This album follows the very poetic "My Arms, Your Hearse", an album that gave birth to Opeth's style as we have known it until today, that is to say heavier than "Morningrise", and more melodic than "Orchid". Note that, following the numerous changes in the line-up of the band, Mikael Akerfeldt has composed the whole album alone. He gives birth to a concept album in which we follow the wanderings of a man who, after being chased out of his village for atheism, comes back 15 years later to find the love of his life.
The first thing that strikes you is the noticeable improvement of the production and the sound research of the band, Mikael Akerfeldt and Peter Lindgren getting sharp and massive guitar sounds. The album starts with 'The Moor', a typical song of the band and tinged with an epic, dark and tragic atmosphere (as well as an allusion to a famous Swedish band of the 80's...), atmosphere that we will find in the album on 'Godhead's Lament' or 'White Cluster'.
The riffs present on the album are much more lyrical than before even if some passages have airs of "Deliverance" with its chopped structures ('Serenity Painted Death'), and are supported by an impressive Martin Lopez, linking blasts and more subtle passages with ease. In spite of the break that constitutes this album, in particular on the sound and structural levels, Opeth does not forget its roots as shown by 'Moonlapse Vertigo', a track that could very well have appeared on the album "Morningrise" and which is not without reminding 'The Night And The Silent Water'. Indeed, this track is characterized by a more subtle use of the hi-hat, less double pedal, less growls and more vertical and melodic riffs.
As always, the Swedes include calmer tracks like 'Face Of Melinda' or 'Benighted', the latter being totally in clear vocals. The album closes in a remarkable way with 'White Cluster', a summary of the qualities of the album with an impeccable clear vocal, a rather epic but still dark atmosphere.
"Still Life" could rightly be qualified as a transition album because it is chronologically situated between two masterpieces, namely "My Arms, Your Hearse" and "Blackwater Park". However, it is still a very good album, very homogeneous, with a much better balance between melody and violence than before, in which Opeth have refined their style, both technically and structurally, and have gained in musical maturity.