Opeth – “Heritage” [Album Review]

The Swedish progressive masters Opeth are back with their 10th studio album, Heritage. They’ve built a career in performing lengthy, progressive death metal songs with blusey rock sections. After so many years of committing to their well-received formula the band has decided to change things up.

Heritage lets the blusey rock side of Opeth take over 100%, extinguishing any hint of death metal. Sadly, this means no growling or heavy instrumentals to the extreme. This might sound disappointing to their devout metal fans, but I actually see this as a refreshing change for Opeth. The band focused on writing some of their most complex guitar riffs to date which resulted in some gnarly licks. Even Per Wilberg upped his playing with some really catchy-sounding organ parts. It’s sad to know this is the last time we’ll hear Per Wilberg on an Opeth album as he left the band shortly following the recordings.

In the absence of Mikael Åkerfeldt’s growling, Opeth has relied upon on his melodic singing voice to get them through the disc. This is not a new concept for the band, they did this back in 2003 on Damnation, and remember how awesome that recording was? Heritage is definitely an interesting album for any music fan in general. My only negative towards this offering is that the song lengths don’t compare to other releases. I guess that’s what happens when you take away your death metal side.

Track Listing:

01. Heritage
02. The Devil’s Orchard
03. I Feel The Dark
04. Slither
05. Nepenthe
06. Häxprocess
07. Famine
08. The Lines In My Hand
09. Folklore
10. Marrow Of The Earth

Run Time: 56:59
Release Date: September 20, 2011

Check out the song: “The Devil’s Orchard”