Reviewed by dormitor
I started to like this album, as soon as I got bored with all the primitive sounds released nowadays. This was an immediate affection. Somehow, Opeth manage to be different, yet they easily transform and enliven traditional themes. What enchants me is the way the music is structured, how the songs follow to the climax. The twisted sounds form a beautiful tapestry of ever-changing ornament. The compositions aren't straight, aren't primitive. They never lack depth. The depth which sucks you down the whirl of memories and melancholy. The depth swirled with energetic concepts and turning points. Opeth possess the rare ability of combining melody and energy, aggression and smoothness. This is an autumn refuge, a bleak asylum, a kaleidoscope of yellow leaves: multiplied images of stained glass? soft tint on the face, stigmatised hands, the bleeding palms, down the yelling throat. How wonderfully they harvest the fields heavy with tears and tar-black ripen roses. Their music like a faithful companion settles down your weary skeleton of melancholy. You never notice when the record ends. You drift into silence, pleased that there are sounds like these, different from the insulting whistle of mutated, brain amputated caricatures of homo sapiens.