Deliverance (Opeth album)

In the summer of 2002, the group recorded material for two albums at once - soft and hard. Hard became Deliverance , and soft - released in 2003 Damnation . Perhaps, due to the emphasis of the entire light, progressive, art-rock component of Opeth on Damnation , Deliverance turned out to be the heaviest album of the group. And although there is a ballad “A Fair Judgement”, a soft instrumental “For Absent Friends”, numerous art-rock and psychedelic interludes in other compositions, Deliverance still sounds extremely harsh, gloomy and heavy. In the opening song “Wreath”, death metal , which has always been a significant part of the Opeth style, appears in its most “pure” form, despite the length of the song and the progressive elements. Throbbing rhythms, extreme guitar riffs and uterine vocals alternate with parts of acoustic guitar, mellotron and piano in Master's Apprentices, By the Pain I See in Others and the title track.

All music and lyrics are written by Michael Okerfeldt.

1. "Wreath" - 11:10
2. "Deliverance" - 13:37
3. "A Fair Judgement" - 10:23
4. "For Absent Friends" - 2:17
5. "Master's Apprentices" - 10:32
6. "By the Pain I See in Others" - 13:50

• Michael Okerfeldt - vocals, guitar
• Peter Lindgren - guitar
• Martin Mendes - Bass
• Martin Lopez - drums and percussion

Additional musicians

• Stephen Wilson - backing vocals, guitar, mellotron

• At the end of the song “By the Pain I See in Others”, after a long silence, Michael Okerfeldt sings. These are back-and-forth verses from Master's Apprentices:
  12:00 - Soothing trance, colors fade and disappear, ethereal light showing me what I can do without
  13:15 - Fading away and leaving long for sleep, closer now, lead the way into death

• The story of Michael Okerfeldt about recording an album (link not available)