Audio-Visuals

OPETH: LAMENTATIONS—LIVE AT SHEPERD'S BUSH EMPIRE 2003
Directed by Joe Dyer
(Music For Nations/KOCH)
In early 2003, Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth released its second album in less than six months. In contrast to late 2002's heavy-as-hell Deliverance, Damnation focuses exclusively on the mellow side of the band, with little distortion and no death growl vocals. The record spotlights the quartet's unusually sensitive touch with melody and frontperson Mikael Åkerfeldt's shockingly beautiful voice. Opeth toured twice with these records; the second outing found the shows divided in half, with the first hour dedicated to Damnation and the second drawing from the band's previous repertoire. The band's first DVD, Opeth: Lamentations—Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire 2003 documents one of those shows. It's an excellent record of the live Opeth experience, with all its strengths and weaknesses. The band, joined for this tour by Spiritual Beggars keyboardist Per Wiberg, is perfectly adept at replicating its complicated arrangements on stage, adding the requisite passion that always comes from live performance. Softer tunes like "Windowpane," "Death Whispered a Lullaby" (both from Damnation) and "Harvest" (from the group's masterpiece Blackwater Park) come off just as beautifully as brutal epics like "Master's Apprentices," "A Fair Judgement" (both from Deliverance) and "The Leper Affinity" (from Park). The British crowd is just as enthusiastic about the former as the latter, and we're treated to the amusing sight of young UK metalheads headbanging and waving devil horns during gentle cuts like "Closure" and the instrumental "Ending Credits."

Unfortunately, Opeth has a strange habit of letting far too much time pass between songs. A band doesn't have to slam right from one cut into another, but Åkerfeldt simply doesn't get on with it once a tune is finished, seemingly preferring to let the crowd bask in the afterglow before uttering the very un-rock pronouncement "We'd like to continue now with a track from the [fill-in-the-blank] album. This is called [X]" in a voice so low-key he sounds barely awake. This doesn't diminish the power and magnificence of the songs themselves, but it keeps the show from having the forward momentum the best concerts always possess. When he does break from the pattern, he seems almost apologetic for the mellow vibe of the Damnation material, as if he's embarrassed by it not being as uncompromisingly heavy as Opeth's other stuff, and considering Damnation's brilliance and the crowd's overwhelmingly positive response to it, it's puzzling. Maybe he's still ambivalent about the songs due to the difficult circumstances in which they were created (making two albums in the time usually set aside for one, in a studio with failing equipment, the chronicle of which is captured in a bonus documentary on the making of Deliverance and Damnation). Or maybe he's afraid that the metal audience, which can be extremely fickle if it feels betrayed by an artist's new direction, wouldn't accept Opeth's softer side. Regardless, while he seems confident in the material, he still repeatedly reminds the crowd that heavier stuff is coming later. It lends the show an unwarranted nervous vibe. Too bad, as once the songs themselves get rolling, Opeth rises to the occasion and delivers melody, might and emotional punch like no other contemporary band, metal or otherwise. Michael Toland [buy it]