Roadrunner "Watershed" - Opeth

Mike Akerfeldt has a cooler Ipod than you’ve ever imagined – and he wants to DJ your next party, metal gig and family get-together. That’s Opeth in a nutshell. What can you say? Aky’s an overachiever, trying to cram for his “History of Rock” master-thesis into seven songs whilst rockin' you like a worldwide deluge and armageddonin’ it like nobody's business.
“Watershed” is the kinda record that makes you feel like one of them “damned dirty apes” tossing their poop at Kubrick’s monolith. It’s dense. Not so much the Jeff Buckley via Morbid Angel via Captain Beyond megatronic shuffle of everything since Opeth's entre platter: “Orchid” Nope, “Watershed” is kinda like that other bit in “2001” where the spaceman is hurtling down the cosmic poop shoot to have dinner, get social security, go to Florida and get reborn as the “Star Child”.
So the dudes are makin’ like a bunch of Brave Ullysess sayin’ sayonara to the Lasses of Lothlorien on the Plant-meets-Joni Mitchell acoustic opener “Coil”. As the female vocalizing starts to fade all of a sudden the skies go black, the tyrant's face grows red and “Heir Apparent” tosses round these good Argonauts like a bustle in a hedgerow. It’s also the heaviest riff Opeth has ever concocted.
“The Lotus Eater” is where this all gets pretty darn interesting. Incredibly surnamed drummer Martin Axenrot blasts immediately whilst Akerfeldt warbles on kinda like VoiVod’s Snake occasionally clearing the glottal stuff from his throat. In the manner which we’ve come to know and love these Swedes for, the song Mahavishnoodles from point to point, Aky trading off flash-lickery with new axe-guy Fredrik Akesson whilst Martin Mendez' bass-lines keep it all funkyfreshfluid. - even the brief foray into Chick Correa skronkery that pops up midway through the song.
Kind enough for the Opethians to give you a rest with the 70’s FM nostalgifyiing of “Burden where Per Wiberg strokes John Lord’s goatee before plunging into “Porcelain Heart”, “Watershed”’s concession to more modern kindred souls like Tool – ‘cetpt, the ‘Peth do it with Grandma’s quilt of scratchy ol’ vinyl while Maynard & Co. suggest a more self-conscious modern prog.
Moogs n’ (Egyptian) mythology – in the shape of King Tut’s funereal guitars close matters with the fittingly titled “Hex Omega”.
This is why I love Opeth. They own every record that you've never heard of and make you want to hear them all. With "Watershed" Professor Akerfeldt is the graduating valedictorian at a real school of rock. Like the title says, this is the kinda record you get from a band that has graduated into a genre all their own.
"Watershed" might be one of the greatest rock records in history. Why? Because it’s all of them at once.