And so ends the reign of one of the most fearsome, flamboyant and innovative metal bands ever to walk the earth. No, Swedish band Opeth, whose brand of dramatic and Wagnerian-like metal has been a mainstay of the scene for more than 20 years, are not splitting up. It's just that they have traded their progressive death metal for straightforward "prog".
Admittedly, 10th album Heritage is one of those grower type records that reveals itself more after each listen - and Opeth's records have always been a little like that. The subtleties and dynamic shifts of beauty and heaviness have been a trademark of classics such as Blackwater Park (2001), the calamity-meets-calmness of Ghost Reveries (2005), and last album Watershed, which was the perfect mix of beauty and brutality.
So while Heritage is still dark and weighty, it is devoid of those gut-churning shifts of symphonic synths and deathly riffs, and the operatic baritone vocals giving way to blood-curdling guttural growls.
Heritage is more like heavy prog folk metal, with final instrumental track Marrow of the Earth the most extreme example. Then again, the album also has some of the band's most outlandish moments yet, like the freak improv madness of Nepenthe, and eight-minute epic Folklore goes many different places before a rousing, almost hammy, War of the Worlds-style finale.
This new direction is intriguing, beautiful, and like metal alchemy at times, but lacks the thrilling intensity of the Opeth of old.
