Composer Reacts to Opeth - Hjärtat vet vad handen gör (REACTION & ANALYSIS)
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- Опубліковано 19 лип 2021
- Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Hjärtat vet vad handen gör
ORIGINAL VIDEO // • Hjärtat vet vad handen...
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Opeth is more or less the songwriter, singer and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt's band. He's not classically trained but he's a true music nerd with his listening focus on late 60's through early 70's - the less mainstream the more intriguing to him it seems 😊.
Anyways, Mikeal is the only member left from when "the old song" (Forest of October) was cut and the bassist Martin Mendez is the second oldest (since '97).
When it comes to the growls vs the cleans I'd say the presence of clean singing has dominated over growls throughout their career actually. There's only a couple of songs with growls exclusively but loads of songs with clean singing only. Even Forest of Oktober DOES have some really nice clean singing.
I"d say the wonderful album Watershed (probably my favourite) which is the last album featuring growls, could count as a tipping point. An incredibly diverse album!
(And I think this was the fourth or fifth song you reacted to from them)
I need to investigate these guys more. I'm really enjoying this.
If you are into prog rock definitely check out their last 4 albums.
@@soakedbearrd I've heard some. I'm on the fence about the growling, that's why I haven't really pursued them. Although I love Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Opeth has that Swedish celt sound like Anglagard. The opening groove to this is killer.
@@avantprog6902 I love the growling now, In the beginning I actually hated it. But I’ve grown accustomed and it’s opened me up to some really good bands I would have dismissed outright because of the extreme vocals (like gojira, jinjer, Death etc..). Don’t get me wrong I’m still extremely picky with bands that use it, but a band like Opeth that uses it to emphasize and play with the themes it actually adds to the music. That being said I love the cleans as well, in fact that’s what made me give their growls a pass, and boy am I glad I did.
I was in a similar position ~'00 when I first discovered them. Loved the music, hated the growling. But I loved the music enough that I was determined to keep listening and I came to love the growls and basically got into the entire death/black metal genres thanks to Opeth. Opeth remain my favorite metal band that uses harsh vocals, and they're a great "gateway" band. FWIW, their last four albums don't have growls, and neither did Damnation (which is much softer/quieter than their other albums; every song is haunting and beautiful). I actually think their last album is the best of their "non-growl prog rock" era, so it's a fine one to start with. If you want to test an album with growls, Blackwater Park is generally the album that introduced most people to the band. I slightly prefer Still Life and Ghost Reveries, but Blackwater Park is the safest bet.
@@jonathanhenderson9422 I agree on all fronts
This is from their latest album swedish version and in english the title is "Heart In Hand". They recorded english and swedish version of "In Cauda Venenum" (Poison In The Tail)
the answer to the verse's time signature is 2 sets of 8/8 and 1 of 7/8 for a 23 beat pattern. It then shifts to 8/8 and then 4/4 for the chorus (yes it's the same as 8 but the feel has changed to 4).
The beginning is a bit more difficult to count. Not sure where to begin there without writing it out! :D
I love how obvious they are with their playfulness with time signatures on this record.
Τhe whole album is worth checking out...and of course the rest of their catalogue : D
I think others have done a great job in giving you information about these two Opeth tracks and Opeth's career in general. Their last four albums (without growls) were all hugely influenced by Mikael's love of 70s prog, especially many of the lesser known classic prog rock bands like Renaissance and Magma. I suspect that Steven Wilson also had a huge influence on the direction Mikael/Opeth went in after Blackwater Park... or rather I think they influenced each other. Porcupine Tree went more "metal" after Wilson befriended Mikael too, but Opeth went more towards classic/retro prog.
While I'm not as big a fan of Opeth's "retro prog" era, one thing I do appreciate about them is how they've combined a lot of their unique harmonic touches with those older styles, so even though there's not much "metal" any more you can still hear Opeth's DNA in it. I do think their last album has been the best of this phase, though opinions differ. Personally, I guess I just end up comparing their newer albums to older, classic prog rock and finding myself preferring most of their influences, while earlier Opeth (not necessarily the first two albums, but the several that came after that) was so original that there wasn't much to compare them to as they really set the bar for progressive death metal.
Absolutely crushed this overview 🤔 This might be your best analysis.... comparison wise 🤘 You made Opeth Proud😌
This is from the Swedish version of the album In Cauda Venenum that also has an English version. It's the same excact song as Heart in Hand except for the sung language (even the spoken cuts are in Swedish in the English sung version)
The spoken opening sentences translates something like
-It's too miserable, yuk!
-Who the hell are you?
The closing cut is the "yuk!" returning ("Usch!")
Very interesting. Thanks for the context there!
The first two albums were this very disjointed harsh/mellow stuff which you already listened to yesterday.
Then they much improved their transistions, added more high quality clean vocals, but always had the death/mellow contrast, which I would argue defined Progressive Death Metal (except vor the fully clean Damnation album).
Their last three albums are this Prog Rock/Prog Metal mix. It very slowly is growing on me, but the contrast is what made the band special to me.
Obviously, there's almost a 25 year gap between the songs, so some evolution was inevitable. Through that period their lineup has significantly changed. Only the frontman remained and he's the musical mastermind of the project from the very start. The lineup has also expanded - they didn't have a keyboard player on their first few albums. Growling used to be prominent, but they haven't used it on their last 4 albums. They do perform some older stuff with growls live. As for this album, this is a one-off. Their lyrics used to be in English only, but they recorded 2 versions of this album- including a Swedish one. Heart in hand is the same song from the English album version. The one thing that definitely remained through the years are the contrasts they use.
Yeah. The Swedish version is also the original version, then translated into an English (which wasn't the plan at first). Who's to say it's a one off? Resulted in extra personal lyrics and I for one wouldn't mind some more of that 😊
@@progperljungman8218 time will tell
Following this reaction was a pure joy! You getting lost in time-counting just makes it the more genuine because "that's what Human metronomes do" 🤩. Keep up the spontaneous and genuine work!
Also I'm happy you enjoy this so much. Really think it's time for you to allow yourself at least one full album of theirs since we've had five reactions already 😊
26:28 but there were clean vocals in Forest Of October! Just a few gorgeous vocal lines.
Old Opeth- New Opeth....all great stuff. Great review and comparison.
Was hoping for either of the last two tracks of this album. Ah well.
❤
May get mixed community reactions with this recommendation, but I would also advise checking out the translated English version of this track/album.
Great theme! I like seeing these back-to-back contrasts. Opeth have clearly evolved here as a band and improved their skills, and I like some of the production elements here better. But still, I think I gravitated more towards Forest of October. This one didn't feel as full of atmosphere as the older track, or at least the atmosphere didn't grab me as much. And I preferred the interweaving of contrasting sections in Forest, whereas this one sharply split into two distinct halves that almost felt like two songs put together (each great, but separate)
Thanks for picking the original Swedish version.
Great videos mate.! im feeling you!! smiling, watching you counting bars while listening.. =)
There's something very satisfying about figuring out time signatures (or at least time feels). It's sort of like a puzzle to me and figuring out the answer gives a nice dopamine rush. 🤣
Opeth started out with mostly growls and then from album to album included more and more clean singing. Their seventh album album was clean singing only and also no metal. It was nearly an acoustic album. But it was actually envisioned as the 2nd disc of their sixth album, which still featured a lot of growls. At that point it was a one-of situation. So then they resumed their growl/clean mix on their 8th and nineth album with the clean portion growing bigger and the metal parts getting smaller. Nevertheless, there was still considerable metal/growling on the nineth album (aptly titled "Watershed") which is why to the fans the tenth album ("Heritage") came as a bit of a shock: They abandoned growls and (death) metal completely, going a hundred percent into prog (rock), mostly 70s based. The heaviest song is Slither, which is a fast Rainbow style song and from todays point of view classifies more as hard rock than metal imo. Since then they never returned to metal/growling. Mikael has stated many times that he's done with the growling when it comes to composing new music. He doesn't rule it out completely but only on a never-say-never basis. They also still perform the growls live.
In case you haven't already desided which bands you'll be comparing, if I may suggest ULVER. Their first album "Bergtatt" is a black metal classic, but slowly after a few albums they started to change their style drasically into movie soudtracks, neoclassical, and finally reach their previous style that could be called alternative electronic (rock) music.
I recommend almost any song from their 2017 album "The Assasination Of Julius Caesar" or from their latest "Flowers Of Evil"
Ulver will be coming up for sure.
Nice song. Nice analysis!
💖
Biggest opeth fan? 🤪
@@TheFbiFilesRepeat One of them, for sure. 😝
The title is pronounced somewhat like this: /yertet veat va(d) handen yor/ ('The heart knows what the hand does')
That has so much more meaning than "heart in hand", changes the meaning tremendously.
@@soakedbearrd The whole album has a lot more meaning and flows a lot better in Swedish because Mikael wrote it in Swedish. He said that the English version was an afterthought because he thought that it would be a shame if people missed out just because they didn't understand the language.
Yup, would never have gotten that one. I honestly don't know why I didn't check a pronunciation first.
New album is top 3 of theirs
Yeah it's a real jewel, best non growl album of theirs since Pale Communion.
Idk, I can tell its special but it's not really for me. Maybe it will grow on me one day. There are some crazy moments in it that just flow so well that is for sure.
Watershed top1 for me, but this is definitely in top5
Blind Guardian - And Then There Was Silence. You only have 1 song on your channel from, that band, and I think this one would is suited for review due to it's narrative structure and shifts in stroytelling.
Have you considered doing one of Arcturus' songs? I expect youd quite like them. "The Chaos Path" is an exquisite example of thier style.
I can't say the name is familiar but I'm always down to check out music, especially if someone thinks it'll be my cup of tea.
Check out to rid the disease
What did they do with the vocals here? I can just barely make out the words he’s singing while the instruments are all clear. Didn’t work for me.
Interesting, I just went back and didn't have a problem with the vocals. Paying real close attention to them there seems to be a lot of reverb which muddies up the enunciation a tad but overall I think it's pretty clear (as someone who doesn't understand the language).
maybe, just for fun, I'd suggest Bloodbath - Live At Wacken 2005, something from the list, like Soul Eviscaration...
Try other songs off of this album, very interesting album with completely different songs. Universal truth, All things shall pass, garroter, are all completely different songs that offer something different.
react to utopia ost the British one
You should react to opeth bleak