SORCERESS

'Sorceress' is the twelfth studio album by Swedish progressive rock/metal icons Opeth; released in September of 2016, this one is the third installment in their psych-prog venture, with the band adopting the clean vocals entirely and sort of turning their back on the more brutal and technical side of their music. Following the very polarizing 'Heritage' from 2011, an album that was a delightful surprise yet a slight disappointment in terms of how memorable or exciting it is, and the really, really excellent 'Pale Communion' from 2014, one could easily expect 'Sorceress' to be similar to its predecessors; while for the most part it is, this time it feels the most like something from an underground 70s prog band, with the band presenting a very warm and sheltering palette of sounds, with Hammond organs dominating the picture, acoustic guitars caressing the listener gently, all on top of Mikael's quasi-angelic vocals on most of the tracks here. It really is the atmosphere, the mysterious ambience and the timbre of this album that gives it its recognizable and addictive character.

Opening up the record is the short instrumental 'Persephone', a song that depicts too accurately the overall tone of the album, which could be ultimately described as 'draped in blissful melancholia', leading up to what has become one of the band's most well-known songs - the title track, with its hard-hitting and almost arena rock sound, it is one of the heavier numbers in Opeth's reinvented identity. Next up on the track list is 'The Wilde Flowers', which has to be the most 'Pale Communion'-ish song on 'Sorceress'; Nevertheless, it is a great and memorable track. 'Will O the Wisp' is another tremendous moment on the album, showing Opeth's acoustic and lyrical side, it is certainly one of the most engaging and minimalist compositions of theirs. 'Sorceress 2' is simply gorgeous, very different from the title track and more in the spirit of 'Will O the Wisp', this little song is very calming, very sincere, and it embraces the listener in a way that only Opeth can achieve.

What follows could be considered side 2 (in reality, the album is not divided into two sides but time-wise, it might be), with 'The Seventh Sojourn' setting a much different and surprisingly enjoyable mood with its cinematic and kind of oriental sound, definitely some new ground for the band. 'Strange Brew' continues that aesthetic of almost film score music and acoustic psych-rock crossover, leading to 'A Fleeting Glance' - another decent song, certainly not one of the band's highlights. And finally, we get 'Era', a more uplifting number that bears some similarities to the title track, with the whole thing fading slowly within the sonic frame that 'Persephone (Slight Return)' creates.

All in all, 'Sorceress' is a very fine album, that might even be the strongest of the three albums without growls that Opeth had done up to that point; Beautifully written, very carefully and intelligently crafted, memorable, immersive, and enigmatic, this record, as polarizing as it seems, has to go down as one of modern prog rock's more exciting achievements.