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Heritage
Heritage in Bloomington, MN
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Heritage
,
Opeth
's tenth studio offering, finds the Swedish band abandoning
death metal
: no growled vocals, no blistering fast power riffs, no blastbeats. Mixed by
Steven Wilson
(
Porcupine Tree
King Crimson
) and engineered by
Janne Hansson
is easily
's most musically adventurous -- and indulgent -- recording. Written primarily by vocalist/guitarist
Mikael Akerfeldt
, these ten songs are drenched in instrumental interludes, knotty key and chord changes, shifting time signatures, clean vocals, and a keyboard-heavy instrumentation that includes Mellotrons, Rhodes pianos, and Hammond organs -- ironic since keyboardist
Per Wiberg
left the band after
was completed. Opening with the title track, a haunting solo piano instrumental, it careens into the explosive "The Devil's Orchard," with spectacular, arpeggiatic guitar work by
Fredrik Akesson
and matching drums by
Martin Axenrot
. With a huge, swirling B-3 in the backdrop, it melds progressive metal to prog rock, with
Akerfeldt
's clear, clean singing. "I Feel the Dark" marries
's classical guitar to piano, flute, a droning
Martin Mendez
bassline, and double-timed, quietly tense drum kit work. "Slither" sounds like
Motoerhead
meeting early-'70s
Deep Purple
. "Nepenthe" begins as a ballad but shifts toward jazz-rock in the instrumental break before finding its way back to a middle ground with sparse instrumentation and taut dynamics. "Haxprogress" draws real inspiration from early
; Mellotrons and nylon-string guitars give way to
's crooning, thundering basslines, and syncopated drums. At eight-and-a-half minutes, "Famine" is the album's most abstract cut, with guest
Alex Acuna
adding Latin percussion to the mix, creating spaciousness in a long intro before giving way to colliding prog rock at the seam where
's "Larks Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2" meets
Jethro Tull
's "Thick as a Brick." "The Lines in My Hand" is the set's most aggressive cut, with a deeply satisfying guitar crunch. "Folklore," with its myriad instrumental and vocal parts, complex melody, and breakbeats, comes off as an eight-minute suite before closing with another jazz- and folk-inflected instrumental entitled "Marrow of the Earth." Love it or hate it,
, for its many excesses and sometimes blurry focus, is a brave album. It opens the door for
to pursue many new directions and reinvent themselves as a band. ~Thom Jurek
,
Opeth
's tenth studio offering, finds the Swedish band abandoning
death metal
: no growled vocals, no blistering fast power riffs, no blastbeats. Mixed by
Steven Wilson
(
Porcupine Tree
King Crimson
) and engineered by
Janne Hansson
is easily
's most musically adventurous -- and indulgent -- recording. Written primarily by vocalist/guitarist
Mikael Akerfeldt
, these ten songs are drenched in instrumental interludes, knotty key and chord changes, shifting time signatures, clean vocals, and a keyboard-heavy instrumentation that includes Mellotrons, Rhodes pianos, and Hammond organs -- ironic since keyboardist
Per Wiberg
left the band after
was completed. Opening with the title track, a haunting solo piano instrumental, it careens into the explosive "The Devil's Orchard," with spectacular, arpeggiatic guitar work by
Fredrik Akesson
and matching drums by
Martin Axenrot
. With a huge, swirling B-3 in the backdrop, it melds progressive metal to prog rock, with
Akerfeldt
's clear, clean singing. "I Feel the Dark" marries
's classical guitar to piano, flute, a droning
Martin Mendez
bassline, and double-timed, quietly tense drum kit work. "Slither" sounds like
Motoerhead
meeting early-'70s
Deep Purple
. "Nepenthe" begins as a ballad but shifts toward jazz-rock in the instrumental break before finding its way back to a middle ground with sparse instrumentation and taut dynamics. "Haxprogress" draws real inspiration from early
; Mellotrons and nylon-string guitars give way to
's crooning, thundering basslines, and syncopated drums. At eight-and-a-half minutes, "Famine" is the album's most abstract cut, with guest
Alex Acuna
adding Latin percussion to the mix, creating spaciousness in a long intro before giving way to colliding prog rock at the seam where
's "Larks Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2" meets
Jethro Tull
's "Thick as a Brick." "The Lines in My Hand" is the set's most aggressive cut, with a deeply satisfying guitar crunch. "Folklore," with its myriad instrumental and vocal parts, complex melody, and breakbeats, comes off as an eight-minute suite before closing with another jazz- and folk-inflected instrumental entitled "Marrow of the Earth." Love it or hate it,
, for its many excesses and sometimes blurry focus, is a brave album. It opens the door for
to pursue many new directions and reinvent themselves as a band. ~Thom Jurek
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