Opia is a brand new five-piece British atmospheric gothic doom band. Although British, with the addition of the originally Czech singer Tereza Rohelova and Spanish keyboard player Jorge Afonso Rodriguez (Scandelion) you can also speak of an international band. Now, when you think of British doom, you immediately think of My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and old Anathema and those legendary names are indeed at the basis of Opia‘s sound. But there is more…
These comparisons are far too simplistic. This quintet knows how to forge a beautiful combination between the aforementioned old-school British sound and more modern Scandinavian elements. Bands like Swallow the Sun, Draconian and especially Trees of Eternity (R.I.P.) regularly float to the surface while listening to this I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep. Rohelova’s vocals effortlessly switch from beautiful, relaxed clean singing to evil screams and grunts and in doing so she adapts to the menace and atmosphere of the music and lyrics. A song like The Eye is a good example of this: a quiet, serene build-up with clean guitars eventually bursts into solid melodic yet extreme doom and a hard grooving finale with Cradle of Filth-like keyboard parts and therefore the fierce screams of Tereza.
Opia is also a master at songwriting. The brilliant compositions stick in your ear one by one and the structure and arrangements are top-notch. Listen to The Fade and try to get that chorus out of your head. Goosebumps! The keys play a beautiful, prominent role in the music. The guitars and drums are solid and hard in the mix, but the keys are given the space to add atmosphere and melody at the right moments. Take the opening track On Death’s Door Part I, where grooving heavy guitar riffs form the basis, but where the keys provide a thick atmospheric underlayer and at the same time extra melody. Addictive song! And during Part II of this diptych, the double bass and blast beat are even thrown in and the record is brought towards the end with grand guitar themes and solos.
As a small blemish on this album I would like to mention that during the recordings it seems that programmed drums were chosen, while in the form of session drummer Sam Heffernan (The Drowning) a drummer of flesh and blood was indeed available. Who knows, in any case it is not disturbing anywhere, because fortunately the whole album sounds very organic.
Score:
86/100
Label:
Hammerheart Records, 2025
Tracklisting:
- These Pristine Memories
- On Death’s Door Part I
- Man Proposes, God Disposes
- The Fade
- The Eye
- Days Gone By
- Silence
- On Death’s Door Part II
Line-up:
- Phoenix Griffiths – Guitar
- Dan Tregenna – Guitar
- Aidan Rutter – Bass guitar
- Jorge Afonso Rodriguez – Keyboard
- Tereza Rohelova – Vocals
- Sam Hffernan – Drum programming
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