Watershed (Opeth album)

Watershed is the ninth full-length studio album by the Swedish heavy 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. The album has been described as "a major turning point" for Opeth due to the depth of its engagement with progressive rock. It is also, as of 2014, the band's last studio album to contain death growls.

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".

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). In the January/February 2009 issue of Metal Edge, Watershed was voted the number 1 album of 2008.

Opeth

 * Mikael Åkerfeldt – vocals, guitar
 * Fredrik Åkesson – guitar
 * Per Wiberg – keyboards, synthesizer
 * Martin Mendez – bass guitar
 * Martin Axenrot – drums

Additional musicians

 * Nathalie Lorichs – guest vocals on "Coil"
 * Lisa Almberg – English horn, oboe
 * Christoffer Wadensten – flute
 * Karin Svensson – violin
 * Andreas Tengberg – cello

Production

 * Mikael Åkerfeldt – production
 * Jens Bogren – engineering, mixing, mastering, production
 * David Castillo – engineering

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. 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.