Still Life (Opeth album)

Still Life
Studio album by Opeth
Released	18 October 1999 (1999-10-18)
Recorded	15 April–29 May 1999 (Maestro Musik and Studio Fredman)
Genre	Progressive death metal, progressive rock[1]
Length	62:31
Label	Peaceville
Producer	Opeth Mikael Åkerfeldt[2] Fredrik Nordström
Opeth chronology
My Arms, Your Hearse (1998) Still Life (1999) Blackwater Park (2001)

Still Life is the fourth studio album by Swedish heavy metal band Opeth. The album was produced and engineered by Opeth alongside Fredrik Nordström, and released on 18 October 1999 through Peaceville Records. It was the first Opeth album to be released through Peaceville, following their departure from Candlelight and Century Black after the release of My Arms, Your Hearse, and the first album to feature Martin Mendez.

Style

Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic called Still Life a "formidable splicing of harsh, often jagged guitar riffs with graceful melodies".^[3]

Concept

Like its predecessor, My Arms, Your Hearse, Still Life is a concept album. Frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt explains: "Still Life was not Satanic but an anti-Christian theme. It sounds pretty naive when I explain it like this. It kind of takes place a long time ago when Christianity had a bigger importance than it has today. The main character is kind of banished from his hometown because he hasn't got the same faith as the rest of the inhabitants there. The album pretty much starts off when he is returning after several years to hook up with his old 'babe'. Obviously a lot of bad things start happening with, as I call it on the album, 'the council.' The big bosses of the town know that he's back. A lot of bad things start happening. They see him as a hypocrite in a way. It's almost like a devil's advocate or whatever it's called."^[4]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Chronicles of Chaos	[5]
Sputnikmusic	(4.5/5)[6]

Due to time constraints, the band was able to rehearse only twice before entering the studio. Delays with the album's artwork pushed the release back an additional month, and the album was released in Europe under the Peaceville/Snapper label on 18 October 1999. Due to problems with the band's new distribution network, the album was not released in American stores until 27 February 2001.^[7]

Still Life was the first album recorded with bassist Martín Méndez and the first Opeth album to bear their logo or any kind of caption on the front cover upon its initial release.^[8]

The album was re-released by Peaceville Records in 2000 as a slipcase version and again as a digipak version in 2003.^[9] A third re-release came out on 31 March 2008, with reworked album artwork by original artist Travis Smith. This new edition has two discs, the first one being a remastered stereo mix of the album on Audio CD and the second one being an Audio DVD containing a 5.1 surround sound mix. The DVD also contains a live video for the album track "Face of Melinda" from The Roundhouse Tapes live performance in London. The remastered and remixed versions of the original recordings were done by Jens Bogren.^[10]

Track listing

All tracks written by Mikael Åkerfeldt^[11]. 

Personnel

Opeth

• Mikael Åkerfeldt − vocals, guitar
• Peter Lindgren − guitar
• Martin Mendez − bass
• Martin Lopez − drums

Production

• Fredrik Nordström − engineering
• Isak Edh − engineering
• Opeth − engineering
• Göran Finnberg − mastering
• Jens Bogren − 2008 reissue remastering and 5.1 remix
• Travis Smith − album art^[10]

Release history

References

External links