starts so soft, then transitions to heavy, and then holy f**king heavy when the vocals kick in.
One of my favorite bands and albums, it changed how I play and look at the guitar.
As a fun sidenote, my girlfriend is from Germany and we both live in Sweden. When she goes from speaking swedish to german it sounds more like playing let’s say a G major to a F# augmented…
Classic Opeth lineup... one of my favorite albums ever
Thank you so much for this amazingly researched and presented video, Uncle Ben. This is one of the best guitar vids I've seen in years. The "blak" in my name is specifically in reference to Blackwater Park (someone else had "BlackFloyd" in 2006, hence the intentional typo in my handle.)
Opeth is legendary! Thank you for dissecting this album!
I’m going to see Opeth w Mastodon in Nashville next month , can’t wait! Great breakdown of a classic track - Happy Samhain 🎃🔥🤘🏾🤘🏼
Have fun!
I like the language metaphor for music theory because they are essentially just ways of describing pattern recognition for different forms of communication. However, Spanish is related to German though, it's just not as apparent as Swedish is in their relationship. German and Swedish share the same family of Germanic languages, but Spanish is an Italic language derived largely from Latin. However, both languages are Indo European, so if you look closely you'll notice that there are similarities between the two in regards especially to grammar, it's just that for whatever reason certain sounds were switched out for others over thousands of years of various tribes moving around Eurasia. The difference is not as drastic as say comparing Spanish to Japanese, which are in completely different language families and unrelated to one another. One language, Japanese, is syllabic, sounds requiring syllables and the other, Spanish, is alphabetic, where individual sounds can be broken down apart from their syllables.
There's a lot of loanwords from Latin in both German and Spanish because of the influence of the Romans. For example, "to try" as it pertains to tasting food is probar in Spanish and probieren in German. Indo European languages range as far as India to Spain btw. I feel like comparing languages to musical genres and subgenres would fit well, but whatever I've wasted anyone else's time whose read this whole thing anyway.
Love Opeth by the way Uncle Ben and videos where Uncle Ben explains Opeth. Martin Mendez is a beast.
Not wasted! I'm a lover of linguistics and etymology myself and you summed up the differences in language really well in a short post.
Awesome video. Love breakdowns like these. I am fairly certain that he said somewhere that of all things, he is most proud of the bass part in The drapery falls.
You can tell how big an impact this album had just by reading these comments, what a high watermark for the Metal genre as a whole. So few bands can match Opeth when it comes to creating atmosphere. Beautiful album, and great video Ben. You killed it.
Great video lad.
God, I love Opeth...nice acoustic playing!!!
Opeth! Such genius.
I never thought of bass tone much. Until now. That bass sounds delicious!
Patterns II is such a lovely tracks.
Awesome video Ben about an awesome album! The first album I heard by them was Still Life and it was mind blowing too. They were so unique and have so many amazing layers to their music.
Nice job on the riffs and chords you demonstrated! I'm quite impressed that you can hear all those little dissonant notes in the chords. They are really a defining part of the band's sound.
My favourite guuirtrr yutubber and my favourite guiart qlbum in the same video?!?!
We are similar ages, and so this album was/is super significant for me as well.
You absolutely did it justice here, great to see your take on some riffs that I've known how to play for years, and some I've never dared to attempt.
You're an inspiration UB, 2 severed thumbs up
You look like Ozzy in that costume.
Gotta say i love this album. Opeth is a huge inspiration to my own style of playing. Been meaning to learn Deliverance forever now, as that song really awakened something in my brain when I heard the outro.
Fookin killer lesson 🤘🏻🤘🏻 for a killer album
Amazing video, thx man
Awesome video! One of my favorite albums of all time! Maybe one day you can do a video on Funeral Portrait. Transcriptions and videos for that song (including mine lol) are all over the place. I play it a certain way, but would love to see you break it down and teach us something new! I like the idea of this series, please keep it going🤘🏻