Watershed is the ninth studio album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. Released by Roadrunner Records, Watershed is the first studio album by Opeth to feature guitarist Fredrik Åkesson and drummer Martin Axenrot, who replaced longtime guitarist Peter Lindgren and drummer Martin Lopez. The artwork for the album was made by Travis Smith (who has created the artwork for eight previous Opeth releases) in collaboration with Mikael Åkerfeldt. It was the band's last studio album to contain death growls or any death metal elements until 2024's The Last Will and Testament.
Overview On opening track "Coil", Mikael Åkerfeldt duets with Nathalie Lorichs, who was dating drummer Martin Axenrot at the time. The band has revealed that they were initially going to start the album with what eventually became the second track, "Heir Apparent"; however, they preferred "Coil" as an introductory track for its contrast to "Heir Apparent".
Åkerfeldt was inspired to write the single "Burden" while listening to the Scorpions song "Living And Dying" during a stay in Turkey.
Reception
The album was met with universal acclaim according to Metacritic, receiving a metascore of 82/100 based on 10 critics.
On Metal Hammer's Critic's Choice Top 50, Watershed was named as the second-best album of 2008 (behind only Metallica's Death Magnetic).Metal Hammer critics’ top 50 albums of 2008: 3-1 metalhammer.co.uk. 23 December 2008. Retrieved on 29 November 2009. In the January/February 2009 issue of Metal Edge, Watershed was voted the number 1 album of 2008.
In a fan club interview dated to November 2008, a few months after the album's release, former guitarist Peter Lindgren praised the album, noting that "it was a weird feeling to get a new Opeth CD...that he hadn't been a part of", and that he "had trouble following the new songs at first", but called it "damn good".
Release history Watershed was released as a standard edition, a 180 gram vinyl edition, and a special edition. The special edition includes three bonus tracks, a bonus DVD with a 5.1 surround sound mix of the entire album (not including bonus tracks), video content featuring rehearsals, and studio footage, as well as expanded artwork. The vinyl release comes in gatefold packaging and contains the album on two LPs, as well as a CD copy of the album (both including the bonus track "Derelict Herds") and a poster.
"Mellotron Heart" was included on a separate disc with a limited number of copies of the album. It is an alternate recording of the song "Porcelain Heart", performed on mellotron and mini-Moog synthesizers by Åkerfeldt himself. The cover for the CD is the standard album artwork with the figure and writing desk replaced by a mellotron. The track is also available as a free digital download exclusively for those who pre-ordered the album from The End Records, and to people who insert the CD into their computer via Opendisc.
By region Region Date Label Format Catalog Continental Europe 30 May 2008 Roadrunner CD RR 7962-2 United Kingdom 2 June 2008 Roadrunner CD RR 7962-2 North America 3 June 2008 Roadrunner Enhanced CD R 1384409 Australia 3 June 2008 Roadrunner Records (Australia) Enhanced CD RR 7962-8
Track listing
Personnel Opeth Mikael Åkerfeldt – vocals, guitar Fredrik Åkesson – guitar Per Wiberg – keyboards, synthesizer Martín Méndez – bass guitar Martin Axenrot – drums
Additional musicians Nathalie Lorichs – female vocals Lisa Almberg – English horn, oboe Christoffer Wadensten – flute Karin Svensson – violin Andreas Tengberg – cello
Production and design Mikael Åkerfeldt – production, artwork Jens Bogren – production, recording, mixing, mastering Mikhail Korge – recording (additional) David Castillo – engineering (additional) Johan Örnborg – engineering (additional) Travis Smith – artwork
Usage in media The song "Heir Apparent" was featured as a downloadable content in the video game Rock Band 4. The song "The Lotus Eater" was featured in the 2011 video game Saints Row: The Third.
Chart positions
Weekly Chart (2008)PeakpositionAustralian Albums (ARIA) 7Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) 53Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)90Canadian Albums (Billboard) 17Danish Albums (Hitlisten) 84Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) 14Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) 1French Albums (SNEP) 47Italian Albums (FIMI)37Japanese Albums (Oricon) 15New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) 26Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) 7Scottish Albums Chart (OCC)37Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) 7Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) 24UK Albums Chart 34US Billboard 200 23
Monthly Chart (2008)PeakpositionPoland (ZPAV Top 100)38
References