DVD/DTS Poll Opeth - Heritage [DTS/DD DVD]

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Rate the Audio-DVD of Opeth - HERITAGE

  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1 Bad Mix, Bad Sonics, Bad Content

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    43

Bob Romano

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Please post your comments on Opeth - Heritage (DTS & Dolby) DVD(y)(n)
 

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I've had a few listens to this one now. I'll wait for a week or two before I vote.

Some things I like:

1. SW 5.1 mix.....
2. No "growling" - I think this is the best I've heard these guys...
3. Lots of retro organs etc... Hammond B5, Fender Rhodes & Mellotron..
 
I've had a few listens to this one now. I'll wait for a week or two before I vote.

Some things I like:

1. SW 5.1 mix.....
2. No "growling" - I think this is the best I've heard these guys...
3. Lots of retro organs etc... Hammond B5, Fender Rhodes & Mellotron..

the above Plus the 3D leticular cover :)
 
So I finally had my first listen of Heritage with the 5.1 last week. I was kinda let down, and figure I'll definately need more time and spins to fully appreciate it. I put it in the car yesterday, and that didn't help at all. Definately not a good car cd.
So while I will give it a fair amount of exposure in the next weeks or months, I think it's safe to say I will not consider it as a good album. And it's not 'cos of the new orientation the band took. In fact, I'm glad they got rid of the growls and try to write prog stuff, as I am as much a prog fan as I am a metal fan. The problem is that the songs are just not great. There are some good passages and a couple of decent tracks (including the 2 bonus songs!), but nothing really mindblowing. It sounds more like a bunch of song ideas put together without any effort to create a whole. I kept hoping it would get better as it went along, but was never satisfied. In the future, I just hope they put more effort in the songwriting than the execution.

I knew the album would be recieved with mixed reviews, but thought I'd be on the positive side! Maybe too much so. I know I should never expect anything beforehand, but in this case, maybe I did. I mean, Opeth, prog, no growls, mixed by Steven Wilson,...of course I'm gonna expect a masterpiece.....but re-listening to it again, I don't know how to better describe what I'm feeling than "annoyed!" I mean, some (if not most) of the riffs just annoy me! 'Cos in the past, even in their heaviest form, Opeth's music has always been soothing to my ears. The way the mood is created with all the noise and melodies would take me somewhere, like watching a great movie or reading a great book. Heritage just doesn't work on that level, to me. And maybe it's why I still can't get into it. I don't wanna say it's full of clichés, even though it kinda is...., but I feel cheated! It's like yeah, there's a flute, played by a master, but I don't feel it. There's bongos, or whatever, but it doesn't add anything to the song.

I know this review was more about the songs than the surround mix, so I'll go a bit into it. It sounds really amazing. I love how mr. Wilson was able to really open up everything the way an Opeth album should sound in 5.1. Their previous engineer Jens Bogren was getting there with Blackwater Park, but I'm glad he wasn't involved here. Maybe he'll learn from it! Nice to hear something else than ambiant layered guitar and keys in the backs. Anyway I give it a 10 for mix and a 5 for the music, rounded up to a 7
 
So I finally had my first listen of Heritage with the 5.1 last week. I was kinda let down, and figure I'll definately need more time and spins to fully appreciate it. I put it in the car yesterday, and that didn't help at all. Definately not a good car cd.
So while I will give it a fair amount of exposure in the next weeks or months, I think it's safe to say I will not consider it as a good album. And it's not 'cos of the new orientation the band took. In fact, I'm glad they got rid of the growls and try to write prog stuff, as I am as much a prog fan as I am a metal fan. The problem is that the songs are just not great. There are some good passages and a couple of decent tracks (including the 2 bonus songs!), but nothing really mindblowing. It sounds more like a bunch of song ideas put together without any effort to create a whole. I kept hoping it would get better as it went along, but was never satisfied. In the future, I just hope they put more effort in the songwriting than the execution.

I felt the same way, but as I've listened to it more and more I have really grown to love it and it is now getting a lot more play time in my home. I returned to this thread hoping I hadn't already voted so I could give it a 10, but I had maybe pulled the trigger a little early. I'm not saying that you will also end up loving this album as I now do, but just sharing that I was able to get myself into the mind space of the album over time and now I really love the album.
 
Its for me an album which has grown with repeated listening. The surround is very very good and deserved the full DVDA treatment.
the music is different from other Opeth albums that i ahve but theer are signs of the acoustic approach on thos albums, this is a zenith of that acoustic sound. great album,
 
The sound and the surround mix are very OK, so I give a high score here. The musical content is not what was expected, but that isn't necessarily bad.
It is easier to regard it as a new project, but using the same name.
 
I felt the same way, but as I've listened to it more and more I have really grown to love it and it is now getting a lot more play time in my home. I returned to this thread hoping I hadn't already voted so I could give it a 10, but I had maybe pulled the trigger a little early. I'm not saying that you will also end up loving this album as I now do, but just sharing that I was able to get myself into the mind space of the album over time and now I really love the album.

You are right, and I knew it would eventually grow on me, but never to the point of the other albums. So what I do is listen to the parts I like and skip the annoying ones! I don't regard it as an Opeth album either. But as an Opeth project! I don't even consider it to be a bunch of similar sounding songs, but a bunch of prog ideas put together. Some work, some don't. So I just enjoy what I can from it, and it's made the listening sessions smoother!
 
A "9" only because there's a thinness to this mix which did slightly affect my overall enjoyment, but the mix itself is Wilson at his finest, with the band giving him loads of toys to work, and him making the most of it. The mix widens and narrows with all the dramatic flair you'd want from a great surround mix, with the combination of separation and warmth only Wilson is seemingly able to provide. Again, only a "9" because I've heard "10"'s from Wilson which are only a notch above this.

Yes, I miss the old Opeth, but most of these bands have run their course with the Cookie Monster vocals and have gone on to experiment with new sounds. I've come to love the album like any other Opeth album.
 
Never leave important releases (all surround albums!) on Amazon WishLists; people don't get it or if they do, it'll be the wrong version. Got it shipped in February and primed myself on 2-3 plays of the stereo CD in the truck to get familiar with the material. I liked much of it right away and it made me want to play it again.

I really have no baggage of expectations for this band; I certainly thought their earlier stuff was pretty amazing instrumentally but the obligatory genre vocals put me off from playing it much. Anathema doesn't sound like they used to or so I'm told. I don't care about that either, I like what they're doing now. While we're at it, people ask for early PT in surround, but IMHO the much improved songwriting started to happen in the Stupid Dream period. Signify is an honerable mention. SW knows this and I agree with the bulk of his decisions in that regard.

Which brings me to the mix, which I am just finishing the first pass on. It's no secret SW digs these guys and I believe he has given them a pretty terrific surround mix here. It is clear, discrete, involving and supportive of the album narrative all the way through. This should have been a DVD-A release and perhaps it will appear as a BD in the not too distant future. Gotta go with a '9', this will be played with some frequency and a smile.

EDIT: Watch the making of video and some of you might be able to cut them some slack on deciding to change things up. Informative and indeed hilarious at times. Yes, some is in Swedish with sub-titles. Recommended.
 
Well, me again in this thread! But it's getting more positive with each listen! I finally figured out how to approach it for Opeth fans, to not be decieved by it. It's not thinking it's a Opeth project, but rather some first album by a band you know nothing about! Then it gets interesting! I'm already sold on the 5.1, so I tried something different to showcase the songs: listening to the good ol' 2.0 version on cd with headphones! I can now honestly say it's a good album. I would change my vote from a 7 to at least an 8, even a 9.
 
Hello. I really like this disc, music and mix-wise. Overall, I preferred a bit more "Sizzle" to this; I bump up the high end a bit when I play this. Strictly IMO. Thanks.
 
Heritage is another chapter in the enigma that is Opeth. In many ways this is a much more accessible release for new listeners - Cookie Monster has left the building! ...not that I had a major problem with the growls. I would rather say that Åkerfeldt has such a great voice that it deserves to be heard properly. Having said that appreciating this record is no walk in the park and will require multiple listens before it starts to make any degree of sense. Gone also is much of Opeth's heaviness, though the trademark atonal, chromatic and stacatto chord changes abound as do the familiar light/heavy contrasts. Unusual for Opeth we also have organ, mellotron and flute. Not much death metal in here!

This album is steeped in Steven Wilson's influence, probably as a result of their working together on Storm Corrosion. It certainly encapsulates or rather pre-cursors so much of what would re-appear successfully in his solo album "The Raven That Refused to Sing" so it's probably more accurate to say that his subsequent work was influenced by this album and their co-writing on Storm Corrosion.

The surround mix on heritage is, imho, easily the best of Opeth's forays into 5.1 to date and, again, has much in common with the surround mixes of Storm Corrosion and The Raven. The surround is fully discrete and is used imaginatively and creatively to the point that I believe SW now views surround as being another creative instrument; it's no longer an afterthought used to make the mix sound better. It's a fully integrated part of the artistic process and the results are so much the better for it. This is an easy 9 and only loses a mark because of the lack of a hi-res stream. The DTS is *very* good but lacks the fidelity that we've come to expect of SW's mixes.
 
No growled vocals sucks!

Ghost Reveries has the greatest growled vocals in metal history.
 
This album sounds unnatural. The loud parts are boosted significantly to give the impression of more dynamic, however it sounds unnatural. Give this a listen and pay attention to the difference between the loud and quite parts, it is not a natural progression. If the band were playing live in the studio, the loud parts would be 3-4db quieter, they have been boosted thus spoiling the sound.
 
That's rubbish. It has real dynamics.

Rubbish? Clearly you know not of which you speak The loud parts are significantly boosted; FACT. Yes there are dynamics; but what you hear on this is not the natural dynamics of the music; there is an artificial element. It sound unnatural.
 
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