Sounds> Opeth and Paradise Lost

Opeth and Paradise Lost threw great gigs yesterday at the renovated, re-opened Roundhouse in Camden. I've listened to PL for 12 years soon (mostly Icon and Gothic only though), so seeing them finally live was an important event. Sorry about the bad photos, it's the Nokia N80.

Paradise Lost wasn't entirely convincing, though. The first and often-repeated quip was that they played mostly new material; I didn't hear anything from Icon, for example, but I missed the couple first songs. We did hear Shadowkings from Draconian Times (though Once Solemn would've been a clearly stronger choice), but unfortunately the boys didn't play together very well. I'm betting they just haven't rehearsed lately as much as you'd expect. Both Icon and DT were pinnacles of production genius with flawless execution, and hearing a jerky live version didn't convince me of the talents of the current lineup. The penultimate song was, surprisingly, Eternal, from the 15-year old album Gothic. This song, albeit not too well composed, holds a delicate balance of gothic tunes and death metal heaviness, and I wouldn't be surprised if it would attribute to the existence of bands such as Katatonia all by itself. Unfortunately - too many clear vocals. I hadn't followed them at all in the last 5-6 years, but it looks like only a couple of guys from the Icon-times remain. It's a shame, but such monumental beauty as that album was can't come about many times in the lifetime of a band.

But that isn't the case with the evening's headliner. Opeth came in with all the usual Mikael-driven silliness in speeches between songs (such as the random "Melinda has an ear infection." and "In general I'm a sexy beast.") and solid execution on stage. The gig was filmed for a DVD, and I think that accounted for the fact that all of the songs were played very faithfully to the album versions. I saw them in Forum last year, and that show saw some deep experimentation with some of the compositions.

We were opened with the Ghost of Perdition, aggressively but within the limits set by the album version. The gig was mostly on the heavy side and finished off with Blackwater Park - still no Black Rose Immortal, April Ethereal or Master's Apprentices, which would drive me up the wall and possibly leave broken bones scattered around the mosh pit. Well not quite. We did get In the Mist She Was Standing from the first album, Orchid, but nothing from Morningrise. In the Deliverance / Damnation DVD interview Mikael did say he sometimes hates what they did on Morningrise as the sounds it has are so typical to that era and that style of music. But they established a lot of that sound, and I - like many other fans - think that Morningrise is a genius package.

A word about the venue: bloody beautiful. Worth the visit even if you're not sure about the bands. Much cleaner and cultured than most gig digs. Paradise Lost had brilliant sounds throughout the gig - crystal clear and resonant, but Opeth, strangely didn't. Vocals were too low - at some point the background vocals came on top of the main growling. The lead guitar was also obscured at times. I got used to it, but it did deduct from the experience somewhat.