Top 10 Best Opeth Albums

I think most people that commented/voted here haven't even listened to Opeth discography twice to make decent opinion.
1. MAYH - Best concept album ever made. Atmospheric, melodic, catchy, lyrically beautiful. 10/10.
2. Still Life - more riff rich than MAYH, but overall a tiny-bit worse.
3. Blackwater Park - only reason its #3 is because of song itself which is best by Opeth, rest of album is meh.
4. Orchid
5. Ghost Reveries - Ghost of Perdition/Harlequin Forest - enough said.
6. Deliverance - some sick drumming/heavy riffs right here.
7. Watershed - liked Burden more than whole Damnation album.
8. Damnation - all of songs are decent and all of them same.
9. Morningrise - this is damn good album, but it just seems that other albums always beat it by a little.
10. Sorceress
11. Pale Communion
12. Heritage

The atmosphere that is present in this albums is both beautiful and strange at the same time! I've never experienced the feelings that these songs gave me in any other songs (or in any other form of art). Mikael's growls are perfect. Riffs are well written. Everything in this album is near perfect. This has the potential to be the greatest album in metal. If only more people could look past the growls and enjoy the songs as a whole.

The transitions between Benighted, Moonlapse Vertigo, and Face of Melinda are absolutely impeccable; not to mention how beautifully haunting the melodies of each song are alongside the brutally dark, heavier parts of the album. Additionally, and unlike the Blackwater Park album, I find no material on this album being remotely repetitive. Not one song abuses a certain measure of material for too long, nor becomes annoying due to unnecessary harmonics (take the song Bleak off of Blackwater Park for example). Overall, Still Life is an incredibly well written album. The vocals, unclean and clean are phenomenal; while additionally, the instrumentals are wonderfully macabre. Together, they truly give the listener an incredible experience of the medieval conceptual story that Still Life tells.

Whereas Blackwater Park's biggest accomplishments revolve around great production and a more authentic, atmospherical feel, Still Life relies on more riff-driven, traditional death metal, contrast beautifully by the prog rock influences appearing throughout. At the time of its release, Still Life was the biggest accomplishment by Opeth. Their sound was slowly evolving and becoming streamlined (not in the "90s Metallica" kind of way, but more in the "70s Roger Waters-Pink Floyd" kind of way). The term "concept album" gets thrown around loosely, and with a sense of bigotry and pompousness, but Opeth relishes within the realm of concept albums, and succeeds nightly. Still Life is the greatest example of this, prior to anything from the Steve Wilson-produced era.

"Blackwater Park" is undoubtely the best album to get into opeth's sound. Once there, "Ghost Reveries" will prove to be the top of the mountain of their discography. The characteristic sound duality (harsh/clean) has never been so well balanced as well as the vocals. Akerfeldt's lyrics are sublime. It feels like they are more like gothic poetry than simply lyrics. Finally, the story told throughout the album is so well arranged, that it will take the listener to a forest where he will meet the main character, a tormented man, desperately looking for redemption.

Ghost Reveries is the album where Opeth puts it all together. Everyone adores the winding guitars of the Orchid/Morningrise days, the emotion of Blackwater Park, and the heaviness of Deliverance. But on Ghost Reveries, Mikael ties it all together. There isn't a bad track, and they all weave together beautifully. Ghost of Perdition, Baying of the Hounds, The Grand Conjuration, and Harlequin Forest of definitely Top 10 Opeth songs ever, and they are all from this album.

Epic. I have never heard anything similar to this. I thought "Blackwater park" and "Still life" were the best metal albums ever, but they lacked something: the sensibility that "Watershed" was able to give us in every one of its tracks. Simply awesome. Best Opeth album ever. It has some of their best ballads such as "Burden" (makes me cry every time I losten to it) with heart touching lyrics. Vote for this!

Every second of it just blows your mind. Nothing will ever top Watershed. Coil is an ingenious little start to the whole thing, and when Heir Apparent kicks in, I nearly lose my mind. Then it's just epic riff after epic riff for the rest of the album.

I love this band.
It's very hard to name just one album as your favorite. But if I had to pick one, it would be this. I love the production. It has some very, very lovely songs on it, especially Burden.

Morningrise was surely a step up from an already awesome debut in Orchid. The overall talent level had gone up a notch, the prog rock acoustics continued to evolve within the structures of the songs, and the songs themselves continued down an even darker, more bleak, more hopeless feeling path. The biggest criticism of this album is how long and drawn out the passages are. Some fat trimming would have done a lot of good, which is exactly what Opeth accomplishes with its subsequent releases "My Arms, Your Hearse" and "Still Life".

Better Bass lines, keyboards and lyric's interpretation, sounds more like a band, innovative personalities that exchange opinions between each other through a collective music creation without filters or expectations, a lot of their vitality was blasted on this album. No formulas, but a lot of work in different paths that should have never been abandoned.

I love all their albums and I gotta say it's a very close call but Deliverance is my favorite by them. It's extremely underrated. This album boasts some of my all time favorite Opeth songs, being Deliverance (which is my favorite), a fair judgment, and masters apprentice. And don't get me wrong wreath and pain are fantastic too, but the others 3 are on a whole new level.

I would say this album is tied with BWP, but since it's a bit lower I'll vote for it. This album is just amazing... I don't see the negatives in it. It has a lot more "Death Metal" feel in it, but even then "A Fair Judgement" and "For Absent Friends" are phenomenal and have no screaming. This album has some of the best guitar work that Opeth has put out, and is just a musical masterpiece!

Blackwater Park undoubtedly is the best album to introduce people to Opeth, but in my opinion their best work has been deliverance. Not only are the songs instantly memorable and head-bang worthy, but also melodic. Deserves to be far higher. Perhaps in the top 5.

This is Opeth's most beautiful album. It focuses solely on the calmer parts of their sound and it works very well. Songs like Windowpane and In My Time of Need are fantastic and while not as versatile in their sound as songs like The Moor and Drapery falls, show a different side of this band

The small difference of votes between each album (of course, without blackwater park that is the best) shows how good is opeth, because they are great in every single album.

Fantastic album. Very dark and haunted atmosphere from start to finish. Opening track 'Windowpane' is among some of Opeth's very best material.

April Ethereal is Opeth's best song, and Demon of The Fall/When are catchy as well. This album deserves top 3, alongside Still Life and Blackwater Park/Orchid.

In my opinion their best work to date, consider the sound quiality and mixing, the story and complexity of every song in the album.The structure is clearly define.From Prologue to Epilogue is just one fantastic and breathtaking musical journey.

This, in my humble opinion is opeth's most balanced effort. It's raw and polished, deathly and proggy. Highlights-april ethereal and demon of the fall.

Normally I would say my arms, your hearse is the best album, but orchid is my favorite, for more personal reasons, so my vote is going here. Not only was it my first Opeth album, this was my first death metal album, ever! It really got me into it. It was also my first metal album that was a subgenre of Extreme and black metal, which got me into those. Before I was like a noob who listened to Metallica and the Beatles and kiss, but this helped me find the much better metal bands and genres. opeth is still my favorite band ever to date. Thanks for reading my story if you read it and if you like this kind of stuff follow @ChopstxMaster on twitter!

Orchid is not close to be my favorite Opeth album but it needs to be higher.
I don't get how Morningrise is #4 but Orchid #9. They're pretty close in style.
But I'd say that while Morningrise has the best tracks, Orchid has a better flow, a better raw feeling, better melodies.
Morningrise has an awkward pacing.

As an Opeth newbie I'm shocked this album is so low. It's bloody great Sorceress sounds really beautiful and epic all the way through. I suppose if they have done this many supposedly better albums I've got a lot of fun ahead...

I think it will be awesome! (Wrote on the 27th August 16, will be released on the 30 September)

I am hyped for this.

I have never once voted, much less commented on anything on this site before. I felt compelled to urge you to give this album a real chance because it is an absolute masterpiece. I love all of Opeth and blackwater park and still life are masterpieces of their own but there is absolutely no reason Heritage should be #12 on this list.

Underrated album, one of their best ones. This music cames from the same deep place that all their previous stuff, but only in a different manner, and that makes it unique.

Why this is the lowest studio album on the list is beyond me. This is some of their best work! Just because it is different does not make it bad.

This is a serious grower! It's definitely their best album in the last decade. Heck, it's up to par with Blackwater Park and their other death metal masterpieces. I didn't get it at first but love it now.

By far their best. In fact, best album of 21st century, after Kendrick Lamar's, To Pimp A Butterfly. Give this some more time.

One of my favourite Opeth albums. Listen to the Swedish version, because it is a masterpiece!

Amazing live album. This album got me into Opeth. If you don't like Opeth, this album will get you, trust me. It shows everything Opeth has to offer.