Opeth: Deliverance (2LP, 25th anniversary, crystal clear vinyl) [MUSIC FOR NATIONS]

Why you'll love it

Deliverance comes back for its 25th anniversary as a 2LP set on crystal clear vinyl, its six long songs spread over four sides. Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree co-produced it with Mikael Åkerfeldt.

This edition

• 25th Anniversary edition
• 2LP set: one or two songs per side
• Crystal clear vinyl

About the album

Opeth recorded Deliverance in Gothenburg in the summer of 2002, with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree producing alongside Mikael Åkerfeldt. The band cut it alongside its gentler twin, Damnation, and kept the heavy material for this album.

Six songs fill more than an hour. "Wreath" opens at full force; the title track runs nearly fourteen minutes, from growled verses to clean, melancholy passages and back, and ends on a stuttering riff that the band repeats until it feels like a machine. "For Absent Friends" is a short acoustic breath before "Master's Apprentices" and the long, uneasy "By the Pain I See in Others".

Peter Lindgren, Martín Méndez and Martin Lopez complete the lineup, Andy Sneap mixed the record, and Travis Smith painted the cover. The album reached number 16 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart.

""Deliverance" and "Damnation" marked a major turning point for Opeth."
Steve Smith, The Boston Globe

Tracklist

On Music For Nations (cat# 19958445151).