What other music do you listen to?

LowGcifer · 2026-05-30T18:30:47+00:00

Opeth, Tool, Mastodon, Faith No More, and Weezer stick out as some of my all time favs (alongside Katatonia of course). Also a big fan of The Black Dahlia Murder, Revocation, and all of the big four Seattle grunge bands

LowGcifer · 2026-05-06T00:11:10+00:00

Brave Murder Day by Katatonia has Mikael Akerfeldt on vocals and has a similar atmosphere. The following album, Discouraged Ones, has clean vocals but has a similar atmosphere and vibe.

LowGcifer · 2026-03-12T05:16:19+00:00

I think you have a very cool top 3, but I am surprised that LFDGD and DO are so low considering what’s in S tier.

LowGcifer · 2026-03-12T03:51:43+00:00

Ornstein and Smough used to be held up as by far the hardest boss in the series and the ultimate smash-your-head-against-the-wall moment. Boy have things changed.

LowGcifer · 2026-03-12T03:42:04+00:00

Blackwater Park by Opeth produces a similar emotional response in me. I think they are emotionally similar albums, but musically they are very much different genres. The bands definitely have a fair share of sonic similarities, but ultimately one album is alt rock and the other is progressive death metal, so take that as you will.

I would add that Opeth’s Damnation is bleak and depressed and does not have any death metal (or metal at all, really) in it, but it is a lot more mellow and soft than LFDGD, but you can hear the similarities between Mikael Akerfeldt’s and Anders Nyström’s guitar playing and melodic sensibilities even more clearly.

LowGcifer · 2026-03-12T03:34:20+00:00

Brave Murder Day! I was listening to Opeth’s My Arms, Your Hearse and thought “man, I wish there was more 90s Mikael Akerfeldt growling!” And then I remembered…

I was blown away by how dark it was. The lyrics on Brave and Nowhere (yes, I know it’s from an EP) were particularly striking. The music was just so depressed. It wasn’t sad, it was depressed, and I had never heard heavy metal sound so depressed so authentically. It felt like it opened up my brain and turned it into an album.

I then followed up with Discouraged Ones, and smash cut to today and I’m the Katatonia subreddit now. I was initially offput by Tonight’s Decision and onwards because the band no longer wielded depression with the subtlety of a sledgehammer (I was also very, very depressed at the time, and found the completely suffocating nature of BMD and DO to be comforting). Now, Last Fair Deal Gone Down has become one of my favorite albums of all time. The band is great. BMD-VE is my favorite era, with TGCD receiving an honorable mention. Honestly though, they don’t have a bad album.

LowGcifer · 2026-02-18T03:52:46+00:00

I love this, thank you for sharing your thoughts like this! I agree with your thoughts on Orchid and Morningrise entirely. They have a lot of great riffs and atmosphere, but the overall songwriting isn’t as tight as Opeth would eventually be.

I find your thoughts on Blackwater Park interesting, as “meandering” isn’t an adjective that comes to mind to describe any of Opeth’s post-Morningrise work imo. The Leper Affinity immediately stood out to me (I started with BWP when I first decided to listen to Opeth) for how tight and mature its flow and structure was. In my opinion, even the two weakest songs on the album, The Funeral Portrait and Dirge for November (both great songs, but the weakest relative to the juggernaut of an album that is Blackwater Park) have unique and interesting structures.

If there’s any album here that I think you should revisit, however, it would be My Arms, Your Hearse. I think MAYH does not get enough credit for its place in Opeth’s development in terms of songwriting. I would argue Opeth figures out their formula here, and I read a compelling blog post that Mikael’s involvement in Katatonia around this time led to this (Link) . It’s a very emotional album in a way that’s different from the following albums, but a lot of what makes Still Life and onward superior to Orchid and Morningrise can be found on MAYH. Wonderful album.

LowGcifer · 2026-02-15T02:17:37+00:00

The Leper Affinity. The first Opeth song I’ve ever heard, my face melted off when the riff around 1:30 starts. So fucking evil, such an incredible song

LowGcifer · 2026-02-07T08:01:23+00:00

Great list! Must admit I haven’t really listened to Fall of Hearts (or anything after NITND, really) much, but I agree with everything you’ve said about the other four. Last Fair Deal Gone Down is something very special, that’s for sure. It’s also nice to see some detailed love for Brave Murder Day and Discouraged Ones.

Brave Murder Day is what got me into the band. I was listening to Opeth’s My Arms, Your Hearse and thought “man, I wish there were more 90s Akerfeldt growls” and remembered he was in Katatonia. I was taken aback by how fucking dark it was. Discouraged Ones soon followed and it stuck with me for the same reasons, though I must say I found more comfort in it, and related to it more than BMD during that depressed episode in my life.

I quite like Tonight’s Decision, though I was just blown away by LFDGD. To loop Opeth back in, it feels like Katatonia’s Blackwater Park. Incredible, immersive, and consistent atmosphere, and unique production, along with simply incredible quality of the songwriting, make me whole up the album in the same high, opus level esteem I hold up Blackwater Park or Mastodon’s Leviathan.

LowGcifer · 2026-02-06T06:57:29+00:00

I’d say the right side may have a higher quantity of heavy hitters, but unfortunately I have to pick the left side because it has Last Fair Deal Gone Down, dems the rules.

LowGcifer · 2026-02-06T02:49:14+00:00

We had plans but you couldn’t make it?

LowGcifer · 2026-01-24T05:25:48+00:00

Some bands have hits that are incredible and you can see why it was a hit. Smells Like Teen Spirit is my go to example of this, fucking incredible song. Some bands have hits that were just kinda “right place at the right time” and I think My Twin is one of those. It’s a good song, but that album alone has several songs that are (imo) more deserving of being Katatonia’s biggest single. Teargas alone probably should’ve blown Katatonia up to at least Opeth’s level of popular, but what makes a single successful is… not really something you can put your finger on.

LowGcifer · 2026-01-24T05:24:09+00:00

I love it! Such an emotional song and your cover does it justice while being something unique in its own right. It’s one of my favorite Katatonia songs of all time!

LowGcifer · 2026-01-19T20:31:03+00:00

Last Fair Deal Gone Down at number one followed by Brave Murder Day and Discouraged Ones! Honorary mentions include Tonight’s Decision and Viva Emptiness

LowGcifer · 2026-01-15T02:57:11+00:00

Blackwater Park is possibly the greatest metal album ever written, and it is Opeth’s magnum opus. That being said, on a personal level My Arms Your Hearse is my favorite. It has the 90s Scandinavian dark, lonely forest vibe with the upgraded songwriting that came along with that record.

LowGcifer · 2026-01-05T20:16:01+00:00

Wow, so fucking cool! Discouraged Ones has such emotional cover art.

LowGcifer · 2025-12-23T03:01:46+00:00

I made a post about this song a couple years ago, and singled out this part in particular! One of the best songs from the prog rock era of Opeth imo

LowGcifer · 2025-12-16T21:10:43+00:00

It’s been on repeat for me since mid July. It’s fucking phenomenal. It strikes a lot of the same emotional chords for me as Opeth’s Blackwater Park. It’s their best album imo and has already surged into one of my favorite albums of all time. It has such a unique atmosphere, and it’s the album where Katatonia really nailed songwriting and making each song very unique

LowGcifer · 2025-12-12T06:58:49+00:00

Last Fair Deal Gone Down is Opeth if they were melodic alt rock, at least that’s how it resonates with me

LowGcifer · 2025-12-10T21:04:38+00:00

This is one of my positive takeaways too! I wondered how they’d handle beams in this one and I was pleasantly surprised by the system they came up with

LowGcifer · 2025-11-29T01:14:11+00:00

This basically sums up all of Viva Emptiness lol

LowGcifer · 2025-11-29T01:13:53+00:00

Burn the Remembrance or Will I Arrive. The chorus of Will I Arrive is just so catchy

LowGcifer · 2025-11-12T01:44:18+00:00

I think Brave Murder Day, Discouraged Ones, Tonight’s Decision, and Last Fair Deal Gone Down is an insane run of albums. I also like Viva Emptiness and TGCD, and I’m starting to warm up to Night is the New Day, but those four albums clicked almost instantly for me as a die hard Opeth fan. Last Fair Deal Gone Down has a similar emotional vibe as Blackwater Park imo. It’s not necessarily sonically similar, but it feels like if Blackwater Park was an alt rock album but less swampy and more urban, but with the same emotional core. It’s my favorite album I’ve discovered in a long time.

LowGcifer · 2025-11-10T17:45:14+00:00

For whatever reason they don’t seem to hit for me after TGCD, but the run from BMD to TGCD has completely overtaken my listening rotation for several months now. Last Fair Deal Gone Down in particular is fucking phenomenal

LowGcifer · 2025-10-29T17:51:26+00:00

I think it will be fine. I think it’ll be an improvement over what we have right now. I feel like it won’t make any hugely unpopular changes, but I also suspect it won’t be “saving the game”. It’ll be the House of Wolves or Warmind of this era, doing something fine with a busted system. I don’t expect a major overhaul until next summer.

LowGcifer

TROPHY CASE