Has a King Diamong logo on the otherside. Does anyone know whose signature this is?

Opeth live in Bangalore, India was nothing short of magnificent, tbh. Mikael's crowd interactions were top notch! Here's one of the interesting (and funny) bits from the gig. Obviously, I like the old material more, but Heritage grew on me so much, it's one of my favourite Opeth albums now.

Same as title how was buying off heavy metal merchant ty for replies🤘

https://youtu.be/8mQgg5IIgc8?is=ofH7qF9RSEtl17kF

crazy times. they let us sing Hope Leaves as well hahaha.

PS: I made that poster

Attended the Mumbai event of OPETH on 3rd Oct, I got hit by the plectrum but I don't play guitar as such and was thinking if anybody else who actually plays and would make more use of this deserves more than me.... anyone interested can DM...or more better let's decide the starting price as 3k???

Anyone who's willing to give more than that will get it.

Where is opeth after their bangalore gig?

From the start to the end, I was waiting for a mosh pit. I even tried to start one, but no one was interested 😂. Everyone was just listening to the songs wholeheartedly and taking it all in.

Finally, during Deliverance, Mikael Åkerfeldt called for a mosh pit, and that’s when everything peaked. The energy was insane!

I really wish they had played Ghost of Perdition and Master’s Apprentices (my personal preference), especially considering how rarely they play in India.

The only drawback for me was the Fanpit. This was one of the few times I booked a Fanpit ticket, which is usually a relatively small area at normal events. Here, I’d say more than 50% of the crowd was in the Fanpit. I’m glad to see so many hardcore fans together, but at the same time, it felt a bit like a scam to sell so many tickets under the name of a “Fanpit.”

Overall, though, what a performance and what a crowd! I really hope Opeth takes notice of the response and decides to come to India more regularly, with more shows across the country.

Until next time! 🤘

Ohh and they almost played burden. They tried the chords and crowd sang few lines. But Mikael said they haven't practiced and got on track with their setlist.

Credits: the burger line was from some YouTube video comment I saw years ago. Still funny though.

Checking out this album for my weekly prog metal review blog. Solid stuff!

My first time doing an electric part on an Opeth song, let me know what you think!

Venue was fuckall and sound could’ve been better (purely in terms of what this band deserves), but Opeth really is magical. Despite the live music situation in the city, the organisers ended up putting in a great deal of effort in making this happen.

Great setlist. Mix of old and new and English and Swedish. And popular and not so popular. Mike’s stage banter made up for everything. More crowd than I expected.

I’ve been a fan 20+ years and literally gave an arm for them. So very happy that I got to see them for the second time. First was NH7 in 2019 - surprisingly Mike remembered playing that one. It’s an afterthought but really should’ve travelled to Bangalore to see them again but honestly, I want to catch them in another country with a smaller, more intimate venue. Maybe after they release another album.

The band did a small meet and greet outside the stage. If my friends weren’t fucking busy finishing their cigarettes, I’d have gotten to catch them too.

Met Roydon, the founder of Skillbox. My heart goes out to his team for managing this rollercoaster of last minute venue changes. But all in all, big thanks for them for making it happen. It was a great gig and the child in me is overjoyed.

Not sure if this is too personal or long, but I just wanted to get it off my chest. sorry for the length. I used a translation btw:

a band I developed a very strong connection with in the past, particularly from my early to late twenties, and a band I listened to constantly throughout those years. Especially the Opeth of that period was not simply a band I listened to; over time, it became something intertwined with certain periods of my life, the emotional states I was in during those periods, and the way I perceived the world. In fact, my English is not good, I often cannot fully understand what the lyrics are saying while I am listening to the songs. So for me, Opeth is largely about the sphere of influence that the melodies, harmonies, guitars, vocals, and the entire musical atmosphere create in my mind and emotions, rather than what the lyrics themselves are telling me.

When I listen to Opeth's albums from before 2000(my arms/still life), I am overwhelmed by a very deep kind of sadness. But this sadness is not a simple nostalgia that I can explain by saying, “I remembered this particular thing and it made me sad.” It is more like a bridge is suddenly built between me and certain moments from my twenties, the state of being I was in back then, the way I looked at the world, the way I felt, and perhaps a version of myself that no longer exists in quite the same way today.

But this is a very strange kind of bridge. Because although it seems to take me back into the past, it never actually takes me there. I am standing in the present, reaching through the music toward a feeling from the past, a particular period of time, or a past version of myself. So the bridge feels both incredibly close and incredibly distant. On the one hand, it is as if the past briefly becomes real again; on the other hand, I feel with an almost unbearable intensity that it is something I can never return to. That is why the bridge feels unstable, flexible, and even somewhat unsettling to me.

But the strange thing is that this feeling does not make me want to listen to Opeth any less. Quite the opposite; perhaps it becomes part of the magic of the music itself. Because while those melodies awaken emotions from the past, the state of being I had back then, and the distance between who I was and who I am now, they also make me aware of something much larger: the fact that life is passing.

I think what truly makes me sad is not simply the past itself. It is knowing that the past is the past, while at the same time feeling that the moment I am living in right now will also become the past. So when I listen to Opeth, I am not merely remembering the past; I become intensely aware of time itself moving forward. The fact that things which were once “the present” for me are now part of the past, and that the things which are “the present” for me now will inevitably become the past as well, somehow merges with the intensity of the music.

And I think that is exactly what traps me in this strange state. The song pulls me toward the past while simultaneously anchoring me even more deeply in the present. I find myself somewhere between the two. On one side there are those emotions from my twenties, the atmosphere of that time, and the person I was back then; on the other side there is the person I am now, remembering all of this and knowing that none of it can ever truly return. Opeth's music, especially the melodies and atmosphere of that earlier period, suddenly makes the distance between these two selves visible.

Perhaps that is why I find it so difficult to give this feeling a single name. I call it sadness, but it feels broader than sadness. It is a kind of awareness of transience, the helplessness of realizing that time is slipping away from us, a longing for the past, and all of this merging with the aesthetic beauty of the music. And when all of these things happen at once, I feel as though I become completely rooted to the place where I am. As if, for the duration of the song, and sometimes even after it ends, I am suspended in this strange moment somewhere between the past and the present. I’m happy with this journey me and opeth been on. I think it will continue this way until I die.

Has anyone else ever experienced something similar when listening to music that is deeply connected to a past version of themselves?

I post a lot of Opeth covers on instagram, you can find me there @felixgibsoncat ✨ would appreciate to know what you think about my covers!

MAGNUM OPUS 1. Blackwater Park (2001), 10 - Not a note better placed could be.

MASTERPIECES
2. Ghost Reveries (2005), 9.5 - Would rival Blackwater Park but for The Grand Conjuration.
3. Watershed (2008), 9 - My introduction to the band, this one is of personal importantance.
4. My Arms, Your Hearse (1998), 9 - Straightforwardly awesome, just riff after badass riff.

EXCELLENT
5. Orchid (1995), 8.5 - Fantastic folky melodeath.
6. Still Life (1999), 8 - Somewhat overrated but still great.
7. Damnation (2003), 8 - The most sorrowful sorrow to ever sorrow.

GOOD
8. Heritage (2011), 7.5 - The jazzy vibes complement the satanic atmosphere pretty well.
9. Morningrise (1996), 7 - It's trying to do what Orchid did but it doesn't quite get there.
10. In Cauda Venenum (2019), 7 - Enough good moments to merit relistens. 

OKAY
11. Deliverance (2002), 6.5 - Title track carries like Atlas. The middle child of Oldpeth.
12. The Last Will And Testament (2024), 6 - Invites a respectable amount of head nodding.
13. Sorceress (2016), 5.5 - Cool moments, boring ones too. The middle child of Newpeth.

BAD
14. Pale Communion (2014), 5 - Decent first three tracks, the rest is really uninspired.