Our Stewart is so excited about Opeth’s Friday night request slot that rather than cover it in our truncated thirty to watch he has done a whole 666 (our six hundred and sixty six words opinions pieces) about just how over excited he is.

Opeth are evolution in a microcosm. The band they are now, is completely different from the band they were and probably the band they will be. It is very rare to find a band stary so far from their musical source yet keep hold of all their integrity and fanbase. But Opeth are special. Their audience has grown and developed with them. We and the band have embraced refinement but we are also not afraid to look back with nostalgia. That is why their Bloodstock show will be so special.

Whilst the band haven’t made what would be viewed as a Metal album since 2008’s “Watershed” (the last known sighting on record of a signature Mikael Åkerfeldt death grower) they have still sporadically visited their songbook on their subsequent promotional touring. Friday at Bloodstock will be different though as it will see them dive deep into their back catalogue as we are in charge. This is one of those request shows and frankly, we could go anywhere. They have provided options on their website and if we voting public have played our cards right we could get a set made up exclusively of bangers from their first five albums (though be warned when Metallica did this exact same thing 10 years ago, we all sheeplike ended up voting for ‘Battery’, ‘Master of Puppets’ and ‘Enter Sandman’, i.e. the same blooming set they always play).

You cannot underestimate the absolute wonder of those first five albums and to be honest if they didn't make another album after “Blackwater Park”, then they still would have sealed their place as one of the greatest metal bands in existence. I still remember hearing “Orchid” for the first time. It sounded like a jazz quintet had decided to make a black metal album, and that wanton experimentalism made it stand out from everything else. You need to remember at the time the musical landscape in this country was essentially dull alt-rock (Stone Temple pilots I’m looking at you) and the emerging spectre that was nu-metal. “Orchid” deliberately bucked against all the trends.

“Morningrise” followed less than a year later, and the band made a gargantuan leap in musical ability, ambition, and style. It very much set the parameters for Opeth’s sound for the next eight records and in ‘Black Rose Immortal’ saw them record their longest track. The scale and breadth of the influences that they were mining and the cathedrals of sound that they were trying to orchestrate were both absolutely breathtaking. We were very used to death metal being incredibly insular but here was something that ascended its nihilism and was positively cinematic and widescreen.

1998's “My Arms, Your Hearse” and the following years' “Still Life” were further steps towards perfection but the holy Grail, the summit of authenticity is 2001 “Blackwater Park”. By this point they had moved well beyond sounding like this or sounding like that. They were Opeth and this album is absolutely astonishing in both its scope and its musical textures. If they deemed to give it to us in its entirety (as they have done at the Royal Albert Hall) then I will be a very happy boy indeed. It is the intricate nature of every passage and every piece of music that is frankly astonishing. There is layer upon layer of sumptuous sonic oscillations. It is heavy but it is heavy with a purpose and that heaviness beautifully offsets the more introverted and minimalist pieces. 

As I keep saying there is no misstep in their back catalogue, there are eras that I prefer more (namely the one I have just lyrically raptured about)  but Opeth are such a wonderful brand and such magnificent aural storytellers that whatever set that they decide on, they will be magnificent. Though be warned, if you have facilitated in voting for a performance that just showcases “Heritage” and beyond, be warned, I will find out your name and I will hunt you down.