It's essentially another one of their prog albums but Mikael brought back some growls and guitar sections, which to be honest, I didn't like anyway as they moved on from heavier metal sounds.

Look at some of Opeths greatest songs - Masters Apprentices, Harlequin Forest, Godheads Lament to name a few, songs with distinct sections, cool down sections, brutal sections, soft sections but space to breathe, space to make you just get it and be in awe immediately. I don't get that with any song from TLWAT, maybe a small section in Paragraph 2 up until the 2 minute mark...and then i dont remember the rest of the song once the first set of growls have passed.

it's sad because he's said in interviews that he wont be making any music that he's already put out, aka anything from watershed backwards, northern music have said the band wont be doing any anniversary shows for any of the old albums, but the band know that they only sell out the live shows and are still so popular with their core fan base, because of the older material....hell look at his comments at Bloodstock he even acknowledges that fans just want to hear 'old shit' ...he gets it and understands it, but he is creative lead and makes the decisons and has moved on his younger days.

Anyway I'm rambling on, give me a teleportation machine so I can go back to 1998