the official OPETH thread

Mikael has indicated that going forward not to expect anything remotely death metal from them. He said the next album might be a little heavier than Heritage, but more in a 70s hard rock/metal style. He also said to expect much more progressive elements on the next album including a string section on several of the tracks.

I'm just going to work my way back from Heritage until I go  

What is a good start for Opeth. Never heard them and I read through a few posts and they seem to get a fair amount of nods. I'm guessing Heritage.

journeyman wrote:

What is a good start for Opeth. Never heard them and I read through a few posts and they seem to get a fair amount of nods. I'm guessing Heritage.

I started with Heritage - excellent album!

2014 just got a LOT more interesting!  

Opeth are planning to release their 11th studio album in June.  No title has been given yet, in response to questions about what it sounds like Mikael responded thusly:

“If it sounds like us, that’s good. And if it sounds like something we don’t know, that’s also good. This album has some parts that sound like us and some parts that sound kind of new too. It’s a bit heavier than ‘Heritage‘ at times and it’s a bit more melodic. I think it should be a bit easier to get into this record because there’s a lot of focus on the melodies. We’re a progressive band. Sometimes we sound like a metal band and sometimes we don’t.”

S.D. wrote:

2014 just got a LOT more interesting!  

Opeth are planning to release their 11th studio album in June.  No title has been given yet, in response to questions about what it sounds like Mikael responded thusly:

“If it sounds like us, that’s good. And if it sounds like something we don’t know, that’s also good. This album has some parts that sound like us and some parts that sound kind of new too. It’s a bit heavier than ‘Heritage‘ at times and it’s a bit more melodic. I think it should be a bit easier to get into this record because there’s a lot of focus on the melodies. We’re a progressive band. Sometimes we sound like a metal band and sometimes we don’t.”

This description has me looking forward to this.

I will be picking this one up

Nice to see a band more concerned with making a record that they want to make rather than what the fans expect.

Boris2008 wrote:

Nice to see a band more concerned with making a record that they want to make rather than what the fans expect.

  

Opeth is a pre-order band for me. I will be watching for this.  

I have Blackwater Park and Watershed - I like them quite a bit. Looking forward to this release.

The new Opeth album now has a title; Pale Communion will be released on June 17th worldwide.

I only own watershed. Good but very hard to get into.

Songs seem barely memorable.

Some more details, including track list:

Pale Communion.

Produced by Mikael Akerfeldt
Mixed & Mastered by Steven Wilson

Track Listing:

1. ‘Eternal Rains Will Come’
2. ‘Cusp of Eternity’
3. ‘Moon Above, Sun Below’
4. ‘Elysian Woes’
5. ‘Goblin’
6. ‘River’
7. ‘Voice of Treason’
8. ‘Faith in Others’

Album will be available to pre-order on May 6th, those who preorder via iTunes will receive an immediate download copy of opening single "Cusp of Eternity".

Track 5 entitled Goblin is an instrumental, and an homage to the Italian progressive group of the same name.

and here's a quote from Steven Wilson about Pale Communion from his Facebook page:

"The new Opeth album Pale Communion was mixed into stereo and 5.1 at my studio in February. I also sang harmony vocals. It’s by no stretch of the imagination a metal record but it’s still plenty heavy and a great piece of work - for me the epic orchestrated ballad “Faith in Others” that closes the album is Mikael Åkerfeldt's finest achievement to date. Pale Communion is released by Roadrunner Records on 17th June. It’s also the first Opeth album to be recorded and mixed in higher resolution 96/24. I hope Roadrunner will release a high res format, but I don't know their plans on that.

Cannot. Wait. This will be a pre-order for sure. Don't even care how much it costs...

"Pale Communion", the highly anticipated eleventh studio album from Swedish progressive metallers OPETH, has had its release date pushed back to August 26 (via Roadrunner Records) from the previously announced June 17.

"Many of you have heard the rumours already and we can now confirm that the release of 'Pale Communion' has indeed been pushed back to late August," commented OPETH guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt. "Several circumstances prevented the band from delivering essential tools to Roadrunner in time which are needed to set up the album release properly and release schedule conflicts made us mutually decide on August instead of June."

Two tracks have been released so far this summer:

"Eternal Rains Will Come" is a decent song, but "Cusp of Eternity" is probably my least favorite on the album (I couldn't resist when it leaked online). The closing track, "Faith in Others," is fantastic.

Otherwise it sounds a lot like Heritage; no return to anything resembling progressive death metal here.

The entire album is available for legal streaming here:

http://pitchfork.com/advance/519-pale-communion/

It's a fantastic progressive rock album, a natural continuation of Heritage but also a little looser and more "rocking" in spots. More fusion influence on this one in the arrangements, more King Crimson influence, the upgrade in the keyboard player spot has really helped expand the sound. This one is a little more straight-ahead melodically than Heritage, probably making it a little more accessible, the addition of vocal harmonies also adds a new dimension to the sound. Expertly recorded, with a rich mix by Steven Wilson, one of the best sounding records I've heard this year.

No, there is nothing remotely death metal. The guitars sounds like real guitars run through tube amplifiers and analog effects, the drums sound like real drums, the keyboard player uses real Hammond Organ, Fender Rhodes, Mellotron etc, no patches.

I'll give it a spin when i get back from work.

My favorite tracks so far are "River" which for the first half of the song is a 70s style acoustic soft-rock number before it morphs into a heavy fusion jam for the second half including an extended guitar solo tradeoff. The instrumental "Goblin" which is a tribute to the Italian band of the same name, stylistically it's an almost-funky fusion jam not that different from something like Al DiMeola or Tony Williams' Lifetime. And the closing track "Faith In Others" is a stunner, reminiscent of something like Epitaph from the first King Crimson album, it's one of the best songs Mikael has written...the mid-section of the tune is just vocals & electric piano.

It also has moments that sound like older Opeth, the track "Moon Above, Sun Below" if you changed the guitar sound to a more modern sounding metal tone it could fit on any of their albums from the 2000s. Same goes for "Voice of Treason" which uses heavy strings instead of distorted guitars for the main riffs.

Got this one preordered. Heritage has been a frequent visit these past couple of months. I love this direction they've taken.

I didn't like Heritage at all, it was the first Opeth album I couldn't get into. But this new one is a big step up IMO. I'm not sold on the more pronounced organ though, or at least the way its played on those choppy polka-ish spots.