Opeth
Sorceress

These are the Opeth of 2016, take it or leave it. For those who have followed the now long journey of the Scandinavian band, the arrival of "Sorceress" was the latest productive puzzle piece of a group that for the past 5 years, since the controversial "Heritage," has changed sides of the road, leaving aside the mutable prog/death that had made their fortune to land on a prog rock with a clear seventies influence. This spirit was well present and perceptible even in their works prior to "Heritage" and harks back to the great tutelary deities of the genre, starting with Camel and King Crimson.

Now, approaching a work of Akerfeldt and company is never a simple task: the Swedes' albums are always complex creations, full of chiseling, variations, symphonic, and instrumental elements that mix. The classic phrase "album that requires multiple listens" with them is quite accurate. Even in this case, there is no escape, although "Sorceress" is one of the most "concise" episodes of their career in terms of duration.

Entering the mood of the album, the first approaches are disorienting: many elements, many sound experimentations, more or less convincing instrumental digressions, Akerfeldt naturally singing in clean, and the usual technical skill. A whole that, in the end, is hard to fully decipher, also due to the very structure of the CD, a kind of quality rollercoaster. After the introductory folk of "Persephone", the title track is immediately an oddity for Opeth. An epic piece heavily indebted to sludge and reminiscent of Mastodon's sound of "Crack the Skye." A novelty that works thanks to its circular martiality, while "The Wilde Flowers" and "Chrysalis" are technically impeccable but of rare coldness, in addition to getting lost in a multitude of vocal lines. The feeling is the same that the writer had when listening to the previous "Pale Communion": a mix of quality and technicalities but also a bit of a whiff of mannerism, between redundant sonic cleanliness and an emotionality that fails to take off, as if having lost the abrasive contrasts between riffs and acoustic guitars, between past growls and clean, Opeth has somewhat lost their soul. "Will O The Wisp" is a touching, delicate, simple ballad, one of the best things on the album, the same cannot be said of "Sorceress 2", very flat and offering no particular points for reflection.

Regarding Opeth, their career, their ever-changing nature, a lot of things can be said, the vast majority of which are positive. The writer is one of those who welcomed the sound turn with "Heritage," believing that it was the natural arrival for a band that, even in the magma of death, had shown to be a shapeshifter impossible to imprison in precise schemes. "Pale Communion" was a confirmation, although it is not a transcendental work, but with "Sorceress" the feeling that creeps under the skin is that of a band dangerously touching compositional mannerism. If "The Seventh Sojourn" amazes with its oriental rhythms and architectures that find harmony, many other songs remain in the most absolute anonymity, like "A Fleeting Glance" which dangerously mimics Jethro Tull without saying anything or the repetitive rhythm of "Era". A mix of things that work well and others less so, a collection of ideas that do not materialize into anything coherent, an underlying "liquidity," but it does not always have things to say.

For the first time, despite repeated listens, I struggle to understand Opeth, even before appreciating or disliking their album. The feeling is of a band becoming the classic group that is stylistically impeccable, technically flawless, but in the end, leaves you with nothing.