So recently I have had several "discussions" with people about the latest Opeth album "Heritage" (actually it's not really discussions, it's more people raging at me for actually loving the album).
Sure if all you expected was another rewrite of Blackwater Park(which btw is one of the best "death metal" albums of all time) you where bound to be highly disappointed, I mean I wouldn't mind yet another masterpiece like Blackwater Park myself, honestly I was very sceptical myself when the first rumours about no growling on the entire album started to come out, but then I remembered Mikael actually has an awesome singing voice and some of their best songs have loads of clean vocal moments.
I kept hearing Opeth saying it was going to be very different, this really made me question things a lot while I was still waiting for the album, then they released the first teaser song from the album "The Devil's Orchard", and really this song blew me away, not because it was exceptionally heavy, more because it was exceptionally different for an Opeth song, and in the good way, it was like being in the 70's(or at least what I think it was like in the 70's). You can clearly hear the sound of Opeth there lurking throughout the song.
And this is why I love this album so much, it's completely not Opeth, but it is 100% Opeth, they have managed to do something so different from what they usually do and yet still manage to sound like themselves, there are some songs on this album that's like listening to a very dark and gloomy version of King Crimson, "Famine" from the album is a perfect example of the fact you can hear the darkness of Opeth in there along with the trippyness of the 70's prog rock. I love it, and I only wish more people would love it(mostly because I dont like being raged at for not sharing someones opinion).
So please people give this album a real try, and I mean like really sit down, turn of everything around you and just really really listen, dont skip songs, dont use it as background music, just listen to the whole album from beginning to end and I can almost promise you you'll end up loving it just as much as I do.
And to finish it all of, I still praise Opeth for daring to put out this masterpiece fully aware that it would piss at least half the fan base off something fierce.
Thats me finishing of for good on this subject, rock on boys and girls.
\m/
