Opeth is back with a bang.
Five years after their last production, the band led by Mikael Åkerfeldt (guitar/vocals, Storm Corrosion, ex-Bloodbath), Martín Méndez (bass, White Stones), Fredrik Åkesson (guitar, Biff Byford), Joakim Svalberg (keyboards, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen) and Waltteri Väyrynen (drums, Abhorrence, ex-Bodom After Midnight, ex-I Am the Night, ex-Paradise Lost, ex-Vallenfyre… ) unveils The Last Will and Testament, its fourteenth album.
The album also credits The London Session Orchestra on strings, Mirjam Åkerfeldt and Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) on spoken words (and flute for the latter), Joey Tempest (Europe) on backing vocals and Mia Westlund (Miriavyn) on harp.
The Last Will and Testament is a concept album about a man’s life and will, containing eight tracks. The first seven are all called §, meaning “paragraph” in Swedish, and are – obviously – linked to each other, like the direct continuation of a testament that the band would illustrate with its blend of Prog and Death Metal. Mikael Åkerfeldt announced the return of Death Metal influences with the album’s presentation, and it’s clear that he was right: his growl is much more present, but still as identifiable and audible as in the past, and it accompanies the most furious passages very well. The rhythm of the album is quite distinctive, shifting from complex violence to floating moments that are closer to a soothing Jazz/Blues mix reinforced by the string ensemble, which reminds me of an opera shaken by more raw passages. The various vocals also keep our attention at all times, while the instrumental takes us from one extreme to the other with a mastery of Progressive Metal that makes the opposites coherent, but the last segment is distinctly darker than the others. It ends with a symphonic approach, giving way to A Story Never Told, a very gentle composition that is easily linked to the band’s latest productions in terms of riffs and sounds, but we regret that it doesn’t take off more than that.
It’s no secret that I’ve never liked Progressive Metal, and Opeth has found little favour to my ears for many years. Yet I wanted to try again with The Last Will and Testament, and while I understand why the band and the album are so popular, I’ll stick with their earlier releases.
65/100