#in cauda venenum

[majestativa]

Only this is not heaven. I dream of a night without blemish, of love without the sting.

— DANUSHA LAMÉRIS ⚜️ Bonfire Opera: Poems, (2020)

[rastronomicals]

1:41 AM EDT April 22, 2024:

Opeth - "Livets Trädgård" From the album In Cauda Venenum (September 27, 2019)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Bilingual Prog

--

[electricmeatorchestra]

I wish Opeth hadn’t released an English-language version of In Cauda Venenum at all. It’s Opeth, and they can do whatever they want. Doing a whole album in their native language is objectively rad.

I kinda don’t like the mix though and it majorly weakens some real good songs

[artemisandhersilverbow]

I’m at the point in The Will of the Many where I’m just absolutely terrified for whatever the next page brings…

[thesoundshelter]

FAVORITE ALBUM COVERS (2/2)

FAVORITE ALBUM COVERS (½)

Steely Dan - Aja

Artist : Hideki Fujii

Slash - Apocalyptic Love

Artist : Casey Howard

Invent Animate - Heavener

Artist : Hayden Clay Williams

Opeth - In Cauda Venenum

Artist : Travis Smith

Opeth - Heritage

Artist : Travis Smith

Mastodon - Leviathan

Artist : Paul Romano

Devin Townsend - Ghost

Artist : Brian Kibbons + Travis Smith

In Love With A Ghost - Let's Go

Artist : Sarah Lasater

Baroness - STONE

Artist : John Baizley

Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth

Artist : Førtifem

[replicantapologist]

The Continuum -> All Things Will Pass track sequence from In Cauda Venenum is just so good. The lyrics are fantastic, and the transition so smooth.

I love this album so much, but especially those two songs.

[blindrapture]

Opeth: The Last Will and Testament

Opeth's new album came out! and I got it in the mail.

I've listened to it twice now and it's getting its hooks in me. it's a fascinating little thing. it's exactly 50 minutes long and is easily the densest piece of music Opeth have ever put out. it reminds me of Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick in terms of sheer density, and also hey by complete coincidence this album guest stars Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson (on flute and spoken-word parts). it also stars the lead singer of fucking Europe for some backing vocals. "The Final Countdown," the guy who sings that, he's on this album.

this album sounds nothing like I expected. well, no, I'm pretty familiar with Opeth's work by now and this album is entirely in keeping with what they like to do. but there's still something surprising, paradoxically, about the fact this album sounds like what I expected the album to sound like if someone took the concept really seriously. because I didn't expect the concept to be taken that seriously! I don't really know Opeth for their concept work! they can tell a story, sure, and they can make comically cryptic lyrics that aren't supposed to be all that cryptic, but.

well, again, it's like Thick as a Brick! it's almost a dry joke, it's a clear concept and it takes it very seriously and just commits to it!

look at this. the lyric booklet folds out into this beautiful thing.

look at that! that's a full-on last will and testament (of a fictional character), and that's the lyrics to this album.

this album tells a story, but it tells it entirely in epistolary form, through found objects. this will and testament is the majority of the album, and a private letter is the final song.

it's a cool idea. it removes a lot of the drama, since the actual narrative here is of a bunch of adults standing in a stuffy room hearing this will and testament being read aloud. but it still uses that to provide drama! this man's life was strained! and his three children are going to find out some things!

I'm.. I'm gonna talk about the plot. technically spoilers, but c'mon, come and listen to this.

this is cuck metal. this isn't a rock opera, this is a cuck opera. this is a fucking story about a great cuck of a man. the kids aren't really his kids. and he waits until he fucking dies to tell them that. he was a cuck!

that's a funny way of putting it, yes. but not inaccurate. this was a very rich english man, a very conservative man with strong beliefs in heritage and legacy, and he struggles with that as he agrees to raise these two sons that his wife had without him. and he instead latches onto his daughter, who he had with his handmaid-- he cheated on his wife for this, because he needed to have an heir. and this daughter comes into life "disfigured" but healthy. she has some sort of chronic illness or disorder, I don't think it's specified, but she will live a full life, and this father accepts that and loves her. and it is to her that he leaves his estate, his funds, everything. the sons get worthless but sentimental trinkets. the daughter gets everything.

so the actual last will and testament gradually reveals all that. in it, the father alludes to the love affairs, the secrets he and his wife kept, his feelings about bloodlines, his jealousies, his frustrations, and he leaves everything to his daughter.

but then the final song takes place later. the daughter is now living in the estate, her estate. and she receives a letter from that handmaid, her mother. and the letter tells her some things too. her "father" was infertile. he fucked the handmaid, but nothing came of it. she, instead, came from a poor father, the handmaid's actual lover. but the handmaid told the rich patriarch that this child was his, so that he would agree to care for her and keep her alive. so in the end, all that obsession with bloodlines was tragic. the patriarch was infertile!!!! he left everything to Just Some Fucking Kid! and never knew!

and that's!!! how the fucking story ends!

I love this so much. I love the way this plot is told. I think it's so fascinating a choice.

but then! what about the music? y'know, the proof of the music is in the listening, so what is it like to listen to?

well!!!

it's.. fucking dense!!! it is so dense!!! a thick soundscape of emotion, kept under a stiff upper lip as we just have so much more to get to. it's appropriate to the concept.

there's flute on here, there's mellotron, there's a live string section, there's hand-claps and some of the sweetest basslines I've heard in a long time. there's wild drums that go nuts at the slightest provocation. there's frequent chugging guitars that keep the action moving forward. and there's vocals. there's fucking vocals. the vocals are a constant back-and-forth between folksy evil and soulful crooning, and beyond that they're a constant back-and-forth between clean and GROWLS Opeth has GROWLS again!!! Opeth hasn't had growls since fucking 2008!!!! and if you've never heard Opeth's growling vocals before, ohhh my goddd they're so good, they're so pronounced and controlled and fierce.

but the word of this album is "dense." you gotta keep that word in mind. it is proggy to a perfect pulp, it throws everything at you, your first listen won't even be a rollercoaster, it'll be an onslaught of ideas and sensations. this is an album that requires multiple listens. I need to give it plenty more. it comes and goes very fast, you have no idea where the music is going to go, and every moment is filled with details in a rich mix. it could be downright overwhelming. absolutely.

but for me??? for me???? for me this is christmas. this is exactly the kind of album I've been craving. this album is a challenge, something to sink my teeth into, something to track and interpret every way 'til sunday. and it's an immediately rewarding challenge, because it's not noise music or anything like that, it's prog rock!!! it's smooth classy rock music! all the elements are recognizable, everything is familiar! when I revisit a song and dig into a passage, I'm rewarded with "oh I just noticed the guitar does this really cool riff here!" the whole album is that!

it's fucking FUN!!!

this album is FUN!!!

this is music to HAVE FUN LISTENING TO!

I will leave you with the album's single. because I gotta demonstrate what I'm talking about. if you read all this, I want you to hear the music!

here is Paragraph 1, here is how the album begins.

so I've gotta listen to this album more.

thank you, Opeth!!!

[swallowedabug]

In this interview, shortly before debuting their brand new 'In Cauda Venenum' material for the first time. I spoke to Mikael Åkerfeldt about perfection, Opeth and language.

[bestangelofall]

§1 🤝 Like a Sunken Ship

Bringing back the GROWLS

[lesbiradshaw]

in cauda venenum by felixcatton

In cauda venenum: The poison is in the tail. This can be said of an account that proceeds gently, but turns vicious towards the end.

It isn’t often that Felix notices someone before they notice him, but Eddie the American starts out as somewhat of an exception.

(Also known as: Felix Catton & The Tale of the Former Favourite)

[majestativa]

I am you you am I.

[rastronomicals]

11:29 PM EDT September 18, 2024:

Opeth - "Kontinuerlig Drift" From the album In Cauda Venenum (September 27, 2019)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Venom in the Tail

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[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Writing On A Wall • In Cauda Venenum • What It Means To Be Alone • The Tank • The Poison Woman • The Thief • Mustard Gas • Saved • He Said He Had A Story • This Beautiful Lie • Go Get Your Gun • Son • Father • Life And Death

Spotify ♪ YouTube

[pillowfriendly]

good golly gosh my music taste is just so cool and awesome

tagged by @anyboli - song for each of your url's letters!

P - Peev Shalpatine by Canadian Softball this lives in my head rent free i play it over the speaker at work and scream it. sorry about me

I - Immaterial by SOPHIE <3

L - Legend Has It by Run the Jewels

L - Lost by Amanda Palmer this song doesnt make me cry no u

O - Oh, Maker by Janelle Monáe song from a perfect album

W - The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid by The Decemberists perfect album #2

F - Freeze and Boil by Blackwater Railroad Company

R - Row Row by Zeal & Ardor

I - In Cauda Venenum by The Dear Hunter have you listened to the dear hunter. will you listen to the dear hunter. when will you listen to the dear hunter

E - Epona by Eluveitie one of my favoritest songs in da worlde

N - Northwest Passage by Unleash the Archers OH FOR JUUUST OOONE TIME. I WOULD TAAAKE THE NORTHWEST PASSAAAAGE

D - Distant Bells by Leprous

L - Long Long Silk Bridge by Susumu Yokota

Y - You Dont Own Me by Son Lux if a song has a marching band in it, its good

hee hee hoo hoo music gaem. baton pass @gallopinggallifreyans @crowbandit @iwishtobeafish @ferrocyan @asha-mage

[metalcultbrigade]

Opeth - In Cauda Venenum. 27/09/2019