Artist: OPETH
Album: STILL LIFE REISSUE (CD)

Year: 1999/ 2017
EAN/UPS: 0801056770929
Media type: CD

Still Life is the fourth studio album from Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth. Still Life was recorded at Maestro Musik and at Fredman Studios from 15 April to 29 May 1999. The album was produced and Engineered by Opeth. Sound setting and additional engineering by Fredrik Nordstrцm and Isak Edh. The album was mastered at The Mastering Room by Goran Finnberg. The inner booklet was designed by Travis Smith and Opeth with the photography being produced by Harry Valimaki and Travis Smith.

Prior to the release of Blackwater Park in 2001, Still Life was the band's most commercially successful album. Like most of the band's albums, Still Life features the unusual marriage of death metal and progressive rock elements that helps differentiate Opeth from their musical peers.

On this album, vocalist Mikael Еkerfeldt's death metal vocals began to deepen considerably relative to the style that had been used on the band's earlier albums. Still Life continues the band's experimentation with the dynamics of their songs. Still Life is often considered Opeth's most technical album from a guitar standpoint, especially with its many complicated acoustic guitar passages.

The song "Benighted" is its only acoustic track, containing a jazz-influenced guitar solo. The song bears a resemblance to Camel's "Never Let Go" on their self-titled debut-album. This is also one of the band's few songs that follow a linear song structure, containing verses and a chorus. "Face of Melinda" is considered to be a fairly soft song for Opeth, and while it does not contain death metal vocals, it does contain guitar riffs that are typical of the band's heavier songs. A fretless bass guitar was used in "Face of Melinda" to give it a jazzier sound. The band looks to the song with a certain fondness and considers it their ballad.

This album was the band's first to be recorded with Martin Mendez, who has continued to be the band's bass player. Although he had joined the band prior to the release of My Arms, Your Hearse, he had not had enough time to contribute any bass lines to the recording. This lineup is considered to be the classic Opeth lineup, with many of the band's fans also considering this release the opus of their discography.

The album was released in Europe under the Peaceville/Snapper label in 1999. Due to US label problems, the album was not released in America until February 27, 2001. The album was re-released by Peaceville Records in 2000 as a jewelcase in a slipcase version and again as a digipak version in 2003.

TRACKLIST:

"The Moor" – 11:26
"Godhead's Lament" – 9:47
"Benighted" – 5:00
"Moonlapse Vertigo" – 9:00
"Face of Melinda" – 7:58
"Serenity Painted Death" – 9:13
"White Cluster" – 10:02

LINE-UP:

Mikael Akerfeldt - vocals, guitar
Peter Lindgren - guitar
Martin Mendez - bass
Martin Lopez - drums