Music Snob's Opeth Album Tier List 

Say what you want about Morningrise. But” To bid you farewell” is one of their most creative & well written songs.

I have to go back and listen to Watershed again. Maybe I was a little bit in haste years ago.

The first minute and a half of In Mist She Was Standing is one of the best melodic passages in metal I have ever heard

I don't care what everyone is saying morningrise will always be one of my favorite albums not only of Opeth but of all time. It has so so so many tasty riffs

*Don't want to be a pretentious fan but I REALLY love Orchid, Morningrise and MAYH cause of how beautiful the riffs are*

FINALLY. Now I know what opinions I should have about Opeth.

I won't stand for the MAYH slander. April Ethereal is my favorite Opeth song.

I couldn't disagree more with this tier list. 😂😂

For me, Still Life is the best album. Face of Melinda and The Moor are the best Opeth songs.

If all of the albums aren't S tier, I'm still gonna be respectful about your opinions

You gotta thank the almighty Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, solo artist, Storm Corrosion, No Man and more contributions in music) for the phenomenal production quality of 'Blackwater Park.' His taste in tones and mixing helped Opeth craft their best work! I'm surprised you haven't talked about the band Porcupine Tree on your channel Mike.

Godhead's Lament is low-key top 3 Opeth songs of all time. Still Life is my 2nd favorite album.

I actually discover Opeth a few years ago because you talked of them in one of your videos, they became, short after in my favorite band ever, so thanks you Mike, your objective and universal opinion never dissapoints.

Listening to Opeth feels like a marriage, divorce, mid-life crisis, graduation, peaking then falling, and a slow crawl back to normal, with a sudden high and slow decent to normal.

Now we need a Metallica album tier list

IMHO all the albums from My Arms all the way up to Watershed are 10/10. I love every single one. Probably one of the best streaks of albums in all of metal, easily.

Yay an objective Opeth album tier list. I can link this to all of the forums I’m having arguments with people in.

Ghost Reveries is on top for me. Mostly because of the rhythms got way more interesting here, on top of their trademark great melodies and seamless mood changes. Also that Jens Bogren production is just wonderful. Cheers.

Imagine putting Morningrise in "No" and My Arms Your Hearse in " Boring"

I remember taking a smoke break with Mikael at NAMM 2010, he was really excited about this pitch drop pedal he bought at the convention and was telling me how excited he was for Heritage. Good times.

In Cauda Venenum was really an amazing album. The second half of "All Things Will Pass" ripped my heart so bad.

Still Life is easily my favorite album. It’s what got me into them.

Here's my tier list: S - MAYH, Blackwater Park, Still Life A - Orchid, Ghost Reveries, Morningrise B - Watershed, Damnation, Deliverance C - In Cauda Venenum, Pale Communion D - Sorceress, Heritage Everything in B tier and above I consider to be a near perfect album.

Still Life is Opeth's greatest work.

Infinite respect for putting Damnation where you did. EXTREMELY underrated album in the catalog

confirmed that I can't listen to a word this man says when he called My Arms Your Hearse boring

The face when Orchid is ranked on "No"

Mike: "Sorceress is boring" Me: "God dammit Mike" Mike: *makes me laugh through pretty much the entire explanation* Me: "...I can't be mad at you"

Hey Mike, I noticed your recent videos are about “I guess I’m doing this cause people want me to.” Idc what your vids are about bro just keep doing you

The commentary on Still Life applies exactly to MAYH as well. It’s a full package, must be listened to from start to finish (read the lyrics as well). Totally poetic and brilliant. One of Opeth’s top 3 most inspired albums (which btw does not include Damnation, which was intended as bonus/extended play material, but blew up simply due to the surprise/novelty at the time of a death metal band doing an accessible rock album).

Orchid is awesome tho, so many cool riffs. Also MAYH is top 3 IMO, respect your opinion tho.

I weirdly agree with most of you ranking, I’d have basically just ranked “my heart, your Hearst” and “pale communion” a little bit higher. Awesome video

You’re not a music snob. You’re a metal snob. Big difference.

My Arms your hearse I actually think is there most ambitious album in the lyrical sense and the way it is a concept in which every song is a different chapter in one long story about someone who dies and is trapped in spirit form, dealing with the reactions of his loved ones and his moods changing through the seasons. April Ethereal, Demon of the fall etc, before finally coming to peace with his own death. Once you listen to the album in its whole it kinda hits different with that concept behind it. Atleast to me it does anyway. It's what made Opeth stand out to me, as it's one of there first albums I listened to by them.

That was a great tier-list! I can't wait to see you do the TOOL tier-list next!!!!

Okay....Orchid was a bloody masterpiece, thank you very much

seeing morningrise down there makes my heart bleed

Watershed reminds me a lot of The Sound of Perseverance by Death. Has that last stand vibe.

My current favourites: 5. My Arms Your Hearse 4. Blackwater Park 3. Deliverance 2. Watershed 1. Pale Communion

Watershed is actually Opeth's most depressing album. While some cannonically sad albums like Still Life, Blackwater Park or Damnation are actually weirdly soothing in their gloom, Watershed seems detached and meandering which makes you feel as if you were constantly losing focus and everything kept slipping from your control (I've never had depression but this is what I imagine it feels like). This is even more reinforced with uncanny lyrics and the fact that after its release, the guys basically did a 270° backflip and miserably smashed their faces to the ground (wounds of which event only managed to heal by In Cauda Venenum). Nevertheless, Watershed is still top tier prog metal and definitely worth a listen if you want to call yourself a prog connesseur.

God bless you, I've been begging for these tier list videos! Edit: I won't stand for this Sorceress slander.

My first experience with Opeth was listening Damnation. In my opinion this album have one of the best melodic progressions of all time, such a beautiful chords and sweet clean guitar solos. The mellotron parts are amazing too. The entire album brings me tons of different emotions. It's one of those albums that you listen to, from start to finish, without ever getting bored.

I have seen several videos ranking Opeth albums, but this one was the best. Great breakdowns of each one and your selections were grounded in reality. I wouldn't have ranked every album the same way, but they would have been similar and you made a hell of a lot of sense justifying each one. Excellent!

Great video Mike! I always wanted to listen to Opeth but I never knew where to start, thanks a lot, man!

Still Life was the album that got me into them (and harsh vocals in general) so that's always been my favorite.

Opeth have the most beautiful album covers

Great stuff man. What an amazing band!

I finally got into this band a few days ago and then Mike drops this video. Good shit

The riff leading up to the first solo in 'The Leper Affinity' and the solo itself is probably one of my favorite moments in any song ever, so damn powerful!

Kind of disappointed that Still Life didn’t make Classic tier as well, but this is acceptable

Was waiting for this

Great list and presentation! I'm glad you mentioned In Cauda Venenum should be listened to as a full album, actually I think Mikael arranged the song order on the album kind of like an Ouroboros, If you listen to it on cd on repeat the last track flows right into the 1st track like the snake eating himself and restarting the cycle. My favorite Opeth at the moment.

You are just straight up incorrect about orchid and morningrise , “it sounds like a blackened death metal” yeah, they were a blackened death metal band at the time, how dare they

Opeth is my favorite band of all time, and while I still do appreciate what they're doing with their newer stuff, My Arms Your Hearse is the one I go back to most. Killer album, plus if you got the bonus version there's easily the best covers of Iron Maiden and Celtic Frost I've ever heard.

Plz do more tiers lists I loved this !!!!

You're well-spoken. Strong opinions yet not arrogant. Subscribed.

Hey Mike, I don't know if you know this, but it's not really that their albums go ... BP -> Deliverance -> Damnation ... They wrote and recorded both Deliverance & Damnation simultaneously, and I think due to certain time constraints, they had to do it in the same amount of time as one regular album. This was Mikael's idea, to write one album that's supposed to be incredibly heavy and aggressive and the other very mellow and chilled-out.

Regardless of their albums and what not, Opeth has to be one of the most creative bands out there. And I will let them do what they want with music for now. Every album is different and unique, but still somehow distinctly Opeth imo. Very similar to Tool, in that they are undoubtedly themselves.

Thank you! Really cool list! I cinda agree to everything, but I still have my list totally different. But your list is yours and that's cool! 🤘 Opeth is great! I can't wait for opeth to do another album!

Discovered you last night man, already saw several of your videos! :) Couldn;t agree more more with your OPETH album ranking; only album that surprised me was "Pale Communion". Never really liked it, but never paid much attention as well. I will give it another try after that! :) Greetings from Greece. Haven't seen an top 10 Opeth songs, would be happy if you would do it!

That's actually really close to my own tier list, but MAYH is an absolute CLASSIC.

I actually really love orchid (top 3 opeth albums for me) they were my intro to opeth and the album that got me into them so it might be a bit of nostalgia talking but I thought it was a really creative album and I end up listening to it way more often than not.

Orchid in No? Wtf it's literally one of their best

I can understand your low placement of Orchid and Morningrise, but that pair of records will always hold a special place in my heart. Surprised My Arms Your Hearse is so low too

Blackwater Park is overrated AF. Good, but overrated. Album only has four good tracks (Leper Affinity, Bleak, The Drapery Falls and the title track). Everything else is skippable.

I've only listened to Orchid and Morningrise at this point (the reason may be the growling, I really can't enjoy it; but after listening to every album that Chuck Schuldiner made it should be easier), but damn, you guys make the next albums seems fabulous. It's a must!

That's awesome you ranked Damnation as Classic dude! By far one of my favourite Opeth albums Hope Leaves was one of the first song's I ever heard by them and other tracks like Windowpane, Death Whispered A Lullaby, In My Time Of Need are amazing. Also to top it off it was produced by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. Simply a masterpiece

Pretty happy with your tier list Mike, very similar to what I would have done. I probably would have swapped Sorceress and Heritage but other than that wouldn't change much at all.

Hey Mike, Give a try to black metal with prog (not on an opeth way) check Ihsahn's 2018 album, it has even pop and electronic

Blackwater Park is really fantastic, but Ghost Reveries holds a special place in my heart as the first album I encountered. Ghost of Perdition is still so incredibly tight and memorable, probably my favorite Opeth song.

I haven't listened to all of mornignrise, but the song to bid you farewell automatically makes me love morningrise so I'm curious to see what everyone's take is

Excellent tier list and pretty bang on honestly.

I am glad Still Life was put in the Excellent tier. That was my first introduction to Opeth. So it holds a special place for me.

Funnily enough I was just thinking about my ranking yesterday. I really like and respect your ranking, but I would say: Mediocre: Heritage Decent: Morningrise, Sorceress, Orchid Good: Pale Communion, In Cauda Venenum, Watershed Great: Deliverance, Damnation, My Arms Your Hearse Classic: Still Life, Ghost Reveries, Blackwater Park

Cool list ... and interesting that you describe "Still Life" to be a necessary whole-album-listen-through experience ... and you don't see that for "Watershed" ..., which to me personally is just that: A masterpiece from beginning to end, to be experienced as a whole, since most songs transition so nicely into another.

Now I gotta binge some Opeth, thanks alot man.

*Because this comment is so long and I would still very much appreciate it for everyone to actually read this, as this comment is very much from the heart. I'll sum my tier list up top here; S. My Arms, Your Hearse, Ghost Reveries, Deliverance, Blackwater Park, Damnation, Still Life A. Watershed B. Morningrise, Pale Communion, In Cauda Venenum C. Orchid, Heritage D. Sorceress * Had to pause real quick, I'll edit this after the video, but damn man, it's crazy to see and hear other people's opinions on music sometimes because of how we hear and perceive things differently. My Arms, Your Hearse is actually my favorite album of Opeths. To this day I still listen to it and just marvel at it, not only being an extremely beautiful and entoxicating album to me musically, but also having Mikaels best growling performance on any Opeth album. There is so much emotion in his vocal performance on that record that it's the real highlight of it to me. It would be the first album I'd put in the S tier if I did one of these for myself, right before Deliverance, my second favorite album of theirs. It's interesting how it's boring to you, but everyone perceives things differently, and this one just really caught me off guard. Also, I absolutely love The Night and Silent Water. I can hum that whole song through my head from start to finish... To me, it's absolutely a beautiful song. Okay, I watched through the rest of it and agree in places with you and disagree with some placements as well, but that's completely fine. I'll rank them the same way you did just for continuity, but I wasn't really a fan of how you generalized the tiers from Classic to No. For me there is no "No" for any Opeth album. So the things I'd change about the list is move MAYH into classic, move Deliverance into classic, and move Still Life into classic (S). I know that's 6 albums in classic but that's just what it is for me. Those albums have all had a profoundly huge impact in my life growing up in my teenage years, and I find everyone of those albums to be classics to me. Watershed stays in excellent. (A) I'd move Orchid into boring (C), move Morningrise into good (B) , and finally move down In Cauda Venenum to good (B). If I enjoyed every song on Pale Communion as much as River, I might move that album up excellent, but I'm content with where you put it (B) and really agreed with most of the things you said about it. I'd maybe put Heritage into good too, or somewhere in between good and boring (B/C). I absolutely hated that album when it first came out, but there where a few moments I liked a lot, so after many subsequent listens trying to get over the massive change of sound and understand the album for what it was, I actually became more fond of it, and a few tracks I ended up really liking, notably Haxprocess and The Lines in my Hand. I do think it has the worst guitar tone of any Opeth album. Lastly, I think I actually might move Sorceress down in between boring and no (C/D). That's the least listened to album by them for me, and I have absolutely no desire to ever listen to that album. The only time I ever hear it is when it something from it comes on a Spotify playlist. I was lucky enough to discover Opeth when I was 13 from my dad. He was the frontman of a ridiculously good band he founded, that covered Judas Priest and Black Sabbath songs, and a few originals, He was an absolutely amazing vocalist and could sing Judas Priest like no one else. They were the most popular local band in Alberta in the late 80s early 90s. God I miss him. He bought Deliverance at this local music store that was run by a metal head. It was located in a dying mall, so the owner could just kinda do whatever he wanted with the place until it was closed, so it ended up becoming a haven for metalheads until they closed the mall. It was a fucking awesome place. We ended up getting all of Opeths albums for him the next Christmas, which he said was the best Christmas ever. He got me to listen to Ghost Reveries and I was super put off by the vocals because I never heard anything like that at first, but I ended up loving them. I was listening to metalcore at that time, stuff like Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Shadow's Fall and other bands like that. I was also still listening to a lot of older heavy metal like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Megadeth, Metallica's first 3 album's and some other stuff. The growling was something I never heard before and it was a bit freaky to me when I first heard it, but the music was so good and different from anything I ever heard that I couldn't stop listening to it and ended up loving it so much. MAYH was the second album I listened to from them and I fell completely in love with it. When I think back 15 years now I have such fond memories of listening to all of Opeths music when I was a kid. I spent a few years of my life really only listening to Opeth. It was the most euphoric music listening experience when I was first listening to all there albums and listening to the. For a second and third time and so on. Opeth was everything to me. I still don't think I'll ever hear a band again that will make me feel like what Opeths music did, and that's something extremely special about them. Even though I've discovered so many more amazing and incredible bands that have shaped who I am as a music listener, Opeth will always be number one to me. TL;DR - I absolutely love Opeth and they will always be my favorite band.. even though I'm not exactly to keen on their newer records past Watershed.

Are you on glue? Orchid and Morningrise at the bottom

Personal favorites are Damnation and Watershed, also I wish you did an Amon Amarth tier list cuz damn this was a good video.

Hey Mike, love the Opeth content just one question. Where does 'The Candlelight Years' fall on your list or was that not one you personally found worthy of your mentioning?

Only Steve Vai left from your Top 3, can't wait for that tier list!

I could accept just giving an A tier to every album, None of them are bad albums, there was a period where I listened to the whole discography daily, but now there are some I gravitate more towards... S: Ghost, In Cauda, Watershed, Blackwater A: Deliverance, Pale, Morningrise, Damnation B: Heritage, Sorceress, Still, My arms C: Orchid

I just found this video while at work so I can't dive in completely just yet but if Still Life isn't in the top tier, I can't imagine what this is going to look like at the end. :)

Mike, do you prefer the Swedish or English version of In Cauda Venenum?

I respect your list. My tier list is very positively skewed so I’ll tier mine a little differently. There are no Opeth albums I find bad or particularly boring entirely. Masterpiece: Damnation, Watershed, Blackwater Park Amazing: Still Life, Deliverance, Morningrise, Pale Communion, Ghost Reveries Great: My Arms Your Hearse, Orchid Good: In Cauda Venenum, Heritage, Sorceress

I can agree on almost everything, and be ok with your statements... the only thing I'd change is the name of the last two categories... there is no boring or NO Opeth albums in my list.

Hey Mike, don't know if you'll see this but I needed some advice (great video as usual, by the way). I recently drew some fan art of Guthrie Govan and wanted to share it with him somehow. What would be the best way, if any, to do that? I'm worried I might be left at seen if I try to message his socials. edit: He saw it!!!!

I just want to say brother, your music taste is unbelievably good which I can personally connect with. Thank you 🙏🏿

I can understand this list. I may be wrong but if you didn't hear the earlier Opeth Albums when they first came out or around that time its easy to dismiss them. I heard their first three in 1998 when I was 17 and went on from there. That's why I like them.

At 15:20 when Mike said "Fucking Ghost Reveries boys" I felt that

I had never heard of this band before watching this video and I've never really been a fan of the genre, tbh. Damn, this music is amazing! I've already listened to Blackwater Park twice all the way though. Thanks for the recommendation!!

Such a good list. I enjoyed the video thoroughly. Although I will say if you’re putting an album in the top two slots, idk how you’re ever wondering when it’s gunna end LOL

Watershed was the last album Opeth released that I liked. Everything they did after that album I didn’t care for anymore.

Karma and Demon of the Fall are two best Opeth songs. Change my mind.

Morningrise is _criminally_ underrated. But bear in mind this is coming from the guy who called some of Pink Floyd's greatest works 'bloated' and 'a boring slog'.

Awesome video Mike!

Yeah finally my favorite band

S: Blackwater Park, Still Life A: Morningrise, Deliverance, My Arms Your Hearse B: Ghost Reveries, Damnation C: In Cauda Venenum, Pale Communion, Orchid, Watershed, Heritage, Sorceress I need to listen to more of Orchid, Watershed, and their other prog rock albums. And now for some polarizing opinions: Morningrise is criminally underrated, it’s easily in my top 3. Ghost Reveries is overrated; it’s still good, but it’s missing something. Burden is one of my favorite Opeth songs, but the rest of Watershed isn’t very memorable.

First of all thank you Mike for sharing this with us, enjoyed it and especially the technical explanation you gave I have a disagreement with you on still life, I believe you should try again more on this one, the reasons you gave for it not to be a classic is actually why I consider it classic, I do actually like to listen to it as a whole and I do actually love it not being fully polished, it gives me the chills Thanks again

Very nice take \m/