Opeth - Moonlapse Vertigo - live in Milwaukee, July 28th 2000

As most of you know, Opeth's Milwaukee Metalfest show on July 28th, 2000 was possibly the most important performance of their career. Here's why: by the time Still Life was released, they had played less than 50 shows, were making almost no money, and had very little interest outside the underground metal scene. They had no idea that they had much of a fanbase at all (remember that this was mostly pre-internet).

Against this backdrop, they were thinking about calling it quits. Seriously. It was all on the verge of coming to an end.

Then, they played their first ever show in the US - and the crowd that was waiting for them was obscene. Their biggest show to date was played to an overfilled room of screaming fans that had been waiting years to see their favourite band.

Opeth responded to this by putting on an incredible show and cementing their place in the North American metal scene. More importantly, that night showed them that they had a following and that they were being heard. This concert was the spark that kept them going - leading to Blackwater Park and an explosion of their popularity into mainstream metal.

Believe it or not, it's been almost 25 years since that seminal show. So I've decided to put together something very special in celebration of this milestone.

Join me on Thursday July 24th, and you'll find out what Opeth really sounded like that evening.

Credit to lordgraga for the amazing help with video rendering, the Decibel guys for the new audio source, burdock.thistle.creosote for the 1st generation VHS source, to the anonymous videotaper, to me for the media remix and master, and to the mighty OPETH for this incredible performance.

Mikael Åkerfeldt - vocals and guitar
Peter Lindgren - guitar
Martin Mendez - bass
Martin Lopez - drums

Buy Opeth records and merch officially here: https://opeth.omerch.com. Listen to it loud and uninterrupted.