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| Watershed | 
 enlarge | Artist: Opeth
Label: Roadrunner Records
Category: Music
List Price: $24.98
Buy New: $16.93
You Save: $8.05 (32%)
New (41) Used (12) Collectible (1) from $14.39
Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 28519
Format: Enhanced, Special Edition
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5 x 5 x 0.2
MPN: 179365
UPC: 016861793654
EAN: 0016861793654
ASIN: B0018CWWK0
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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| Customer Reviews:
 watershed non special edition June 7, 2008
2 out of 15 found this review helpful
well why in the hell would the record company not put the bonus tracks on the regular cd, iam always on the go in my truck. so most of my cds are in the truck, you can only hear the bonus tracks on a dvd player will not play in a cd player ,what a damn rip off. so if your same as iam on the go all the time don't get the special edition.
 This group has chanced it sound June 8, 2008
1 out of 22 found this review helpful
There is nothing wrong with chancing your bands sound, my problem is that maybe two songs had growling vocal and the rest was clean vocal for which he does well, but to me I like the old stuff like still life and the dvd is a waster of money because it;s the same thing has the cd so buy this if you want but sadly I sold it to a friend etc,,,,
 Progress is good..... June 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Being a long time Opeth fan, I had high hopes for this one and I can say it did not disapoint. It may even be one of their best albums to date. I know many fans might say that the sold out due to a few ballads or more "commercial" sounding. I couldn't disagree more. Given Mikael's influences of psychedelic, early 70's rock, and "cock rock", this is a natural progression for them.
I also had my reservations about the newest additions to the band, Martin and Fredrik. I especially liked their previous drummer, Martin Lopez. I thought that he was one of the few metal drummers out there that could play musically. He played with dynamics and a technique that I thought would be missed on the first album without him. I can say that Ax really stepped up to the plate on this recording. His performance makes me forget about Lopez.
When I heard they got Fredrik as their new guitar player,my first thought was that the new music would be a guitar solo fest. Again, I was wrong. Fredrik does little soloing and the few he does do are not a million notes a second. Another great performance.
The real star on this album is the songwriting. I don't know how he consistiently comes up with as many killer riffs as he does. Mikael has shown on this one that he is one of the greatest song writers in music today. The first song, Coil is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. I love the addition of female vocals. My only complaint is that its too short. The album in general remotely follows the tried and true Opeth formula - fast part, slow part, fast part, slow part. But this time, it seems like the songs have more purpose and are better put together. Mikael's vocal are probably the best hes ever done on any project. Hes obviously been working on them and it shows.
A lot of fans might be disapointed with this record because its a bit more melodic than previous albums. I say that a band that is still doing the same thing on their 9th record as they did on their 1st, probably aren't putting out a ninth album. Music is a snapshot of a period in time, a collection of the artists thoughts and feelings during the writing process. Progress is good and it shows on this record. If Rush did 2112 fifteen more times, would they still be around? No, they progressed each album yet still have not changed the "Rush" sound. Album of the year for 2008.
So far, Watershed is the best album of 2008! August 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Opeth's last release, Ghost Reveries, was named top album of 2005 by many sites across the internet. This time, Opeth is back with 2008 release Watershed, and a lot of expectations from the fans. Watershed features new guitarist Fredrik Akesson (Arch Enemy) and new drummer Martin "Axe" Axenrot, who's been filling in for Martin Lopez since the Reverie tours.
Throughout their career Opeth has been notorious for diversity while maintaining a distinctive style of music, and Watershed proves that Opeth has not lost their golden touch.
Watershed begins with beautiful, "Coil." Coil is a soft and tranquil song with a soothing twelve-string and nylon acoustic touch with layers of keyboards. Mike sings very melodic on Coil and brought in Axe's girlfriend Nathalie Lorichs as a guest vocalist on the song to add a more refining touch. Coil is on the shorter side, just over three minutes in length, but it's a very pretty song and a wonderful addition into the Opeth song catalog.
As always, Opeth paves the way from melodic transitions into heart stopping, death metalesque styles of music. "Heir Apparant" is roughly nine minutes of epic Opeth metal without melodic vocals, but the diversity comes from some dark acoustic interludes and a slide guitar solo. Heir Apparant is dark, brutal and probably the heaviest song they've written since "Wreath" the Deliverance album.
Enter "The Lotus Eater" as track number three. The Lotus Eater is the perfect display of Opeth's diversity and progressive nature packed into a nine minute song. This song has wonderful solos, heavy blast beat drumming, lots of death growls, but the song balances out with melodic guitar and vocal work, some jazz twists and a mellotron solo. Simply put, this song is amazing and a pleasure to enjoy.
A note to all of those progressive rock fans out there: don't feel as if Opeth's neglecting you with Watershed. Instead, it's quite the opposite. "Burden" comes to Watershed as a little homage to the mid 70's Scorpions style ballads. This song has it all for the musicians. Burden starts off with a keys intro and leads into full band accompaniment with Mike's melodic vocals. The simplicity of the melody on Burden allows for countless guitar solos (about: four at the end, concluding with a harmony arrangement and three lead guitars over vocals melodies throughout the song) a keyboard solo and amazing guitar and vocal harmonies.
If there was a weakness to Watershed, it's definitely here with "Porcelain Heart." Honestly, this song is way too long at eight minutes. Porcelain Heart rehashes up some of the riffs from Ghost Reverie's "The Grand Conjuration." But to add fuel to the fire, this song feels like it was a copy and paste job through Pro Tools (recording software). This is a very pretty song, with only clean tone vocals over lots of nylon guitar work. Porcelain Heart also has its heavy moments and plenty of double bass drumming, but the song just feels jumbled and a bit too long. Personally, I feel the five minute radio/music video edit of Porcelain Heart should have been the album version.
"Hessian Peel" is definitely the hardest song to portray in words. It's nearly a twelve minutes epic, with lots of progressive transitions. Starting off with a bass note drone, leading into some bluesy riffs and a wonderful melodic feel, Hessian Peel transists into a death metal segment back into a beautiful acoustic segment only to finish heavy and drop into a bass guitar and keyboard finale. This is definitely a must hear song to any Opeth fan or newbie getting into the band.
"Hex Omega" is a wonderful song that's perfect for closing out the album. Dark, eerie and proggy, Hex Omega seems to be the least memorable song on the album, but it has this great vibe to it.
Bonus content: Since this album comes with the two-disc CD and DVD edition, there's some wonderful additions to the album. First, a 5.1 mix of the album is included on the DVD disc. The mix is a lot better than Ghost Reverie's 5.1 and Dream Theater's 5.1 Systematic Chaos; however, if anyone has an SACD player or a DVD-A (MLP lossless) player, the 5.1 mix here doesn't compare to the higher resolution mixes. If you're looking for perfection, pick up Porcupine Tree's Lightbulb Sun, Stupid Dream or Fear of a Blank Planet on DVD-A and get a player capable of handling the format! Back to the Watershed 5.1 mix, it's clean, the panning is done well, but it is missing the punch that a great 5.1 mix should have.
Three extra songs are also included. First is "Derelict Heards." This song should have made the album cut and fell between Burden and Porcelain Heart. It's a very pretty song at times and has great transitions into death metal segments. Similar to The Lotus Eater, Derelict Heards definitely shows off Opeth's musicianship and song writing capabilities. Second is the Robin Trower cover, "Bridge of Sighs." This is an amazing cover, true to the original and done with an Opeth vibe. Third is a second cover song, "Den Staendiga Resan." This song is wonderful, but spoken all in Swedish. Den Staendiga Resan is a beautiful acoustic ballad with a few great blues solos.
Overall, this Opeth - Watershed is a must have album for any progressive metal fan. As of now, it's still my pick for album of 2008 and is the perfect follow up to Opeth's last release Ghost Reveries. Check it out, Watershed is a must hear!
My second Opeth disappointment September 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Opeth is without a doubt my favorite band of all time. I was looking forward to Watershed a great deal. Unfortunately, it left me in the same frame of mind as Deliverance. I realize I'm in the minority of Opeth fans in saying this, but Deliverance was my least-favorite album of theirs. At least, until Watershed came out -- it now takes the bottom spot. Production is great, augmented instrumentation (strings, oboes) are a nice touch, Mikael's clean singing continues to impress. But the simple fact is that Martin Lopez is a god among men and no one can possibly replace him, period. Other reviewers have commented on the album's lack of focus and I agree. I'm all for being eclectic and embracing diverse influences, but the entity being influenced must have some innate cohesion, which Watershed doesn't. I've done my duty by purchasing and listening to it a dozen or so times, but to be honest I doubt it will make an appearance in my CD player more than once a year. I hope they get back on track with their next release because as I said at the outset, they are absolutely my favorite band.
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