Opeth - The Roundhouse Tapes review
Band: | Opeth |
Album: | The Roundhouse Tapes |
Style: | Progressive metal |
Release date: | October 2007 |
Disc I
01. When
02. Ghost Of Perdition
03. Under The Weeping Moon
04. Bleak
05. Face Of Melinda
06. The Night And The Silent Water
Disc II
01. Windowpane
02. Blackwater Park
03. Demon Of The Fall
Recorded live on November 9th, 2006 at the Camden Roadhouse (London), "The Roundhouse Tapes" is the first official live album of the genius band from Sweden, Opeth. After seven amazing and acclaimed albums, it was a good moment to release a real live recording and Opeth chose one of the best venues of London to record it and asked to the famous British label Peaceville (one of their first partners) to produce it. The result is a beautiful release and for sure all the people who love this amazing combo will have to buy this double CD as soon as possible. We're in front of a great live my friends!
You'll not be disappointed by "The Roundhouse Tapes", especially if you have seen Opeth live during their last tour. This double CD is a perfect description of the performances on stage of the Swedish combo. As always in a really peaceful atmosphere and with his really deep voice, Mikael Åkerfeldt talks to the audience and presents his music between each songs, that's something that I will ever remember (I saw the band in Paris last year), only some few bands (and band members) have this kind of charisma on stage. These guys don't have to scream or anything to "live", they just have to be here to produce a mystical aura in the whole venue. The funny thing is that we can even percept this charisma on this recording which is only composed of hits (well all the Opeth's albums are full of hits anyway). During more than one hour and thirty minutes Opeth played nine songs (that's not a lot but you all know that Opeth's trademark means songs of height minutes minimum). One more time it was perfectly done and all the songs sound like on the CDs. The voice of Åkerfeldt was pure like crystal and the four other guys were excellent this night too.
There is nothing to say against this release actually, despite maybe that we cannot hear a lot the audience sometime but all in all the sound is really good and as I said just above it's easy to feel what Opeth live is through this double album. Some of you will say that some songs are missing, that the track-list could be better, that's possibly right but we cannot have everything and my only complain (and that's not something which comes from the album) is that Opeth should play a bit more. Without being bad, one hour and thirty minutes, that's a bit short for a band with such standing which should easily pass the two hours of music for their shows. Anyway in the end I can only recommend "The Roundhouse Tapes", because this is not a live album to promote one album only, this is just a perfect live experience which was missing in the discography of the combo.
Great, now we have a real live album of Opeth and that's great news! Nothing to say against this release, even its cover is classy so if, like me, you're a fan of this amazing band from Sweden, you'll not have to wait anymore to buy this classy recording. "The Roundhouse Tapes" is a great live album which describes perfectly the musical universe of the masters of Dark (Death) Progressive Metal.
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 10 |
Songwriting: | 10 |
Originality: | - |
Production: | 8 |
Written by Jeff | 05.11.2007
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