Opeth
Heritage

"Heritage" is the latest effort from Opeth, easily available online despite the official release date being September 20th.

The album opens with the title track, a slow and melancholic piano-only piece that conceptually mirrors the melodic and calm opening of its predecessor "Watershed," in a more sparse yet equally engaging manner, however, unlike the previous work, the album continues in a very different way. The legacy that Opeth set out to embrace is indeed that of Progressive. Without Metal, without Death, pure and "simple" Progressive. Mikael Akerfeldt's band surprises by once again abandoning the Metal component of their sound and the typical growling vocal lines of their frontman; however, there is a noticeable difference, for the writer, in the sound of this "Heritage" compared to the group's previous non-Metal work, namely "Damnation." Whereas the latter could repeatedly appear as a light interlude album a-la-Opeth devoid of Death Metal sections, the latest work by the Scandinavians is a more homogenous and autonomous work compared to their previous discography. The tracks have greater completeness and, if possible, greater stylistic sophistication, masterfully blending jazz, classical, and rock with enviable naturalness. Bass and drums weave complex soundscapes, often more fusion than rock, performing an exceptional job supporting Akerfeldt's evocative vocal lines, which unfold over a carpet of classical arpeggios, captivating and "dark" rock riffs, solos with jazzy tones, at times rock, at times psychedelic, never cliché and banal.

In tracks like "Famine," the band's new more typically progressive dimension also finds room for percussion and flutes. Keyboards and piano are, this time, definitely better integrated into the sound context and prominently more present. Despite the melancholy and, at times, the inherent gloom that characterizes all the work of the Swedes, the album contains many nods to the sounds of foundational '70s Progressive groups, such as King Crimson and Jethro Tull, yet Opeth remain always unmistakable, showing that they have learned from the masters' lessons, reprocessing their teachings in light of their own sound, decidedly freeing themselves from a sterile exercise of citationism. The most interesting tracks are "Famine" and "Folklore," which rightfully enter among the band's best works. Certainly, not everything that glitters is gold: there are some moments of fatigue and self-quotations, as in the first half of "Nepenthe" and "Haxprocess," but it's fairly minor stuff when you consider the quality of the work as a whole.

Ultimately, the album is inspired, masterfully played and well-produced, once again in collaboration with Steven Wilson. And it shows. It requires more than one listen to be thoroughly absorbed.

Rating: 7.5/10