OPETH: The Last Will And Testament (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Here it is, the long-awaited return of saturated vocals. The one that fans of Opeth's death metal period have been waiting for so impatiently since the band's progressive rock turn. Yet to sum up “The Last Will And Testament” as just that would be the biggest mistake in the history of music reviews. This new album is not a return to the past, and even less a death metal album. It is everything that progressive music has to offer in terms of audacity, exacting musical standards and composition genius. With this extraordinary concept album, Opeth achieves the impossible: bringing together the best of both worlds, reconciling its past identity and its more recent moult, to deliver a work of rare density.

In fact, the famous growls are only used to serve the story. And what a story it is! An original, dark, twisted drama set in the 1920s, told by a narrator (Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull), who weaves a captivating plot based on the reading of the will of a cruel, sterile patriarch (the saturated vocals, that's him) to illegitimate children who gradually discover the family's lies and betrayals.

Mikael Åkerfeldt's genius as a composer is to make this tragedy understandable with notes as well as words. Every twist and turn (and there are many) finds an echo in the music. Every note, every break, every rhythmic break reflects the weight of unspoken words and family secrets. And the track titles are summed up in the paragraphs of the will, giving the album the air of a musical novel.

“The Last Will And Testament” balances constantly between light and darkness, constantly surprising us and plunging us into a whirlwind of emotions. The menacing riffs of '§1', the complex structures of '§2' and '§5', Mikael Åkerfeldt's haunting clear vocals and powerful growls - everything is thought out, studied and fine-tuned down to the smallest detail to evoke the troubled feelings of the protagonists, making every twist and turn of the story resonate with palpable intensity, as in '§4', a veritable masterpiece of musical progression.

Unlike “In Cauda Venenum”, guitars are omnipresent here, but their sound, though often very heavy, remains in the spirit of the vintage rock initiated by “Heritage” rather than the death metal of the band's first period. Indeed, the unprecedented use of a string ensemble and the numerous interventions of Ian Anderson's flute leave no doubt as to the album's overall musical orientation. But the fact remains that “The Last Will And Testament” is Opeth's heaviest album in ages, that Fredrik Åkesson's superb solos are numerous and particularly inspired, and that the rhythm section, led by new drummer Waltteri Väyrynen (the real revelation of the album) and the indefatigable Martín Méndez, is relentlessly precise.

By bringing together past and present, Opeth delivers here one of its most accomplished albums, and unquestionably the most radically progressive of its long career. Breathtaking in its richness and audacity, “The Last Will And Testament” is a masterpiece, a dazzling demonstration of the genius of a band that continues to evolve without ever betraying itself. You'll come away troubled, amazed, and with just one desire: to plunge back into this musical drama of striking melodic dazzle to discover all its subtleties. - Official website

OPETH

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

REIGNING PHOENIX MUSIC

PROGRESSIVE METAL