Ranking Every Opeth Studio Album From Worst To Best

Morningrise arrived just a year after Orchid, with the same crew – vocalist/guitarist Åkerfeldt, guitarist Peter Lindgren, bassist Johan De Farfalla, drummer Anders Nordin, and producer Dan Swanö – reteaming at the same studio (Sweden’s Unisound).

It would be the last time that the latter three would appear on an Opeth record, which is bittersweet since Morningrise doubled down on the potential set forth by its predecessor. More melodic, confident, daring, and varied than Orchid, their sophomore sequence showed growth in multiple areas.

Sure, the preliminary three tunes (Advent, The Night and the Silent Water, and Nectar) don’t shake things up drastically; yet, they’re noticeably more refined and ambitious, especially in terms of their rhythmic complexities and eccentricities.

That said, it’s the last two tunes that truly elevate Morningrise above Orchid. Specifically, Black Rose Immortal reigns as a sundry suite that, at twenty minutes in length, remains Opeth’s only side-long epic. It’s succeeded by closer To Bid You Farewell, the band’s debut acoustic ballad and one of the greatest bits of songwriting in their catalog.

Although it, too, was bested by its follow-up (which included a new line-up), Morningrise surely saw Opeth take some major steps forward.