The fact that they try to hard is boring. I don't necissarily know why, or how to explain. They're almost like the Pink Floyd of metal, and there's a lot of Floyd elements I think sound weird in metal. I could see myself liking them if they played in a more Obscured By Clouds or Final Cut fashion, instead of Wish You Were Here. With some heavy tracks, some small atmospheric pieces, maybe one brooding epic, an acoustic number...any of their albums like that?

My computer crashes if I type too much in one message for some reason, but yeah. I know this is what makes Opeth unique and popular, but I felt the need to voice my opinion. It's nothing personal, who knows? They could probably grow on me. But each album I've heard has been so much to take in. I'm not a prog metal fan.

Wait, are you being sarcastic? Every album from Still Life to Watershed has been like that. Blackwater Park as an example:

Heavy Track:

Small Atmospheric Piece:

Brooding Epic:

Acoustic Number:

What I'm clumsily tryin to say, is that I think they jam so much into an album. Bottom line: I can't handle Opeth.

I consider 10+ minute tracks epics, so Blackwater Park has 3.

"Harvest" isn't bad.

Oh, I see. Yeah I can understand that criticism. I remember listening to Still Life for the first time and feeling like it dragged on forever. And it is pretty long, as with most of their output.

Yeah. I don't want to seem like a hypocrite, but I love post-metal like Neurosis, and black metal stuff like Agalloch and Drudkh. To me, Opeth do too much, a band like Neurosis can repeat a harmony for ten minutes, only adding the subtlest changes, and I can dig it.

What would you say is Opeth's most straight forward album?

Oh, I don't know. Probably "My Arms, Your Hearse". No track is longer than 10 minutes, there are less "tame" bits, and I think it generally sounds more death metal-ly than anything else they've done.

I think what Mondo Bondo is trying to put across here, is that Opeth do sound somewhat manufactured (hence boring depending on your tastes). Since Blackwater Park (still a great album) they've jumped on a formula, which is a Pink Floyd or more clearly a Porcupine Tree style sound, this has been helped with the Steve Wilson connection to the band and all this has been mixed in with their own brand of metal. Their early stuff Morningrise and Your Arms, My Hearse was what the band were all about. Their stuff since Blackwater Park is what the public expect to hear.

I feel like some people have been voting based on discographies rather than albums. A lot of people have been making the statement "Enslaved owns" but then their comments are contradictory. As Mondo Bungle said earlier, Vertebrae is no Frost. This is definitely true, and the songs are long, drawn out, and very progressive. I agree with what Janzsoon said earlier that Vertebrae sounds very tame. I think Opeth's album is very well executed. As was mentioned earlier, Blackwater Park has a little of everything. However, I think Opeth achieves a cohesive sound and I would argue they don't sound like they jam too much into an album. Even if they get a little formulaic in terms of style by the time you get to the end of Watershed, they certainly achieve a sound that only Opeth can. When it comes down to these two albums in particular, all context aside, I think that Blackwater Park blows Enslaved out of the water. It is a terrific album that incorporates many progressive elements without sounding random. Vocally Opeth is definitely better, especially in the clean vocals. The apathetic-sounding group type vocals on Vertebrae get kind of boring (and I mean boring by its basic definition!). Enslaved would have been better off sticking to the black metal vocals the whole time.

Opeth - 2
Enslaved - 2

Good point put forward by Lolpocolypse, in that some people seem to be basing their votes on the discographies of the bands rather than the individual albums being presented. The Enslaved album is good but Blackwater Park is a classic prog-metal album high on atmosphere and chillingly bleak with fantastic vocals by Akerfeldt, as his great vocals range from chilling grunts to melodies. The heaviness of the album gives way to gentle acoustic and piano pieces with great ambient soundscapes, in fact the only band that were covering similiar territory at the time were fellow Swedish band Tiamat (a great favourite of mine) and Porucpine Tree would pinch ideas back from Opeth for their In Absentia album the following year. As said, Opeth wins hands down here, its just a shame they adopted a somewhat predicatable formula after this album, of which its got to the stage were I hardly listen to the band anymore.

Opeth -3
Enslaved -2