Wednesday: Opeth - Hessian Peel

     Speaking as I was a day or two ago about bands I haven't featured here in a while, let's talk about everybody's favourite Swedish death-cum-folk prog act, Opeth. Last year's 70's-syle opus Pale Communion was pretty solid, but I'm still of the opinion that Mikael and the gang will be hard pressed to ever top the fusion of melody and metal that is 2008's Watershed.

     Like I've said before, I think Watershed represents the perfect proportional mix of Opeth's older death metal influences and its more recent forays into folk, prog, and 70's rock. Watershed is definitely a "start to finish" kind of album for me, meaning if I have my druthers I'd prefer to listen to the whole thing in one go, rather than cherry picking just a few songs from it.

     If, however, I'm forced to pick just one track from Watershed, which in a sense I am, this time around I'm going with epic late-album number "Hessian Peel". This eleven-and-a-half minute monster is a microcosm of what makes Watershed great: moody and mellow acousticness gives way to crushing heavy about six minutes in. If you want the best of both Opeth worlds, "Hessian Peel" should be one of your first stops.

James Norbert Ivanyi - Thumb Trick

     Time for something weird for your Wednesday song. Not necessarily weird enough to warrant calling it Weird Wednesday or anything, but definitely something with an interesting, and somewhat sinister sounding, vibe.

     Picture, if you will, the following: a progressive metal/heavy rock band reminiscent of Opeth, but sans Mikael's dreamy croon (ie: instrumental) and with the jazzy feel turned up to eleven. Now take the whole thing and warp it ever so slightly, just to the point that it starts getting twisted and evil-sounding around the edges.

     What you end up with is an approximation of the work of Australian one man army James Norbert Ivanyi (hey, I wonder if he knows Plini...), whose sophomore album of instrumental coolness The Matter Circumvention was unleashed back in January. The whole record is a beautifully cohesive piece, but to get a taste like the one I've just tried to describe, I'm going to recommend you start with "Thumb Trick", which should have enough brooding menace and proggy groove to whet your appetite for the rest of the record. I know it's early in the year yet, but I smell some 'Best of 2015' accolades in The Matter Circumvention's future.

Songs of the Days 2

     Yeah, I'm terrible. I missed Song of the Day again yesterday. My excuse? I was at a friend's bachelor party. Although that doesn't excuse me for not doing it during the day, but whatever. The long and the short of it is that you get two songs today. I don't really have a connecting theme in mind, just a couple of songs for you to rock.