Opeth

Album cover art for Opeth's 2024 release: Last Will and Testament.
Album Reviews

OPETH – Last Will And Testament

December 9, 2024 Bryce Van Patten

The wait is over as Swedish masters of heavy duty prog metal are back with their signature blend of complex musical arrangements and grunts, which have been missing since 2014’s Cauda Venenum. Opeth – Last Will And Testament is a true tour de force, and could be their best effort yet, captivating the listener from the opening notes of the first track, and never letting go. In an unusual approach, the songs are simply titled as sections of a will, excepting for the final track of the album “A Story Never Told”. The album offers a blend of King Crimson styled prog, including a refreshing orchestra and flute, with electric piano and heavy AF riffs the band are known for. The concept album is set in the post-World War I era, unfolding the story of a wealthy, conservative patriarch (whose wife is infertile), whose last will and testament reveals shocking family secrets. Lyrics The opening song does a fantastic job of foreshadowing what’s to come in this ghostly story, as it opens the story with laments of the now deceased father inter-cut with the chants of the assembled family for the reading of the last will and testament. “§1” Draped in death, the howl of lore Draped (Draped) In death (In death) The howl (The howl) Of lore (Of lore) My time is at an end I have wallowed in self-pity And I confess to you As part of final plight Draped in death, the howl of lore The last will and testament of father Hear the last will and testament of father A syndicates mass in the waiting room Like spiders weave rumors spread fast above regal tombs Enacted grief I will here unearth the secrets I’ve been hiding, hiding, hiding And guide my children through my troubles Put …READ MORE

MASTODON (Live at Edmonton EXPO Centre, Canada, May 5, 2022)
Live Reviews

OPETH / MASTODON / KHEMMIS (Live)

May 14, 2022 Mike Scott

Edmonton was treated to an assault of Doom, Prog and Sludge Metal earlier this week. The last time Opeth and Mastodon shared a stage in Edmonton, little known Ghost opened for them. Those of us early enough to the show that day (and shame on you if you delay your arrival) were treated to one of the fastest rising Pop Metal bands in quite some time. It pays to get there ahead of the main bill. Khemmis This time was no exception. Denver Colorado Doom masters Khemmis blew the small but appreciative crowd away with the all too short 30-minute set featuring a couple from their Nuclear Blast Records debut Deceiver; “Avernal Gate” and “Living in Pyre.” “Thanks for coming early to check us out,” Boomed Phil Pendergast. Watch for them preforming to bigger crowds in the not-too-distant future. They closed out the night with “Conversation With Death” from their 2020 outing Doomed Heavy Metal. Short on lyrics long on heavy riffs and a sweet solo in the bridge it was the perfect ending to their set. Mastodon Mastodon kicked off the night with the opening track from their latest album Hushed and Grim. Not ones too eager to engage with the audience, they did state early in the set, “Thanks for coming out to the Rock and Roll show.” Then they ripped through one song after another with very little extra chatter although there was a bit of a talk at the end of the set. More on that in moment. The setlist spanned their entire catalogue including “Mother Puncher” from their debut album; “This goes back to the beginning 20 years ago,” allowing the punters to mosh their faces off. “Gobblers of Dregs” slowed things down however the end of the song mixed perfectly in the last number. …READ MORE

Interviews

MARTIN LOPEZ (SOEN): “We Have Become Numb To Violence And War, But People Are Shocked When Five Men Dress As Women Having Fun”

February 25, 2019 Mick Burgess

Two years on from their impressive Lykaia album, Sweden’s Soen return with their third and best release to date. Lotus has seen the band take huge strides forward and Mick Burgess called up former Opeth drummer and band founder Martin Lopez to talk about Lotus, new band members and the stunning videos that accompanied the singles from the album. Your latest album, Lotus, has just been released. How do you feel now that it’s out? I feel pretty confident and think that it’s a really strong album. It is certainly our strongest. I’m really pleased with the production and the songs. Even if I’m expected to say that, I haven’t really been happy with the previous ones. In the past I haven’t been quite happy with the production and things haven’t come out quite how we envisioned it. With Lotus it’s just been brilliant and so positive all along the way. Were you able to use some ideas and develop those from the writing sessions for Lykaia or did you write everything from scratch for Lotus? Pretty much everything was written from scratch. You never really want to start an album with something that wasn’t good enough to be on the last one. It wouldn’t be that inspiring so I try to write everything new for each record. I can get obsessed and write for four months where I’m working five hours a day and then I don’t do anything for a while. It’s never planned. There’s never a deadline. It just seems as though every year and a half there’s enough material for another album. How would you say Lotus is a progression from Lykaia? I’d say it is the same kind of music but it’s just better. The melodies are better, the songs flow better, the guitar solos …READ MORE

OPETH - Pale Communion
Album Reviews

OPETH – Pale Communion

August 25, 2014 Dan Skiba

Opeth is a 5-piece band from Sweden that’s been releasing quality records since 1995, and Pale Communion is their latest. Those familiar with Opeth know they consistently push the boundaries on Progressive Metal, often (in the past) incorporating Death Metal elements into their wide and varied soundscape. Pale Communion is “different” than what Opeth has written in the past – much more sedate and melodic – essentially no delving into Death or Black Metal realms. With this album, Opeth very much enters Pink Floyd’s (prior) territory, sounding almost Jazzy at times. A bold change, however, this album may put you to sleep.

Live Reviews

PROGRESSIVE NATION (Live) – Dream Theater, Opeth, Bigelf And Unexpect

September 27, 2009 Kristian Singh-Nergård

All photos by Karolina E. Piwko The time had finally come for veterans of Progressive Metal, Dream Theater, to lead their Progressive Nation tour overseas for the first time ever. Progressive Nation founder and Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, once again hand-picked the bands to join them based on musicianship, originality and diversity, not necessarily by popularity and marquee value. Portnoy commented himself in a press release: “After the excitement of putting together two very cool Progressive Nation packages for North America, I knew it was time to bring the concept overseas and share some of these other great bands with our amazing fans throughout Europe and the UK.” Joining Dream Theater for this tour is Canadian Avant Garde styled Extreme Progressive Metallers of Unexpect, Psychedelic Progressive Rockers of Bigelf and Progressive/Death Metallers of Opeth. Oslo, Norway, was the third stop on their tour, and the attending audience was exposed to what actually seemed a mini-Progressive Metal festival filled with four extremely different approaches to the genre. Unexpect First on stage was the Canadian septet Unexpect. This is the youngest band in the tour line-up, if you consider their releases. They released a self-funded album in 1999 (Utopia), continued with an EP in 2003 (wE, Invaders) after signing with The End Records, and released their only album so far on the label in 2006 (In A Flesh Aquarium). According to the band’s MySpace site Unexpect is a Metal laboratory mixing elements of Black, Death, Core, Symphonic, Progressive and Melodic Metal; Classical, Operatic, Medieval, Goth, Electro, Ambient, Psychotic, Noise and Circus music with an occasional Jazzy touch. Be that as it may, their live show was a bizarre experience. The entire band was dressed in what seemed to be a mix of Gothic and medieval clothes. Vocally speaking the band sounded …READ MORE

Live Reviews

OPETH (Live)

March 12, 2009 Kristian Singh-Nergård

All photos by Kristian Singh-Nergård Swedish Progressive Death Metallers of Opeth need little or no introduction. It’s been fourteen years since their first release and to this date they’ve released nine full-length albums. In other words it was a band with a great deal of routine that were to play at the sold-out venue, Studentersamfundet, in Trondheim, Norway. Opeth has just returned from the United Arab Emirates, where they played at the Dubai Desert Rock Festival, and now they’re doing a Norwegian tour with eight concerts across the country, arranged by Rikskonsertene. This is their biggest Norwegian tour ever and the concert in Trondheim was the second date on the list. The Norwegian Progressive/Black Metal band Ihsahn was billed as support for Opeth, but according to Ihsahn “…technical and practical difficulties [were revealed] at many of the smaller venues, and it has proven near impossible to run the necessary production.” One can only wonder what technical and practical difficulties that prevented Ihsahn from performing while Opeth had no such problems. The explanation doesn’t really seem adequate, but rather confusing. Opeth, however, did not suffer from the lack of a warm-up band. From the second they entered the stage the audience seemed to be spellbound, and two hours of outstanding Progressive Death Metal by one of the genre’s leading bands was about to follow. They opened with “Heir Apparent” from their 2008 release Watershed. The song sounded much like it does on the record, and the band was incredibly tight. Perhaps the only disappointment, not only for this song, but the whole show, was that the acoustic parts weren’t played with an acoustic guitar like on the records, but on a clean channel with electric guitar. This was, however, only a minor “flaw” in an otherwise spotless performance, and it didn’t …READ MORE

Live Reviews

ROCK AM RING FESTIVAL 2008

June 9, 2008 Frank Jaeger

The annual Rock Am Ring Festival in Germany and its sister event Rock Im Park, which features the same bands on the same weekend, only the days they play are changed, have become an incredible happening for music fans from central Europe. Three days, three stages and many bands make up for a giant festival, which sports some Metal bands as well, although it is not the main focus. (Note from Metal Express Radio Management: It is, of course, quite impossible for one person to see and capture every band on the festival. Also, Metal Express Radio was only there for two of the three days. So this review includes a selection of bands that Metal Express Radio was able to see, and far from complete. If your favorite band from the billing isn’t featured here, that’s why. Also, some photos had to be taken from quite a distance as Metal Express Radio did not get an official photo pass, so if the quality is somewhat less than you are used to, please cut us some slack. It is still better than having none, right?). The three days were of different interests for the Metal fan. The main portion of Metal was delivered on Saturday on the main stage, the least interesting seemed Sunday. In combination, this could have been a nice Metal fest if they had compiled all Hard Rockin’ bands to one stage, on two days. Pity they did not, as there were some fillers in between, if judged from the perspective of a Metal fan. That also made for an unusual crowd with different preferences, only for the headliners did most of the 85,000 people unite in front of one stage, which was an impressive amount of people! Friday The stage with the biggest Metal share was …READ MORE