Band:	Opeth
Album:	The Roundhouse Tapes
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	October 20, 2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. When
02. Ghost Of Perdition
03. Under The Weeping Moon
04. Bleak
05. Face Of Melinda
06. The Night And The Silent Water
07. Windowpane
08. Blackwater Park
09. Demon Of The Fall

Recorded live on November 9th, 2006 at the Camden Roadhouse (London), "The Roundhouse Tapes" is the second official DVD of the genius band from Sweden, Opeth. After seven amazing and acclaimed albums, it was a good moment to release a new 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 DVD 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 with Peter Lindgren. This DVD is a perfect way to understand how the Swedish band is on stage. 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 in 2006), 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. 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 CD. The voice of Åkerfeldt was pure like crystal and the four other guys were excellent this night too.

The DVD is not full of bonuses. Except a little video recording of the sound check and funny but not so interesting, interviews of some metalheads at the end of the show, there is nothing else featured on the DVD. But the image is excellent and the venue rocks, this is well filmed except that it's a bit too fast sometime (the cameras cannot stay on the guitarists during the soli...). The sound is excellent; we can see the audience who is really active and it's always fun to see Mikael Arkeftl doing his little "dirty" jokes between the songs. Despite the length of the concert which is a bit short (Opeth will have to play two hours soon...), there is nothing to say against this DVD which is, in my opinion, better than the previous one in reason of an excellent and violent set-list. Sure some songs are missing but we cannot have everything anyway right?

The DVD version of "The Roundhouse Tapes" is a must for all the fans of Opeth. And the good thing here is that it should also please the old fans who are not really into the last albums because with songs like "When", "Blackwater Park" or "Demon Of The Fall" they will get good violent riffs and tempos. Nothing to add here, "The Roundhouse Tapes" is just classy and this is highly recommended to the metalheads who love the Swedish combo. "The Roundhouse Tapes" is one of the best DVDs released this year!