I really love Opeth. But i can’t get on with the cookie monster vocals. “The Drapery Falls” is unbelievably good, but i have to switch it off at 5 mins. “Heritage” and “Damnation” are two of my all-time top albums. Their rhythm section really do it for me. Mendez and Axenrot should go down in history.

Can anyone recommend a new band for me? I listen to a lot of Dream Theater, Maiden, etc.

Any band with a strong bass/drums combo will be a hit with me!

What’ve you got?

Saw Opeth at sonisphere last summer and they were not bad at all. Also saw a wee band called Feed the Rhino and for 12 o’clock on a Sunday morning they blew me away! Give them a go and feed back please! Can’t be just me on here rates them!

Saw them at Brixton Academy late last year…….. Biggest load of tosh I’ve ever had to endure. 🙁

i hate cookie monster style vocals (who the hell started to/thought that was a good idea to sing (?!) like that 😕

Not so similar to Opeth but if you like Dream Theater, OSI and Porcupine Tree worth checking out if you haven’t already.

Saw Opeth at sonisphere last summer and they were not bad at all. Also saw a wee band called Feed the Rhino and for 12 o’clock on a Sunday morning they blew me away! Give them a go and feed back please! Can’t be just me on here rates them!

They’ve got a kind of post-punk metalcore feel about them. I’d place them somewhere betwixt 36 Crazyfists, and Deftones. Not really my cup of tea, i’m afraid. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

Between the Buried and Me: I haven’t heard such a talented band for a long time.

Mastodon…. of course

I love Opeth, but i prefer it when they have the growly vocals: the juxtaposition between that, the clean vocals and mellow sections really add alot of depth to the music.

Kylesa (Spiral Shadow & Static Tensions albums) have been floating my boat lately.

I first saw Opeth at Download 2009, and I didn’t like the Growly music before I saw them, but they just blew me away. The level of musicianship just amazed me, kind of “got” the Growling there and then. I would say Blackwater Park is their best album, it’s got it all – including two vanguard tracks – Bleak and Blackwater Park.

For me the contract between the clean/death vocals is what they are all about. Give BWP a blast;loud and in the car.

Opeth at the Albert Hall is awesome too BTW, pretty cool DVD cover homage to Deep Purple too…

\m/

ps. Don’t know if you’d maybe fancy Clutch – they are the conks!

Deliverance is my pick of the Opeth back catalogue. Saw the Heritage tour last year – brilliant stuff.

Great to see people into this type of stuff, not just me then. I saw Opeth live when they did Orchid way back when – love the stuff.

Cookie monster vocals come with the territory in this genre, don’t they.

Recommendations – As one person said – Mastadon. I say The Gathering, Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy (wife says) and check out My Dying Bride! Ulver, Emperor, Morbid Angel etc.

Mastodon
The Pineapple Thief

i first got into Opeth through a work pal, fist listen was not good. however i persisted and now they are up there as one of the greatest bands to me.

i’ll sugest you should also try,

Tool
Mars Volta
Coheed & Cambria
Porcupine Tree
Kyuss

second OSI

or infact and Kevin Moore/Chroma Key stuff

And I never thought I’d be writing that on STW 😯

my old band supported Kylesa…

that’s pretty much my only contribution to this thread as I’ve never listened to opeth.

A further vote for Porcupine Tree here, some tracks I could do without, but the better ones easily make up for it. Looking forward to Steven Wilson / Mikael Akerfeldt’s Storm Corrosion album almost as much as Meshuggahs Koloss.

I’ll also suggest Isis for cleaner vocal stylee, eg. [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9sY2Ok7OJI[/video]

Karnivool

TesseracT

karnivool is pretty much all clean singing, tesseract has a little bit of screaming but mainly singing.

Pain of Salvation are a band you should defo check out, and if you like the more instrumental stuff Liquid tension experiment.

i’ve found myself skipping past LTE and dream theatre on my music box recently….. as a instrumental person you checked out ‘chimpspanner’? modern equivalent of LTE but all instrumental parts written by one guy, got a live band that performs it though. Super nice guy too.

also worth checking out along those lines are ‘animalsasleaders’

Big Opeth fan here. I hated the cookie monster vocals at first but it kinda clicked after a while & I hear them as just another instrument now. Saw them live a couple of years ago & were pretty good (Dream Theater were headlining and they were amazing!). As mentioned, Porcupine Tree are superb (also saw them in concert, the following day!). Pineapple Thief good but less consistent imho.

Oh, and Steven Wilson’s solo stuff is good, his latest in particular.

And check out Oceansize too!

Opeth are probably my favourite band and at first I wasn’t keen on the growling vocals either, but now I wouldn’t have the songs without them. For me the best thing about Opeth is the mix of heavy and soft all at once and the change in vocal style adds to that immensely.

They’re a band very worth persevering with – they grew on me gradually. Well worth watching the Royal Albert Hall DVD (you’ll find it all on Youtube) which features a song from every album (before Heritage).

The Live at the Roundhouse DVD is also very worth checking out. If you’re looking for songs with only clean vocals, Face of Melinda is very good and on that one:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwECOt62od0[/video]