I know all you drunk metal dudes are having none of it, but I heard the new Opeth album "Ghost Reveries" the other day and you know, I don't hate. Opeth have gradually changed over 10 albums from a gravel-throated black metal beast to a melodic symphonic rock group. Yes, "Ghost Reveries" sounds like prog-influenced easy listening. Yes, it sounds a bit like Queensryche (where's my umlaut button?). It sounds nothing like the soundtrack to a good cathartic church burning. But this is all ok.
Maybe it's because I was listening to it at 2000 meters while watching the sun set over the glacial peak of Mount Tronador through big bay window at Refugio Otto Meiling. That day G and I had hiked 6 hours up the mountain getting gnawed on my swarms of horseflies. Now we were drinking cold beer at a refugio at the base of a massive glacier and "Ghost Reveries" was playing on the soundsystem. It was thrown in for sunset, right bewteen Dido and Rod Stewart. And no one batted an eyelash. It´s that soft. And as the orange setting sun blinked over the blue peak of tronador one last time I thought I heard a shelf was falling off a glacier nearby. But it was just a sound effect on an intro to a song. Epic shits.
I wanted to feature an Mp3, but Opeth are bigger nerds than you and probably are on the Wi Fi on their tour bus all day, making sure no one's downloading their music. It's not about propriety, it's just that they dont want you listening to their epic shits on an inferior sound format like mp3.