STILL LIFE

Far from the musty and dreary sunless scenarios of previous works, the conceptual "Still Life", Opeth's fourth album, describes the tragic love story of a couple in times when questioning ecclesiastical mandates was most often paid for with one's own life, and in the process, a critique of religious expressions and their rigid norms. The first-person narration is accompanied by the intensity with which the Swedes instrumentally interpret the dramatic emotions that the exiled protagonist must confront, and they do so with forcefulness and a highly polished and at times sophisticated musical richness.

Moments of piercing anger and helplessness are recurrent in the development of the album, as with "The Moor" and its passages of gravely guttural vocals and anguished riffs generated by the duo Mikael Akerfeldt / Peter Lindgren, tinged from the beginning by impeccable acoustic bridges, or with the determined "Godhead's Lament" and the devilish percussion of Martin López and its beautiful middle section followed by brutal metal riffs, contrasted with moments of melancholic hope, as with the sentimental and serene "Benighted", cleansed of impurities and distortions crowned by an elegant bluesy guitar solo by Akerfeldt, or the anaesthetised "Face of Melina", which towards its last stretch activates, adding to the plot a renewed energy and the illusion that maybe there can be a viable future for the couple.

And consistent with the dictates of death metal and similar obscurities, there is no happy ending. The bloody and powerful "Serenity Painted Death", one of the album's standout pieces, underpinned by Martin Mendez's bass, and the harrowing "White Cluster" and its impeccable instrumental construction, mark the deadly denouement of the characters, executed by the intolerance of a disturbingly oppressive system, and whose solace is to be found in the afterlife as the story's concluding notes suggest.

"Still Life" is a sign of the maturity that Opeth had reached at that point, and a leap in quality both compositionally and instrumentally, making them one of the most representative bands of the most extreme side of the progressive universe.

Excellent.

4/4,5 stars