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Track Listings
| 1. Drag Ropes |
| 2. Storm Corrosion |
| 3. Hag |
| 4. Happy |
| 5. Lock Howl |
| 6. Ljudet Innan |
Editorial Reviews
Storm Corrosion is the long-discussed and highly anticipated collaboration between two of the modern progressive rock scene's most innovative and multi-talented artists: Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth and Porcupine Tree s Steven Wilson.
"It s very hard to describe this music as it is so different from most things around right now (at least as far as I know)," said Wilson. "I said it was the "opposite of metal" because I think a lot of people might have assumed from the two people involved that this would be some kind of progressive / metal thing, but in fact it s quite a minimal album with a lot of space and beauty, orchestral and organic, hardly any drums and no distorted guitars "twisted beautiful" is the best way I can describe it."
"Some of the music on this record I think is the most beautiful music I have participated on ever," adds Åkerfeldt. "There's some magical sections on there. Musically I think we've created something earthy, a bit frightening, exhausting, profound and rather intense. All at the same time. I can safely say I don't know any other band or artist that sounds anything like Storm Corrosion. I guess that was also one of our goals, so to speak."
"It s very hard to describe this music as it is so different from most things around right now (at least as far as I know)," said Wilson. "I said it was the "opposite of metal" because I think a lot of people might have assumed from the two people involved that this would be some kind of progressive / metal thing, but in fact it s quite a minimal album with a lot of space and beauty, orchestral and organic, hardly any drums and no distorted guitars "twisted beautiful" is the best way I can describe it."
"Some of the music on this record I think is the most beautiful music I have participated on ever," adds Åkerfeldt. "There's some magical sections on there. Musically I think we've created something earthy, a bit frightening, exhausting, profound and rather intense. All at the same time. I can safely say I don't know any other band or artist that sounds anything like Storm Corrosion. I guess that was also one of our goals, so to speak."
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
54 of 61 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
So, you want to read a review because you have no idea what this album sounds like, right? It's not easy to give you any help...
Lesson 1: This is NOT Opeth, and this is NOT Porcupine Tree.
It's an album mostly devoid of percussion and metal guitars. It is more on the easy and lightweight side, but with a dark secret. The melodies in themselves are simple, the instruments and vocals soft and airy (Drag Ropes a bit of an exception). But of course nothing is ever as simple as that with these mucisians. There are unexpected sounds and twists betwixt these beautiful melodies. Parts that make you go: what the ...?
The first track, Drag Ropes (9.50), had an official release on youtube, so my suggestion is that you go there and try it out. It's an eerie and beautiful, orchestral and epic piece with a great animated video. Now when I listen to the song, I always see those images in my head.
The best way I can describe the second track, Storm Corrosion (10.10), is to suggest you think of Simon & Garfunkel. This is true for the first 5-6 minutes at least. What happens then is a rising... sound... that is creepy and powerful, but that I can't really call "music" in its strictest sense. It's a difficult transition for the listener to make, but as the album progresses you understand more about the idea behind this contrast. The song finishes with a return to the original melody.
The third track, Hag (6.30), is perhaps my favourite. It rises slowly from a dark silence with soft guitar tones and piano key-strikes, accompanied by Wilson's one-word song lines. It picks up a high-pitched electric organ sound and some more guitar melodies. 4,5 minutes in there's a 45 second long guitar and drum combo that feels straight out of Opeth's Heritage album, and that is the most metal you'll hear on this record. Then the track goes back to finishing off in the same style as it opened.
Track four, Happy (4.50), again makes me think a lot of Simon & Garfunkel. But the eerie contrasts are back. And the track structure is a bit backwards. It starts with what feels like the ending, and then in the middle comes what feels like a natural start to a song. Otherwise, a soft acoustic guitar is plucking along at its strings, sometimes accompanied by an electric guitar. Interwoven with this melody are what I can best describe as distorted electric machine sounds from an evil dimension!
Lock Howl, track number five (6.10), is a relatively fast-paced instrumental diddle. I guess it makes sense to make change the beat before the closing track, which is perhaps the softest on the record. I guess this piece feels somewhat that it could belong on Heritage as well, but not entirely. The acoustic guitar melody runs along with an electric guitar tempo in the background. About halfway in, the song pauses and picks up a new beat with clapping sounds and a queer psychadelic organ sound, then almost gets quiet with some soft wind instrument. Then it starts up from the beginning again with some additional sounds.
Ljudet Innan (10.20), a Swedish title that translates to "The Sound Before", closes the album. It starts with Mikael singing softly and low, a lament from the deep. After, an electric organ rises very slowly and gets an echoing guitar string occassionally joining in. Halfway in, an electric lead guitar adds a light melody and Wilson comes in with some of his soft vocals. Not much more happens.
The album journey from start to finish is soft and strange at the same time. Here are some of the more beautiful melodies you will have heard, arranged with some of the more difficult sounds to listen to. But these contrasts are not so much "in your face", and they don't happen often, to my delight. I wouldn't want too much weirdness messing up the beauty that is in here.
At first listen it will be hard to understand, but this album grows steadily stronger with every listen. Of course, it's nothing you would turn on when it's time to party, or if you want to feel the energy pulsing in your veins. But perhaps towards the end of the night when everyone's quieting down on the couch in the dark, or when you're alone on a grey day...
It's a great album, but of course there's room for improvement.
4/5
Lesson 1: This is NOT Opeth, and this is NOT Porcupine Tree.
It's an album mostly devoid of percussion and metal guitars. It is more on the easy and lightweight side, but with a dark secret. The melodies in themselves are simple, the instruments and vocals soft and airy (Drag Ropes a bit of an exception). But of course nothing is ever as simple as that with these mucisians. There are unexpected sounds and twists betwixt these beautiful melodies. Parts that make you go: what the ...?
The first track, Drag Ropes (9.50), had an official release on youtube, so my suggestion is that you go there and try it out. It's an eerie and beautiful, orchestral and epic piece with a great animated video. Now when I listen to the song, I always see those images in my head.
The best way I can describe the second track, Storm Corrosion (10.10), is to suggest you think of Simon & Garfunkel. This is true for the first 5-6 minutes at least. What happens then is a rising... sound... that is creepy and powerful, but that I can't really call "music" in its strictest sense. It's a difficult transition for the listener to make, but as the album progresses you understand more about the idea behind this contrast. The song finishes with a return to the original melody.
The third track, Hag (6.30), is perhaps my favourite. It rises slowly from a dark silence with soft guitar tones and piano key-strikes, accompanied by Wilson's one-word song lines. It picks up a high-pitched electric organ sound and some more guitar melodies. 4,5 minutes in there's a 45 second long guitar and drum combo that feels straight out of Opeth's Heritage album, and that is the most metal you'll hear on this record. Then the track goes back to finishing off in the same style as it opened.
Track four, Happy (4.50), again makes me think a lot of Simon & Garfunkel. But the eerie contrasts are back. And the track structure is a bit backwards. It starts with what feels like the ending, and then in the middle comes what feels like a natural start to a song. Otherwise, a soft acoustic guitar is plucking along at its strings, sometimes accompanied by an electric guitar. Interwoven with this melody are what I can best describe as distorted electric machine sounds from an evil dimension!
Lock Howl, track number five (6.10), is a relatively fast-paced instrumental diddle. I guess it makes sense to make change the beat before the closing track, which is perhaps the softest on the record. I guess this piece feels somewhat that it could belong on Heritage as well, but not entirely. The acoustic guitar melody runs along with an electric guitar tempo in the background. About halfway in, the song pauses and picks up a new beat with clapping sounds and a queer psychadelic organ sound, then almost gets quiet with some soft wind instrument. Then it starts up from the beginning again with some additional sounds.
Ljudet Innan (10.20), a Swedish title that translates to "The Sound Before", closes the album. It starts with Mikael singing softly and low, a lament from the deep. After, an electric organ rises very slowly and gets an echoing guitar string occassionally joining in. Halfway in, an electric lead guitar adds a light melody and Wilson comes in with some of his soft vocals. Not much more happens.
The album journey from start to finish is soft and strange at the same time. Here are some of the more beautiful melodies you will have heard, arranged with some of the more difficult sounds to listen to. But these contrasts are not so much "in your face", and they don't happen often, to my delight. I wouldn't want too much weirdness messing up the beauty that is in here.
At first listen it will be hard to understand, but this album grows steadily stronger with every listen. Of course, it's nothing you would turn on when it's time to party, or if you want to feel the energy pulsing in your veins. But perhaps towards the end of the night when everyone's quieting down on the couch in the dark, or when you're alone on a grey day...
It's a great album, but of course there's room for improvement.
4/5
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By D. Orosz
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Akerfeldt and Wilson have created something here that doesn't really have any comparison. It's progressive certainly but not really rock or metal.
However, you can definitely hear both of the legendary artists' influences in every song, rather equally over the whole of the album.
The music is ambient at times and the guitar is acoustic. There's really no sense in trying to describe the album, in depth, as it really has to be listened to. Storm Corrosion, is subtly amazing.
You are going to have to listen to each song several times to fully appreciate this work of art, (like all good music).
If you're a fan of either artist, this is a must have. If only because you will be listening to something very original, both alike but also very unlike other projects these artists have done.
However, you can definitely hear both of the legendary artists' influences in every song, rather equally over the whole of the album.
The music is ambient at times and the guitar is acoustic. There's really no sense in trying to describe the album, in depth, as it really has to be listened to. Storm Corrosion, is subtly amazing.
You are going to have to listen to each song several times to fully appreciate this work of art, (like all good music).
If you're a fan of either artist, this is a must have. If only because you will be listening to something very original, both alike but also very unlike other projects these artists have done.
15 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As an enthusiastic follower of both Opeth and Porcupine Tree (and their respective frontmen), I've been anxiously awaiting this album since the project was first announced a couple of years ago. Since then, both Steven and Mikael have made their rounds in the press trying to control expectations and make it clear that this album was not going to be what most fans probably expected.
There's a certain melancholy that can be felt through most of the music here. Rather than emphasizing melody or rhythm, all tracks except the first are about soundscapes, mood, and ambience. There's lots of acoustic guitar accompanied by sparse orchestration and occasional vocals. There are still many layers to the music, but they are much more subtle than those present in either Porcupine Tree's or Opeth's music.
Drag Ropes, for which a video was released not long ago, starts off the album and has been mentioned as the stand out track by several reviewers already. It's definitely the closest thing on the album to traditional Opeth/PT, while still fitting in with the mood and overall musical thematic of Storm Corrosion. There's a section in the middle driven mostly by the layered vocals of both Mikael and Steven that would probably make any Porcupine Tree fan feel right at home and is arguably the high point of the song, although the guitar solo that follows afterwards is also phenomenal.
The second track, Storm Corrosion, offers a different musical landscape driven mainly by a soft acoustic guitar and Steven's vocals. The sound effects of a storm and simple but beautiful orchestration provide most of the additional texture. There's a certain intimacy that comes from how the vocals were recorded and the melodies that is very striking and somewhat captivating. There's quite a bit more activity once the song reaches its mid-point that leads into a slow buildup of dissonance and noise reminiscent of some of the work Steven did in Insurgentes (CD & DVD).
Hag, the third cut on the album, kicks off with a very simple melody composed of just a few notes. A simple bass line accompanied by very modest percussion provides a hypnotic beat that comes in and out as the layers of sound develop. Close to the end, the track offers the only moment in the album even remotely resembling metal with some very intense drumming that has been heavily stylized and processed.
Happy, in contrast to the two previous tracks, is much more straightforward in adhering strictly to sparse instrumentation, clean vocals, and acoustic playing. There is a significant amount of activity going on in the background in the form of drones that introduce some interesting dissonance or brief glimpses of what sounds like an overdriven guitar along with various sound effects. It's a beautiful track that can be easily missed when the album is just playing in the background.
The fifth track, Lock Howl, is a much busier piece of music with a clearly identifiable beat provided by a lightly palm-muted guitar. Towards the middle, the palm-muted guitar is replaced by hand-claps as the main rhythmic device in what is one of the most memorable moments in the album. After that, we're left with another touch of dissonance in the background as the beat is slowly brought back and a new melody introduced that is soon joined by layered instrumentation.
The final number, Ljudet Innan, starts off with beautiful singing by Mikael that is quite different from anything he's ever put out with Opeth. Although still kind of abstract, this track is probably the closest the album gets to a traditional song even incorporating a simple, but fitting drum beat towards the middle. It's a beautiful closer that provides a perfect contrast with the rest of the album.
Overall, this is a strangely addicting and beautiful album, but it's definitely not an album for every occasion (or for every individual). Some have made the argument that a lot of the music here makes great background music but, while I don't disagree, I think careful listening will help in revealing the little details that make the album stand out. There's a lot to find in those dissonant notes that so effectively shift the mood of a track or the quiet drones that remain in the background to complement the sparse instrumentation on top.
It's fair to say that my expectations for this album were impossibly high. Having loved Steven's Grace for Drowning, but being a bit disappointed by Opeth's Heritage; I was unsure of whether the end result would resonate with me as I hoped it would. I can't say that it completely blew away my expectations, but it consistently met them and, in this case, that's quite a bit of praise.
There's a certain melancholy that can be felt through most of the music here. Rather than emphasizing melody or rhythm, all tracks except the first are about soundscapes, mood, and ambience. There's lots of acoustic guitar accompanied by sparse orchestration and occasional vocals. There are still many layers to the music, but they are much more subtle than those present in either Porcupine Tree's or Opeth's music.
Drag Ropes, for which a video was released not long ago, starts off the album and has been mentioned as the stand out track by several reviewers already. It's definitely the closest thing on the album to traditional Opeth/PT, while still fitting in with the mood and overall musical thematic of Storm Corrosion. There's a section in the middle driven mostly by the layered vocals of both Mikael and Steven that would probably make any Porcupine Tree fan feel right at home and is arguably the high point of the song, although the guitar solo that follows afterwards is also phenomenal.
The second track, Storm Corrosion, offers a different musical landscape driven mainly by a soft acoustic guitar and Steven's vocals. The sound effects of a storm and simple but beautiful orchestration provide most of the additional texture. There's a certain intimacy that comes from how the vocals were recorded and the melodies that is very striking and somewhat captivating. There's quite a bit more activity once the song reaches its mid-point that leads into a slow buildup of dissonance and noise reminiscent of some of the work Steven did in Insurgentes (CD & DVD).
Hag, the third cut on the album, kicks off with a very simple melody composed of just a few notes. A simple bass line accompanied by very modest percussion provides a hypnotic beat that comes in and out as the layers of sound develop. Close to the end, the track offers the only moment in the album even remotely resembling metal with some very intense drumming that has been heavily stylized and processed.
Happy, in contrast to the two previous tracks, is much more straightforward in adhering strictly to sparse instrumentation, clean vocals, and acoustic playing. There is a significant amount of activity going on in the background in the form of drones that introduce some interesting dissonance or brief glimpses of what sounds like an overdriven guitar along with various sound effects. It's a beautiful track that can be easily missed when the album is just playing in the background.
The fifth track, Lock Howl, is a much busier piece of music with a clearly identifiable beat provided by a lightly palm-muted guitar. Towards the middle, the palm-muted guitar is replaced by hand-claps as the main rhythmic device in what is one of the most memorable moments in the album. After that, we're left with another touch of dissonance in the background as the beat is slowly brought back and a new melody introduced that is soon joined by layered instrumentation.
The final number, Ljudet Innan, starts off with beautiful singing by Mikael that is quite different from anything he's ever put out with Opeth. Although still kind of abstract, this track is probably the closest the album gets to a traditional song even incorporating a simple, but fitting drum beat towards the middle. It's a beautiful closer that provides a perfect contrast with the rest of the album.
Overall, this is a strangely addicting and beautiful album, but it's definitely not an album for every occasion (or for every individual). Some have made the argument that a lot of the music here makes great background music but, while I don't disagree, I think careful listening will help in revealing the little details that make the album stand out. There's a lot to find in those dissonant notes that so effectively shift the mood of a track or the quiet drones that remain in the background to complement the sparse instrumentation on top.
It's fair to say that my expectations for this album were impossibly high. Having loved Steven's Grace for Drowning, but being a bit disappointed by Opeth's Heritage; I was unsure of whether the end result would resonate with me as I hoped it would. I can't say that it completely blew away my expectations, but it consistently met them and, in this case, that's quite a bit of praise.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two Gifted Artist.....
Love this music by Steven and Michael.....I would say they are in their own league when it comes to creative minds and music.
Published 1 month ago by Dean Urone
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Meld
While I expected a heavier sound from this colaberation, I was not disapointed. This one has a good smooth sound.
Published 3 months ago by Steve Mc Bride
1.0 out of 5 stars
storm corrision is ear corrosion
absolutely the worst sounds recorded in modern history. I like all kinds of music and am very tolerant of any artist - however the sounds that came from this cd were dreadful. Read more
Published 3 months ago by bullseye
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting 3.5
Title of review sums it up. Its an interesting listen, but a very very mellow one. Very ambient, lots of finger picking guitars, layered Vocal melody lines, and nice-almost... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Dons Word "Don C"
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful work
If you are a fan of ever changing, new, and different music by the same artist(s), then Storm Corrosion is for you. If you want the same sound, it is not. Read more
Published 3 months ago by D. Haley
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best album I have ever heard
The best album I have ever heard, a totally unprecedented glimpse into two of the greatest musical minds of the century, and it was glorious!
Published 3 months ago by Patrick
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strange and beautiful music.
Right, two huge egos making music that is "not for the masses". If you have appreciation for musical experimentation and expect nothing from it, you will find yourself... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Joshua Shining
4.0 out of 5 stars
It creeps up on you...
I wasn't too sure what to make of this at first. I had only recently discovered Porcupine Tree when this came out, and I'd never heard of Opeth, but the name sounded like a... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Walduck
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forget about Opeth or PT!
This album is something far from the ordinary, a trip somewhere but hard to say where. It has to be listen at with headphones, a comfortable sofa and if possible with a good... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Retro Game Boy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Single Greatest Album I've Heard
This album can never get old and I've had it playing over and over. From the acoustic harmonizations to the eerie ethereal aura of uncomfortability only Akerfelt and Wilson could... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Zach
