| CD REVIEW Opeth |
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Band: Opeth What can I say about these Swedes? I guess their influential importance on the worldwide Metal scene cannot be ignored. And the evolution they went through is remarkable, and that’s the least I can say about the direction this band went, goes and will go. Personally I did like the early years of Opeth’s existence a lot. I do consider the Candlelight-releases Orchid and, especially, Morningrise as ‘Kult’ (the latter being one of my all-time faves within the more progressive and experimental Extreme Metal genre), yet as from the late nineties on, Opeth’s focus was rather ‘Post’-oriented than dealing with the members’ Death and Black Metal roots. Don’t get me wrong, because I can appreciate every effort Opeth did record until now, yet I’m such a dark-souled fool, I guess, that I do prefer the heavier past. Anyway, Roadrunner again right now, and a new chapter, a new approach, a next step into this band’s musical exploration. Where will Opeth’s journey end?... 80/100 Ivan Tibos.
Band : Opeth Opeth, the Swedish pioneers of progressive death metal are back in business and ready to blow the musical part of your mind. With Heritage, they do exactly what the title explains. They clearly put forward their departure from their previous style(s). It's about time to create something new, taking into account that Heritage is Opeth's tenth studio album already. For this album, Mikael Âkerfeldt went a little deeper when it comes to the sound and the lyrics of the songs. The frontman even states that the fans might need a whole different mindset before they start to appreciate this album. If you ask me, Mikael is taking a huge risk, most certainly because the death growls have been left out. However, when listening to Heritage, it's crystal clear that we're talking about a well considered risk that will definitely be for the better. On this new record (the third already under Roadrunner Record's wings), we are treated to (only) ten songs, but ten outstanding pieces of musical art that don't need any further explanation. Every song shows what Opeth is all about and even a bit more than that. The band keeps progressing, which is absolutely necessary in a world where (metal) bands need to prove themselves more than ever before. 88/100 Tim Band : Opeth Opeth are one of the few that have never released a weak or even bad album throughout their career, so I was eager to see if the new work Heritage would manage to maintain the same level of quality. 20 years after their formation, Opeth show absolutely no signs of tiring or running out of ideas and while Åkerfeldt and co have made slightly better music, they have never made anything quite so detailed and layered. Lengthy three years it has taken the Swedes of Opeth to come around with Heritage and with that their by now tenth album. Although shorter than the typical Opeth-tracks (longest here being 8:32) they show the same variation with clean and pickled guitar and very adequate compositional skill in creating and interlinking sections and making them flow from each other nicely. Åkerfeldt says: "We don't care about the opinions of others, if the DM fans cannot handle this, that is their problem". Also, he became tired of extreme metal already in the 90s and says that he has wanted to make this kind of record ever since he was around 20 years old. So, Opeth have introduced some large innovations on the new record. For one thing, the band sounds somewhat more proggy and even Comus-like folky and less, less heavier (the sound, songs and overall concept), which may be due to the fact that Åkerfeldt laid down the growls and the use of calmer interludes and acoustic guitars that have been a trademark of them ever since the beginnings come even more to the fore, but it enhances the melodic ferocity and darker gloom of many of the other passages. The band offers really a lot of variety and they attend to create goose-skin on my body with their dark dreamy pieces as well with their harder songs. While there are plenty of sections for these musicians to show the fruits of their labours on their instruments, the focus here is mainly on well-crafted songs. The keyboards by Per, who is not aboard anymore, add the typical psychedelic 70's prog vibe, but it works well. Be it the infusion of different speeds and melodies into “The devil’s orchard” and “Slither”, the sharp Fripp-like riffing, strong structure and amazing yet unorthodox melodies of “Famine” and “Folkore” , the jazzy complex “Nepenthe” with the Dutch fusion band Focus in the back of their head, the beauty of the instrumental “Marrow of the earth” with acoustic guitar and lone, harmonic lead guitar, the great “Häxprocess” or the almost poppy and jazzy approach of “The lines in my hand” that still never gets one-dimensional, there are plenty of highlights to be found on Heritage. The range of emotions and mood swings musically go back and forth keeping you on your toes at all times. While the last couple of albums were quite similar to each other without offering any huge changes (which was not a bad thing either), Heritage is a risky album, but with all things, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. 92/100 Cosmicmasseur. |