***NOTE: This is an opinion and everything is listed based on my own preferences. Feel free to disagree and tell me what your favorite Opeth albums are from best to worst.***

01. Blackwater Park

It would be nearly impossible to list any other album as #1 given that Blackwater Park is widely considered one of the best metal albums of all time regardless of genre. This is also the perfect place to describe what Opeth has historically offered as a musical entity and why it is worth delving deeply into their music catalog. Blackwater Park has all of the elements Opeth is known for: brutal death growls, soothing clean vocals, heavy, dense atmospheres seamlessly flowing into light, airy instrumentals. You never know what to expect from one moment to the next and that has always been one of the most exciting parts of any Opeth album.

Blackwater Park focuses a lot on complex acoustic passages that offer a stark contrast to the deep death growls over top of them. The electric guitars are far from forgotten however as they pound their way in to add a nice degree of ugliness to an otherwise beautiful musical journey. Perhaps the greatest part of Blackwater Park is that it feels like nothing has been held back, if there was a good idea to be implemented then it found its way into the soup. There is a real feeling of exploration within this album and that is true of most other albums in the Opeth discography. If you love getting something new out of your music every time you listen to it then you may find Opeth stealing many years of your life.

02. My Arms, Your Hearse

The third opus in the Opeth discography was the album that introduced me to the band and made me a fan. "When" and "Demon of the Fall" are still considered two of the best songs Opeth ever created while the rest of the album adds even more flavor to the style that makes those two songs so great. My Arms, Your Hearse is one of the heaviest and most "metal" of the Opeth discography while also having some of the best acoustic moments you may ever have the pleasure of experiencing in your life.

03. Still Life

It has been a rare occasion that I have sung the praise of Still Life, there is just something about it that keeps it out of regular rotation for me. However what is unquestionable is how Still Life bridged the gap between My Arms, Your Hearse and Blackwater Park with the most unique sound Opeth has ever produced. Mixing a dark story of a heretic returning to his lost love during a heavily religious time period with a sound that tries to recreate the era in all its false glory, Still Life was the album that established Opeth as the best progressive metal band of their time (and, in my opinion, of all time). Face of Melinda was also the first Opeth song with entirely clean vocals to really catch fire in the underground. My Arms, Your Hearse, Still Life, and Blackwater Park make up the trilogy that epitomizes the "Opeth sound" and all are worth listening to a few hundred times.

04. Watershed

There have been a lot of mixed emotions about the newer Opeth direction, primarily the direction following the departure of Peter Lindgren (who shared lead guitar duties with frontman Mikael Akerfeldt), and Watershed would be the official conclusion to the music Opeth was best known for producing. This is the last album to feature growling and the most polished of them. Watershed experiments in a lot of new directions while still paying homage to Opeth's past, the outcome being a clean sounding album that is the closest Opeth is ever likely to come to an album full of "singles". A typical Opeth album almost demands to be listened to from beginning to end but Watershed bucks that trend with every individual track doing well as a stand alone song. Lotus Eater is the first appearance of blast beats on an Opeth record with Burden being regarded as a classic clean vocal song even by those not typically into metal. You can't go wrong with any track off of this album and it is a proper goodbye to the Opeth many of us had grown with over many years.

05. Morningrise

It can be safely argued that Morningrise is the most historically significant album in the Opeth discography as it is the album that changed the underground metal world forever. For one, it wasn't a heavy, in your face, slam you over the head with brutality album that was typical of the metal scene at the time. It was a 70s inspired journey brought into the modern times with death vocals and constant emotional shifts. It is slow to unravel and closes on the lightest note possible. This is the second historically significant point, To Bid You Farewell. It was the first fully clean vocal song on any black/death metal album of any note and the underground metal scene became instantly split. "True" fans believed it to be an abomination, prog fans believed it to be a revolution in what could be done with extreme metal. Only you can decide for yourself which side is right but, taken for what it is, Morningrise is a slow ride worth taking.

06. Orchid

The debut and most black metal leaning album of the Opeth discography. The vocals are torturous, the music keeps a fast pace, and you never can tell what is over the next hill until you're launched over it. In my opinion this is the last of the "absolutely essential" Opeth albums and shows a youthful energy that is completely missing on every other release. You get a real feel for how special this group was even before they rose to prominence as the multitude of 10+ minute songs seem to pass by in the blink of an eye. This is the closest Opeth comes to feeling "fun" and Orchid would be perfect for a long journey anywhere, be it through a forest or an industrial park, as its dynamics shine regardless of the situation. And just remember, Opeth started their career with an album this complex, it is mind blowing to even think about.

07. Pale Communion

The second (technically third) release to do away with death growls had a lot to prove. It is hard to imagine such a well established band having to gamble their future on an album so late into their career but the complete shift away from their past into a completely prog direction created such a situation. Pale Communion had a lot of heavy support, with some labeling it the best album of the year with others calling it another shallow 70s throwback with no personality. And this isn't even the most polarizing Opeth release. Pale Communion encroaches into similar territory to Mastodon (who also changed their sound into a more "stoner metal" direction) with a solid amount of success. Cusp of Eternity, Elysian Woes, and Faith in Others showed a lot of promise for the new direction of Opeth which is why it lands as high as it does on my list.

08. Damnation

This is the first purely clean vocal album in the Opeth discography but came during a time when they were still very much rooted in the death metal genre. It is a dark, depressing, and at times difficult album to take in. Even so it is the anomaly of the Opeth discography as it stands completely alone. While it is the lighter half of the planned double album with Deliverence, it is far from light in terms of atmosphere and tone. Damnation sounds incredibly personal to the point of being nearly hopeless yet has this tinge of beauty that keeps you from being sucked completely into the whirlpool. Even though I don't listen to Damnation often, I do enjoy it any time I do, and a friend of mine considers this album to be one of the best Opeth has ever produced so you may find the same to be true.

09. Deliverance

It pains me to put Deliverance so far down on this list, especially since it came out during the time I was being thrust into adulthood whether I was ready or not and I spent a lot of time listening to it. However it is hard to overlook that Deliverance is not the same level of album as those that preceded it. Is it good? Absolutely. The title track is incredible and the focus on heavy guitars offers a great contrast to most other Opeth releases but I still to this day have a hard time remembering anything off of the album other than the title track. If Watershed can be considered the close to Opeth's death metal direction I think Deliverance can be seen as the end point of Opeth albums really needing to be listened to from the first to the last track to get the full experience. Similar to Damnation I think there is a lot worth experiencing here but it just falls short in the presence of their other more memorable outputs.

10. Sorceress

While it has only recently come out as of the writing of this list, and I am still processing the material, I think I can say definitively that Sorceress is not exactly a return to form for the band. And, yes, there is still no growling. As an Opeth fan I do enjoy Sorceress but would a non-Opeth fan enjoy it as much? On the plus side it has some of the best instrumental work the band has ever done. Even though it is a throwback to an older prog sound it does feel fresh and it is clear Opeth is starting to find their sound within this new direction. The band hasn't run out of creativity as they have some of their catchiest material on Sorceress, from The Wilde Flowers to Strange Brew, but for every excellent moment there is a far less engaging one that makes you tune out. I'm honestly still very mixed on this one.

11. Heritage

Before I go any further, take The Devils Orchard and stick it between Haxprocess and Famine. Why? Well, the decision to make The Devils Orchard the second track was made late in the process which completely threw off the balance of the album. Heritage was originally a slow build to that track and Heritage sounds so much better with that song in its proper place. Now I'll admit that Heritage has grown on me a lot since it was released and it may actually deserve to be a few places higher on my list but the fact I have to fix the track list myself should tell you just how much Heritage has going against it. It was the first album of the new direction and sounded almost nothing like the band we all knew. This led to a lot of hate. A LOT of hate. Any album that can anger a fanbase that much has unfortunately earned a place at the bottom of their discography even if it is a very pleasant listen. Yes, I said pleasant. You never expected that from an Opeth release did you? And if the idea of a pleasant album with the complexity of Opeth's usual arrangements interests you then Heritage may prove to be your favorite album by them. List placements don't tell the whole story, only a broader picture of general opinion.

12. Ghost Reveries

Prepare the wagons of hate, I'm ready for them. I don't think Opeth has a single bad album and I'm not saying Ghost Reveries is a bad album, only that it is the album I least enjoy by the band. Ok? Ok. So why do I not care for Ghost Reveries much? It isn't from a lack of trying because I have come to enjoy and appreciate it a lot more than I initially did but there are moments on this album that give me a headache. Legit. I listen to a lot of metal, I rarely ever have issues where I'm turning something off because it is causing me pain but there are occasional moments here that cause me pulsating headaches. Yeah, not pleasant, and I'd be lying if that wasn't a part of my reaction to it. That aside, the general style doesn't appeal to me much either. It is similar to the lack of connection I had to Still Life except the divide is even greater where I find myself not being able to enjoy the amazing instrumental breakdowns as much because I'm so disinterested in the material around it. There are many who disagree with me as evidenced by this being the mainstream breakout success for Opeth and if anything this is evidence that the Opeth discography is so diverse that it is really worth checking out everything and forming your own opinions.

In the end I love Opeth. I would not have made it through various difficult periods of my life if I didn't have their musical soup to sift through endlessly. This is my small attempt to try to make sense of and pass along the brilliant music of one of my favorite bands to you. It may not be a perfect analysis but I hope this at least gives you an idea of what each album offers, which ones may be worth checking out first, and allows you to reap the awesome harvest of this incredible band for yourself.

Created by:

WayTooManyCDs | 14.11.2016

	1.	Opeth - Blackwater Park 2001
	2.	Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse 1998
	3.	Opeth - Still Life 1999
	4.	Opeth - Watershed 2008
	5.	Opeth - Morningrise 1996
	6.	Opeth - Orchid 1995
	7.	Opeth - Pale Communion 2014
	8.	Opeth - Damnation 2003
	9.	Opeth - Deliverance 2002
	10.	Opeth - Sorceress 2016
	11.	Opeth - Heritage 2011
	12.	Opeth - Ghost Reveries 2005