10 Metal Songs That Are Ridiculously Long
7. Blackwater Park - Opeth
Throughout its entire history, metal has always been known as a fairly dark genre. No matter what iteration of the genre that you find out in the wild, this is the kind of music that deals with the darker side of life, whether that’s in the lyrics or the raw sounds that are blasting out of the amplifier. Anyone can just get a distortion pedal, but you have to tap into something in your soul to get to the real darkness.
Although Opeth have always been known to flirt with the more progressive sides of metal music, Blackwater Park almost feels more gothic in tone than anything, as they use the different tones in their amps to tap into something lonely and disturbed. Though there’s a bit of shredding here and there, the main focus is to serve the song at hand, and this is the kind of song that you almost need to downplay to some extent.
After years of the thrash scene trying to outplay one another by moving at 1000 miles an hour, Opeth realized the power of slowing things down here, using their 12 minutes to lure you into that mood before hitting you over the head towards the end of the song. For all of the demonic connotations that come from the genre, metal isn’t trying to just pummel you with scary imagery. Sometimes you need the music to really sink before you realize the horror that you’re looking at.