Opeth: My Arms, Your Hearse 2LP Violet Vinyl

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set on violet vinyl was remastered and cut at half-speed at Abbey Road, in a gatefold with a gold obi. It's the record where Mikael Åkerfeldt's mix of death metal fury and folk-tinged calm snapped into focus.

This edition

2LP set
Violet vinyl
Half-speed master cut at Abbey Road
Remastered
Gatefold jacket
Obi strip
Stereo mix

About the album

Mikael Åkerfeldt wrote the words before a note of music, which is backwards for most metal bands and exactly right for this one. My Arms, Your Hearse follows the ghost of a man who won't accept that he's gone, haunting the people he loved, and every song ends with the title of the next, until "Epilogue" loops back to "Prologue." The title comes from a lyric by the English folk band Comus, and the album is dedicated to Lee Barrett of Candlelight Records.

It was Martin Lopez's first album on drums; Martín Méndez had just joined but hadn't time to learn the parts, so Åkerfeldt played bass himself. "April Ethereal" and "When" are crushing and melodic by turns, "Madrigal" and "Epilogue" breathe in between, and "Demon of the Fall" is the album's fiercest moment. The songs are tighter than the sprawling epics of Morningrise, with Studio Fredman giving them real weight.

Critics called it a milestone in 1990s extreme metal, and Loudwire lists it among the decade's essential metal records for vinyl collectors. A concept album about a restless ghost is, we feel, an ideal companion for Toronto in November.

Also at Kops: more Opeth on vinyl · browse Metal