HERITAGE

This was the beginning of a new era for Opeth, a turn from Prog Death Metal to Prog Rock. This is very similar to The Raven That Refuse To Sing, only about 2 years earlier. The musicianship and writing is really well done, Mikael Åkerfeldt did quite the job with the rest of the band. This really sounds like an attempt at writing both Steven Wilson's The Raven and Wobbler's Hinterland, although it has some classic Opeth Metal tones here and there. The songs are all wonderfully written, the title track is a very Romantic era classical piece, The Devil's Orchard is very much like The Raven again, it's very melodic and dark with a Steven Wilson undertone. The flamenco style nylon opening to I Felt The Dark continues to a dark spot, very similar to some material on Damnation, and then the even dark and heavy sections are also great and well done on this song. Slither reminded me of the heavier section of Bonnie The Cat off The Incident by Porcupine Tree. Nepenthe is a very soft and warm song for sure, it has it's very calm and down moments, and then it's slightly busier sections. The harpsichord played on this song is actually really well done and just adds to the texture and tone of the song. Häxprocess is a quirky piece, with the soft and more busy parts. Rhodes and Mellotrons, these keyboards improve the texture of the song overall. Famine is quite the busy piece on this album, it's one of longer songs on the album with a bit of an inconsistent structure. The keys are loud and blaring, this song fits on the album incredibly well, enough said. The Lines In My Head is a bit more of a heavy piece, it's a shorter song with a darker hook (I like to refer to all of the songs here as dark, but it's true, this is quite a dark album). Folklore, is a very melodic song, one of the better melodic pieces on the album, it's long and busy. The mostly instrumental song is very well written, with some very interesting hooks. Of course we reach Marrow Of The Earth, which is the final melodic song on this album. It settles this rather inconsistent album with a soft and warm song. I have been a fan of this album for a while and I absolutely give Opeth credit for successfully turning from Prog Death Metal to Prog Rock, congrats to the band but there was better to come.