Hi guys, on www.progforum.nl i saw a review of ghost reveries ( opeth) , why would they put such a review on a progressive rock website? is opeth prog by all means?
Progressive, like "Alternative", is a fairly loosely-constructed term and has very broad parameters. Progressive anything at this point essentially means: You use odd time signatures and often have a consistently changing meter. Opeth uses a lot of compound time signatures, like 12/8 and 7/5 and changes them quite often in one song. You use an odd compositional structure that surpasses that of the typical 4-6-8 bar, verse, chorus, solo formula. Often Opeth will play 3 bars of a passage, or 11, or 15 i.e. not always multiples of 2 as in traditional rock, blues and early Jazz (and rather hard to remember when jamming to it or rehearsing it). You use chords not often found in typical western styles. Opeth often uses asymmetrical harmony structures that aren't as typical in Western music (save for Bebop Jazz and that nutso Charlie Parker, or Baroque and Classical era music). They use a lot of Augmented 9ths and 11ths, minor 7th b5 cadence chords and a plethora of other extended chords and inversions all over the tonal landscape. There are other defining characteristics of progressive music, such as the use of non-traditional instruments, convoluted epic tales (Lord of the Rings, anyone?) being played throughout a non-traditional, classical compositional structure or lots of modulation during a piece, which Opeth doesn't use, but I'd classify them as Progressive Death Metal, if I had to do so, although labels, in my opinion, should be saved for the record shop and for typical classification purposes only. In common parlance, just say the band's name and ellaborate upon them from there; I think that's more appropriate, unless a band is so trite and uninspired that they may be categorized easily with other bands who sound nearly exactly the same. The most impressive thing about Opeth as a band is, supposedly, they're not at all versed in music theory, so they haven't a clue about harmonic structure. They do it all by ear.
