Opeth - Moonlapse Vertigo. Live in Melbourne, April 24th 2006 (UPGRADED & REMASTERED)

Opeth have only played Moonlapse Vertigo live 8 times: six times in 2000, once in 2001, and once in 2006. This is their latest (and likely their last ever) performance of one of Still Life's best tracks.
I shared this performance once before, about 5 years ago. So why am I posting it again?
Over the years, I've traded for four audio sources and two video sources of this show. None of them are outstanding - but there's some decent choice in there, and needless to say, the rarity of this track deserves the attention. So I selected the best, remastered it, and matrixed it with one of the videos. The end result is a pretty significant improvement.
I also considered merging both videos and editing in multiple shots, but this would be a lot of work (particularly when factoring in KZbin's audio latency "feature" that was introduced in 2022). Apologies for not putting this together. I might revisit the concept one day when I have more time, though.
Lastly, Moonlapse is an incredible song. Mikael may not like playing it live anymore, but recordings of this one are gold dust - so it's worth the effort! Enjoy.
Mikael Åkerfeldt - vocals and guitar
Peter Lindgren - guitar
Per Wiberg - keys and vocals
Martin Mendez - bass
Martin Axenrot - drums

[@VignetteQ]

I yearn for them to pull this track out live again. Such an underrated gem.

[@rodrigueslazaro]

My favorite track from my favorite album

[@AlexBakerAstro]

I remember a couple decades ago or nearly that, Mikael saying the reason he doesn’t fancy playing “Moonlapse Vertigo” live anymore is that the band would always mess up the tempos as the segments transition, but those segues are part of the song’s magic… I’ve always felt it’s on Opeth songs ‘such as this’ that Mikael’s writing most channeled the structural nature of, for example, old Yes songs where there are essentially three or four different ‘movements’ that make sense in succession regardless of how seamless (or not) the transitions - all while bringing a romantic melodicism characteristic of no other artist, as Opeth does. My guess is the compositional structure of “Moonlapse” feels a bit glued together for Akerfeldt, a la Orchid or Morningrise, while posing those transitional problems for live performance… but the outro is so wonderful, especially for his younger voice (if it was on that night)… wish they’d pull it out again!

[@lufesan2091]

I really like this 2004-2006 period of the band live, especially from Mikael. Improved clean vocals and the growls were still immaculate.

[@eyehategod]

Господи ты сумасшедший. Сделать ремастер лайва moonlapse vertigo в 2024 блять году. Но сука я тебе благодарен!

[@henrywalton5967]

This is easily my favourite Opeth song, it has everything.

[@_wolf_eye]

My god, what a great, underrated, terrific drummer Axenrot is... He's got everything. A killer sense of steady rhythm, great fills, hits hard, great speed, beautiful snare sound. Too bad they let him go.

[@johnoliva7972]

Still Life. Easily their most Technically challenging album. And in my opinion in the top 3 of their releases. I've seen them play every time they have come to Southern California since 2005. On more than one occasion Mikael has mentioned on stage how hard it is to play songs live from this album. Maybe why some of these aren't played much live.

[@primordialooze7574]

BY FAR the best Live version of this song I've ever heard! In The_Karst we trust!

[@The_Karst]

I'm glad you like it! And yet, there's an even better one that I plan to share in the next year or two...

[@fullmetalguy8357]

Thanks for the upload! I've been on the search for good audio sources of The Twilight is My Robe, Karma, Moonlapse Vertigo and Famine for a while now to have in my personal bootleg collection. Is it possible to share any of these songs perhaps?

[@williamreynolds3487]

Any chance you have the footage/audio of the other performances? Other than the Milwaukee one; that one’s been around forever.

[@dylanwydenes-charles4298]

I would try maybe using a de-reverb plug in on the audio and see if it gets any cleaner.

[@dylanwydenes-charles4298]

Also, any further update on the EoS live tape? I think we talked about it on FB a while ago.

[@The_Karst]

@dylanwydenes-charles4298 Good call on de-reverb! This vid was mainly a test of some new tools (although I didn't mess with reverb), so I'll add that to my list for the future. There's a lot that can be done to clean up these old recordings.

[@The_Karst]

@@dylanwydenes-charles4298 The EoS tape trade doesn't seem to be going anywhere, unfortunately. I'm still hoping it'll work out, but it's not feeling 100% anymore :(.

[@JPW02]

Fucking love this song. They need to start playing it again 😢

[@_wolf_eye]

Ooooooooooh!!!!! Amazing! You're at it again man. A jem. You sure they didn't play it again in 2008? I remember I had seen a live video from the Watershed period where they were playing it, but maybe I'm wrong. Thanks, anyway. Killer song. :) EDIT: I bet the reason why Mikeal doesn't want to play this track is because it's too technically challenging, if you want to play it smoothly, and he's a bit lazy ahah

[@tuncelcel]

Kept warm by the light of the lantern Lost sight of everything tonight My presence blackens their pattern A pock in the healthy and calm Their scorn behind your back My promise would put them down No trace of reverence left Immemorial fire in their eyes I would perish at the given signal At the slightest touch from my soul Tainted prophet in flesh For all the plagued and lost Dripping sin Decision in stalemate Dare to feel death at hand Surprised me with its voice Through the forest came the morn Across the leafy pathway Their deeds smeared in blood For all to behold The council of the cross Must have sensed my coming The pest through the air With despise for squalor Lashing out at the poor I turned away my eyes In pallor escape from the end Fading time to leave from here And less to fulfill my task She would be safe and firm Nothing of this is in vain Taken away from stifling grace And saved from the past

[@tuncelcel]

imagine if this was on the Roundhouse tapes :(

[@marwanmohamed877]

Why don’t you give us a Roundhouse version?👀

[@marwanmohamed877]

Too big of a project tho

[@weirddreams_fe]

This song mustbe a nightmare to play and sing live. What a masterpiece.

[@Jin.Yoon..]

Thanks for sharing this !!!! Love the dramatically changing atmosphere with Mikael's voice.

[@Agentt4777]

Awesome. They very rarely play this one live

[@heenymeety406]

Shame they probably won’t play it live again but you never know, is there a reason why Mikael never liked this song? I always assumed it was a difficult song to play live for them

[@lifeblood06]

Thaaaaaank you!!!!

[@davidwagner5788]

[@sushskull3005]

Have a video of the funeral portrait with og lineup have heard the audio but would be great if there was a video