Send "Opeth " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 In a review of the special edition reissue of Opeth's 2005 collection Ghost Reveries, I quoted band leader Mikael Åkerfeldt as saying that what his group does is "more than metal." At the time, the forward-thinking Swedish group was still very much performing within the metal tradition. On their 10th album, Heritage, they aren't. For longtime fans, the shift from progressive death metal to full-on progressive rock won't be a surprise: 2003's Damnation gave a good idea of what Åkerfeldt sounded like doing clean vocals sans death growls, and since 1995's debut, Orchid, he's never been afraid to stretch the templates of all the genres they incorporate. (Åkerfeldt's used his airier croon for ages-- here, more confident in that angle, he removed the heavier stuff and expanded upon the airier bridges.) What might surprise you, though, is the intense completeness of the transition: Heritage's 1970s-inspired prog feels more like the follow-up to fellow countrymen Dungen's 2004 opus Ta Det Lugnt than Opeth's own Watershed.The 10-song collection is another collaboration with Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, who mixed the record with Åkerfeldt-- it has a warm, analog feel, something that lives up to the colors of the cover painting. The brief opening title track is a plaintive, scene-setting piano piece Åkerfeldt says was inspired by Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson and the folk music of his country. Elsewhere, guest spots from Swedish flautist Björn J:son Lindh and Weather Report percussionist Alex Acuña (both on eight-minute loud-quiet-loud standout "Famine"), give Heritage a mystical, pastoral feel. If you've heard only the King Crimson-nodding lead track, "The Devil's Orchard", you have a good idea what to expect: an exuberant, forward rushing blend of bell-bottomed jazziness and Deep Purple, Camel, and Jethro Tull love made more complex with quick tempo shifts, stop-on-a-dime implosions, and breezy, racing, drifting, and other sorts of atmospheric, psychedelic flourishes. Another track, the muscular "Slither", is appropriately dedicated to Ronnie James Dio. The 37-year-old Åkerfeldt, who says Heritage is an album he's been "building up to write for and participate on" since he was 19, has also mentioned listening to Alice Cooper frequently over the past year. You won't necessarily detect the latter in any obvious way, but you'll feel it in the album's appropriation of the texture and atmosphere of an era. Åkerfeldt and co. do offer a convincing take-- it's a pretty, well-thought out collection-- but for all the ideas and layers, Heritage feels somewhat empty. It's the group's most genre-melding, but it's also the most obvious, largely because much of it sounds like things we've heard before. The lifelessness may also be the result of the singularity of the vision: Heritage lacks the usual shift and pull between heavy and soft that they've managed to weave into their music for the past two decades. It feels a bit listless and emotionally distant. When it comes down to it, Åkerfeldt's death growl is more memorable than his rock singing (and both work best when you get them together). There are dynamics here, but not the kind that create unexpected chills....full text |
| Angrymetalguy |
| Disclaimer: Knowing how to review this record has been very difficult for me because I’m a big fan of the band and I have no desire to try make my opinion seem bigger than the band’s work. I understand my subjective position as a reviewer very well. But this record suffers from pretty major issues that it make it very difficult for me to enjoy and that show off the weakness of the band in its current incarnation. I am aware that there will be a good amount of whining and gnashing of teeth over this review, and you’re welcome to it. Just remember that I 1) am not invested in Opeth playing death metal; 2) like plenty of bands that have changed their sounds; and 3) enjoy progressive and abstract music of all stripes very much. It’s hard to believe that we’re actually looking at Opeth‘s 10th full length studio record now in 2011. It’s amazing how the little progressive death metal band that could is a global powerhouse of extreme and progressive music that is signed to one of the biggest labels in the metal world. Heritage was billed as a bit of a ‘look backwards,’ in a sense, with main man Åkerfeldt saying that he thought extreme metal was boring and that he has thought that for a while and so this was going to be something else. As a long time fan (who has regularly been called a fanboy), I think it’s obvious to me that Opeth was outgrowing their roots. While I think that Ghost Reveries is a genius album, Watershed was definitely not. It felt uninspired and rushed. So the big question for me coming into all of this was: would having more time and freedom make Heritage feel fresh? Would it be a record that would change Opeth for good—and also for the better? Heritage is very much as Åkerfeldt said in a recent interview, it is a progressive rock album that sounds very much like its biggest influence actually is mainly Opeth. Over time, Åkerfeldt has crafted a sound that is unique to the band and that has moved them into the limelight. There is a cadence and melodic structure to Opeth riffs that just feels very Opeth. The linear fashion of writing songs is also something that, nowadays is commonplace, but that has long been associated with Mikael’s writing style. Songs that are often more like movements than traditionally structured tracks works well in death metal, which is so heavily riff-based. This made for epic soundscapes that were at once exciting and interesting, but also had the ability to be fragile and beautiful. It was a sound that worked for the band and launched them into the stratosphere popularitywise. But while Heritage retains Opeth‘s voice (metaphysically and physically, of course), it does not retain its genius and I think this has to do with the fact that the songwriting on Heritage feels almost lazy, but certainly underdeveloped. A better way to say this might be that Heritage is full of great riffs and ideas, but not many very good songs. Instead, the listener is left feeling like the writing process was just to take a bunch of ideas and to hamfistedly shove them into these somewhat linear songs, often times with little regard as to key, time signature or context and feel. While this could seem “progressive,” for me it doesn’t feel so progressive as disjointed. A case in point is the single “The Devil’s Orchard” where, instead of writing a transition on guitar, keyboards are used to transfer out of a very cool verse/chorus iteration in a pretty jarring, unrelated fashion before trying to segue back to the main “chorus” theme at the end randomly....full text |
| Metalinjection |
| "If I can compare it to any other band, it would have to be Opeth, but it's different from the stuff we've done before. I've listened a lot to Alice Cooper for the last year, yet I can't say it sounds like No More Mr. Nice Guy. I hope you'll like it once you hear it." -Mikael Åkerfeldt, on the musical direction of Heritage Opeth has been known to experiment with their sound in the past. With 2003’s Damnation, they made a significant (albeit temporary) departure from their Death-Metal roots. Mostly a prog-rock record, it lacked the death growls and some of the heavier arrangements of Opeth’s other releases. With their latest album, Heritage, Opeth has once again stepped away from death metal, but crafts a more mystical and folk-laden sound than Damnation. I usually find intro songs kind of pointless, but I’m willing to grant an exception to the eerie and compelling title track here. After this haunting piano piece, Opeth throws the listener into a sea of riffs and soaring vocals with The Devil’s Orchard. When I started listening, I was immediately reminded of some of the more progressive moments on Ghost Reveries, especially the middle section of Baying of the Hound. While the band has certainly moved in a different direction here, they still retain that all-important quality: when you hear the song, you know who you are listening to. According to Mikael Åkerfeldt, Opeth didn’t necessarily turn on “The 70’s Button” for this album, but with I Feel the Dark, you could have fooled me. Smooth and entrancing, the song does indeed remind me of bands like Rush, Yes, and other prog-rock giants. But once again, Opeth manages to shine this all through their looking glass. Even better is the crescendo-like crush at the middle of the track before veering back to its folksy beginning....full text |
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