Customer Ratings & Reviews

Opeth's Deliverance album is one hour in length, but it goes by very quickly. It has some of the band's heaviest moments and some of their prettiest acoustic moments. In a word, it's outstanding. "Wreath" is a beast of an opener. It's 11 minutes long and only contains one brief acoustic guitar part and a few lines of cleanly sung vocals at the end. The rest of the song is heavy and performed with death metal growls; this is the only band I listen to that utilizes this vocal technique. "Wreath" is probably Opeth's most intense song. The lyrics -- like most from the band -- are very poetic. Although nowhere near as odd as The Mars Volta lyrics, Opeth's lyrics paint a mental image even if they don't make sense as a whole. "Wreath" also has two excellent guitar solos -- the first is melodic and the second is crazy. "Deliverance" starts with a great heavy riff and continues into a verse with death metal growls. After about a minute and a half of Opeth at their most brutal, the song goes acoustic and features some excellent clean vocals. The song then switches back to being heavy for several minutes with both clean and death metal vocal parts. There are also two great guitar solos in this track as well. The song goes acoustic again before having an amazing finale, which I have mixed feelings on. Sometimes, I think the riff at the end repeats too many times. Other times, I think it's the perfect length. "A Fair Judgment" is the only song to feature only clean vocals, and it's a beautiful song. The guitar solo at the end is one of the band's best. The song, however, ends with a riff that repeats far too many times. "For Absent Friends" is a nice instrumental that features some excellent clean guitar riffs and pretty acoustic playing. My favorite song, "Master's Apprentices" starts off with a slow, heavy riff and great lyrics. The clean vocals in the chorus sections about four or so minutes in are my favorite from the album. The following acoustic minutes are among the band's most relaxing. This section ends quickly with a heavy outro. The riff at the end of the song is nice, but it repeats too many times -- a motif for this album that's its only detractor. "By the Pain I See in Others" closes the album. The first two verses feature death metal growls over an acoustic guitar, which is odd to hear but ends up being engaging. I love the overall heaviness of this song, and the single clean vocal section sounds great. The song ends with reversed vocals from "Master's Apprentices." Steven Wilson's production is amazing. I love the guitar sound on this album, and Wilson does many minute things in the mix that are excellent -- such as the reverse echo in "Master's Apprentices." Either this album or "Still Life" is my favorite Opeth album, but I've been impressed with all of their work. Highly recommended.