OPETH

This is exactly what I expected from Opeth at this point in their career. It's perfectly competent proggy hard rock. Organ is more prominent than ever, reminding me at times of Jethro Tull's sound on Thick as a Brick. The use of their native Swedish adds a nice twist, and as someone who tunes out lyrics most of the time, not understanding doesn't detract. However, a lot of this feels paint-by-numbers and soulless. I'm not sure if it's a result of the songwriting itself, or if the production is just too slick for its own good. This is their best album since Watershed, but unless you've really loved their non-metal output, this is an eminently skippable album.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2019/10/21/odds-ends-october-21-2019/

Garden of the Titans captures a live set from Opeth which, coming after the release of Sorceress, follows a string of albums (beginning with Heritage) where they had more or less abandoned metal entirely. The set list mixes their gentler progressive rock material with more progressive metal-oriented pieces in a setlist which seamlessly blends both sides of their sound, and so the album stands as evidence that if Opeth have stopped making metal albums, it's not because they are no longer able or willing to play metal - they're just working on a different aspect of their portfolio for the time being.

Several of the songs here are Opeth live standards - indeed, if you have The Roundhouse Tapes you have renditions of several of these from about a decade earlier - but there's enough tracks which haven't seen the light of day on an official Opeth live release to ensure it doesn't feel redundant. And if you've convinced yourself that Opeth can't do justice to their metal side any more, just listen to the furious version of Deliverance that rounds out this exceptional set.

Emerging in between Ghost Reveries and Watershed, The Roundhouse Tapes chronicles an Opeth live set from the latter days of their metal phase - a point when they'd been working their style of prog-death metal sufficiently long to become elder statesmen of the extreme metal-influenced school of progressive music and the prog-influenced side of extreme metal, but before the run of albums starting with Heritage saw them move away from metal entirely.

Here they are on fine form, offering up a slew of tracks from a wide cross-section of their discography - with pieces ranging from Ghost Reveries, then their most recent album, to their debut Orchid. As such, the setlist mingles iconic tracks with deep cuts from early days given new life and a greatly refreshed take thanks to the years of additional experience the band are able to bring to bear.

"In Cauda Venenum" is the 13th full-length studio album by Swedish progressive rock/metal actOpeth. The album was released through Moderbolaget Records in September 2019. It´s the successor to "Sorceress" from September 2016 and features the exact same quintet lineup who recorded the predecessor. "In Cauda Venenum" was released in three different versions. One double album version featuring the album in a Swedish language version and an English language version (on two discs), and two seperate one-album versions featuring the Swedish language version and the English language version. The instrumental part of the music is the same on all releases/versions, only the lyrics and the language are different.

Stylistically the material on "In Cauda Venenum" is in the heavy progressive rock style with folk leanings that Opeth have played since "Heritage" (2011). It´s dymamic music featuring both louder heavy parts, epic progressive parts, but also mellow acoustic parts. There is an omnipresence of vintage keyboards/synths/organ, along with equally organic sounding bass, guitars, and vocals. It´s arguably 70s influenced progressive rock, but the early 90s Swedish progressive rock revival scene and artists like Landberk and Anekdoten are also valid references. Opeth compose solid and relatively memorable material, but they don´t exactly invent the wheel here. Most of the elements, timbres, and atmospheres have been heard and experienced before on preceding progressive rock releases by other artists.

"In Cauda Venenum" features a detailed, powerful, and well sounding production, which suits the material well, and although the material could have prospered from more original compositional ideas, the high quality musicianship and Mikael Åkerfeldt easily recognisable voice and passionate delivery save the day, even when the material doesn´t shine. The idea to sing in their native language is a good one, and the Swedish language version is a nice new element, which provides the album with a needed touch of something unique. Other Swedish progressive rock artists have sung in the Swedish language, but for Opeth it´s a first on a full release, and it makes "In Cauda Venenum" stand out in their discography. So upon conclusion "In Cauda Venenum" is a good quality release by Opeth and it should please fans of heavy progressive rock featuring a melancholic atmosphere. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

Following a triptych of albums which largely abandoned metal (but for a few momentary outbursts here and there) in favour of a retro-progressive rock approach, Opeth's In Cauda Venenum at first seems like it's going to continue that approach. However, to my ears it seems like there's substantially more modern touches here - some quieter passages reminiscent of those on Opeth's earliest albums, some loud passages that put me in mind of late-period Arcturus, if given a bit more of a rock direction in place of their black metal roots.

Once again, Mikael 'kerfeldt's vocals - which I thought was often the least interesting aspect of their earlier material - have really come ahead in leaps and bounds. The album was actually released in two versions, one with English vocals and one with Swedish, though I'd say he now sounds more comfortable singing in English than ever.

If you are pining for Opeth's extreme metal days, and only regard them as interesting for the death metal side of their sound, then this won't win you back - but nor would any album since at least as far back as Watershed. If, on the other hand, you appreciate what they've been doing from Heritage onwards, this is another excellent evolution of that approach, which I feel has only been getting better and better on subsequent releases.

Sorceress finds Opeth continuing the run of nostalgic prog albums that began with Heritage and continued through Pale Communion. As on those two albums, the band show a keen appreciation of not just the prog rock bands of the past, but also the sounds which were influencing and inspiring those bands.

Pale Communion had its moments where it took on influence from the heavier end of psychedelic rock, and Sorceress finds the band deepening their appreciation of and drawing on the psychedelic sounds which the early prog scene coalesced out of. Indeed, one song is named The Wilde Flowers, after the band which would, post-fracture, spawn Caravan and The Soft Machine, and whilst I wouldn't say the band go full Canterbury here, I would say there's passages on here which aren't entirely incompatible with that.

Other tracks, such as Will O the Wisp, have a folky air to them and a general production approach highly reminiscent of Jethro Tull from the early 1970s, or heavier moments. The band have still more or less exited the metal sphere on this album, but Chrysalis is hard rocking enough to suggest a potential route back, with a pulsing intensity which puts me in mind of Hawkwind.

Whilst many Opeth albums took a while to grow on me, Sorceress gripped me from the start, and I think it's an excellent further improvement of the approach of Heritage and Pale Communion.

In some ways, prog metal stalwarts Opeth putting out an album which is all-prog, no-metal wasn't so unprecedented when Heritage was released. After all, Damnation had come out nearly a decade earlier.

However, come to Heritage expecting Damnation Part 2 - or, for that matter, something sounding anything like Opeth releases past - and you'll find yourself extremely surprised. You see, that Damnation comparison overlooks the fact that Deliverance and Damnation were always meant to be one album, and when they were split in two the harder, heavier, more energetic numbers ended up on Deliverance and the softer, gentler numbers ended up on Damnation, accounting for the sedated, tranquilised feel of that album.

That's not the case here: Heritage has a mixture of gentler numbers and more thunderous ones, that blend being captured by gentle piano intro - the title track, Heritage - which then leads into The Devil's Orchard, one of the more energetic tracks on the album. And it's on Devil's Orchard where you really hear the difference - because it's very much a prog rock track, not a prog metal track.

At most, you might be able to catch a hint of fury in Martin Axenrot's drum work, but even then he's hardly pulling out the blast beats, and the rest of the band really are not playing in a metal mode at all, instead shifting to performances mixing classic prog of the past with more modern takes. Sections of I Feel the Dark take on a very Porcupine Tree- esque sound, perhaps inevitably given Steven Wilson's presence at the mixing desk, whilst the heaviest moments on the album are more reminiscent of, say, Atomic Rooster rather than Black Sabbath (or perhaps, as at the start of Slither, one can detect a shade of Deep Purple).

Naturally, more or less all the vocals are clean, which I feel is the album's weak point - Mikael Åkerfeldt just isn't that exciting of a lead vocalist. Other than this, it's another interesting departure in the Opeth catalogue; I personally enjoy it, but those who only find Opeth interesting when they have at least a pinch of death metal in their formula will likely be disappointed.

This is a convenient way of collecting Opeth's first three albums all in one fell swoop. Though Morningrise is far and away the best album here, the other two albums presented are nice bonuses on top of that star attraction; Orchid captures the band in the process of gradually finding their sound, whilst My Arms, Your Hearse has a bleak, almost black metal-inspired aesthetic which makes it perhaps Opeth's darkest and murkiest release. Each disc has a few bonus tracks, giving a full overview of the band's earliest era, making this a good purchase so long as you're happy with not getting the full artwork.

Opeth's Watershed is aptly titled, because it follows the departure of two long-standing members of the band: Peter Lindgren had been on every Opeth album up to this one, whilst Martin Lopez had provided drumming from My Arms, Your Hearse onwards. New drummer Martin Axenrot had appeared on The Roundhouse Tapes, whilst this would be the first release to feature Fredrik Åkesson on guitar, though he clearly missed no time in gelling with the rest of the group; he even gets a songwriting credit on Porcelain Heart, which is notable given how much of Opeth's material by this point was written solely by Mikael Åkerfeldt.

Still, the bulk of the composition work here is still done by Åkerfeldt, so this is very much an evolution of the Opeth approach rather than a radical shift in it. Nonetheless, there's still original surprises here and there; Nathalie Lorichs provides a haunting guest vocal on album opener Coil, and the addition of classical wind and string instruments adds a certain spice to things. The air of the spookier side of 1970s prog is still present here and there - Per Wiberg breaks out some Mellotron here and there which is outright haunting, and Burden sounds like a mixture of mid-1970s Pink Floyd and King Crimson's Epitaph - whilst the death metal aspects of the band's sound are as frantic and powerful as ever.

Whilst I would not put it in the top tier of the band's output, it's certainly a strong album, and a good start for a new phase in the band's existence.

The cd issue I have contains both the Swedish and English sung albums so I spun the English one twice before switching to the Swedish one which I find more to my tastes. I'll still use the English song titles though. How about that art work! Travis Smith has outdone himself. He's worked with OPETH since the 90's and he and Mikael collaborate on it, sharing their ideas. I shared this art with some co-workers warning them that it was a scary picture. Showing them first the cover art and pointing the the pink strip at the bottom and saying that's a tongue. Two jumped back. Opening the gatefold they see this giant demon with his long tongue stuck out carrying the house containing these shadowy figures. One is King Diamond not sure about the rest. As far as the music goes this album has jumped into my top three OPETH records along with "Pale Communion" and "Damnation". They thank ANEKDOTEN for the kind use of their M400 mellotron and we get it on six of the ten tracks.

Talk about mellotron how about the opener "Garden Of Earthly Delights" where we get these heavenly choirs before electronics join in around 1 1/2 minutes. Church bells a minute later so we know we're doomed especially when we start to hear footsteps. A child's voice ends it before we get crushed with "Dignity". Sounds like a song title. Hey that opener is a top five. Mellotron on this second track and some vocal melodies. Nice guitar solo then a calm. It kicks back in heavily but how about that symphonic calm, so beautiful then it's heavy again after 5 minutes. The song ends with a sample of multiple people laughing hysterically.

I like "Heart In Hand" for it's energy and how about that screaming guitar. Just a beast but then the last couple of minutes feature this beautiful calm with reserved vocals. "Next Of Kin" sort of plods along but it sounds really cool late with those strings produced and arranged by Dave Stewart but written by Akerfeldt. "Lovelorn Crime" is one I really connect with and a top five. Quite moving at times with plenty of piano. It does kick in dramatically as contrasts continue. How good is this 2 minutes in. Come on!

"Charlatan" is a top five as well for the mellotron and power. Lots of depth here and energy. Love the nasty keys too. Some samples of people saying things and I love that chorus. Another top five is "Universal Truth" and man this might be my second favourite after the opener. Just the contrasts alone blow me away. The only section on the whole album that I'm not big on is the opening on "Continuum" but this is a song that gets better as it plays out. The closer is my final top five and what a song! "All Things Will Pass" has it all, the mellotron the great sounding heavy sections, trippy stuff, and man so uplifting after 6 1/2 minutes, I think I have something in my eye.

Congrats Mikael and the band for still bringing it. Without question one of my favourites from 2019. This is the album where Akerfeldt's favourite band CAMEL gets the most nods in my opinion. They really are a Heavy Prog band now.