HERITAGE

If you know me, you know that I have a deep and heavy obsession with Black Metal and the like, so when I actually found out there would be no harsh vocals on this record I was a bit disenchanted but as always the good fan boy I give it a chance. The first thing that came to my mind was that Akerfeldt is going to do a seventies prog heavy record because its well documented that he's completely obsessed with that decade (and rightly so). I'm not surprised in the least that that is exactly what he's created and after three years its come to fruitation. Opeth are well known for shifting about styles over and over, trying something new, being a different band for a while, with Akerfeldt in the drivers seat there's naught much that can go wrong, untill now. Don't jump to conclusions here, I don't think its a bad record at all, in fact I rate it fifth in their discography. 'Heritage' is a criss-cross of 70's progressive worship and their 2003 release 'Damnation', minus the darker and ethereal sounds which originally drew me into Opeth and started my savage love affair with them. So, more about a few of the songs...The record opens with the title track, a slow Jazzy Piano melody, clearly inspired by Jan Johansson. It has Johanssons trade mark style painted all over it. Being a big fan of his 1962 release Jazz på svenska the intro appealed to me greatly. Next up The Devil's Orchard kicks in providing a potent antidote to the notion that prog rock and metal are genres bereft of substance. Definitely the radio favorite. Slither, theres plenty of rugged prog amid the labyrinthine of riffage, the stalwart guitar parts amist a parabola of Hammond Organ will leave your mind spinning. Famine is a perplexing squall of musical dynamics, calms and rasping flutes, easily my favorite track from the lot. It's a beautifully arranged work of art. It is just simply, amazing. Its brave and melancholic, its heavy rock that revels in the warm, analogue tones and shimmering mellotrons of the pre-punk seventies while still oozing forth a sense of wonder at new ideas. Folklore ends with an wildly exaggerated David Gilmore like guitar solo ? this is both timeless and tasteful enough to lure in the progophobes. The whole song is proudly mired in indulgence and doesn't leave you cold. For me this is both a disappointing and enlightning release, on the one hand, it's a great record but on the other hand it's so far from the Opeth I knew that it could comfortably carry a different band name. If I want to listen to seventies prog, I'll dig out some from my murky record collection and listen to the organic stuff from back in the hayday. If they really wanted to pay tribute to it, they could've done it as a side project or something. This isn't the album many of us have been waiting three years for. It's horrifying to think that there will never be new Opeth material in the world again. It's almost like the death of an actual person. To sum up, Opeth Heritage in two words: "Very Palatable"