Artist: Opeth
Title: Heritage
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Release Date: 16th September 2011
Label: Roadrunner Records
Album Review
OPETH is really a unique band on the world metal scene. Even though many modern formations try to combine incompatible, to absorb different styles and manners, to experiment with music and vocals, OPETH brings each opposite to its maximum. Most often the band’s style is described as progressive death metal, but in my opinion this description is a bit limited. OPETH’s mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt in some interviews mentioned at least three influences on his music, which are progressive rock of the 60’s and 70’s (PINK FLOYD, GENESIS, RUSH), heavy metal of the 70’s and 80’s (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest) and extreme metal of nowadays. It’s well-known that Sweden is a motherland of so-called Swedish death metal and of course, this fact had an effect on OPETH as well.
The band is famous for their compositions of 10 and 15 minutes long and Mikael’s voice: the musician skilfully blends growling with clean vocals. So sometimes this voice draws one’s attention away from the instrumental part of the songs. The latter obviously deserves an attention because in OPETH’s music a listener can find brutality and melancholy, complexity, beauty. But nothing of those you will notice on the new album! The first thing that alerts is the length of the tracks: the longest one lasts for 8 and a half minutes, the rest are much shorter. Growling disappeared fortunately the clean vocals remained the same. One song in Swedish became a novelty and also I’d like to mark out the incomparableness of the rhythm section and more complex arrangements.
However it’s hard to appreciate the album because on one hand the presence of the clean vocals only implies some lyricism, on the other hand the music doesn’t make a listener feel lyrical as it does on ‘Damnation’. That’s why ‘Heritage’ seems to be somewhat unspoken, incomplete and it smells like mainstream. You will be able to listen to absolutely new, unexpected OPETH. Devoted fans of the band understand that any creation of the musicians should be listened attentively and for a long time. So they will easily go through the disappointment after the first listening. Besides, all lovers of progressive metal will find the new release quite interesting. Maybe it was just an experiment or maybe the first step to fundamental changes on OPETH’s music.
Tracklist
01. Heritage – 2:05
02. The Devil’s Orchard – 6:39
03. I Feel the Dark – 6:40
04. Slither – 4:02
05. Nepenthe – 5:39
06. Häxprocess – 6:57
07. Famine – 8:31
08. The Lines in My Hand – 3:49
09. Folklore – 8:19
10. Marrow of the Earth – 4:18
Line-up
Mikael Åkerfeldt
Martin Mendez
Martin "Axe" Axenrot
Fredrik Åkesson
Per Wiberg
Website
http://www.opeth.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/opethhttp://www.myspace.com/opeth
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 10
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10
