Due to manufacturing delays, we had to wait a few extra weeks before we got our hands on the highly anticipated new installment in the near-flawless album catalog of the pedigree Swedish prog dinosaur, OPETH. Originally set for release on October 1st, 2024, via Reigning Phoenix Music, the offering we finally received on November 22nd was somewhat ominously entitled. “The Last Will and Testament” almost seems to suggest that this endeavor could be the last we hear from this great band. Fortunately, the impression dissolves quite quickly when you put the record on. The band’s creative impetus has reached such new heights on this latest outing that it wouldn’t make any sense for them to call it quits, not now. The songs narrate a conceptual story set in the post-World War I era, and, hence, the weird song titles. This could very well be the first time OPETH‘s album unfolds like an Agatha Christie novel, which, I reckon, might have worked wonders either with the band’s growls-era aesthetic or even with the later 1970s-tinted mustache-prog approach. However, as the first singles tipped us off in advance, the amalgamation of these two seemingly disparate approaches does even better justice to the narrative. It also seems that something rather essential, in terms of songwriting, rubbed off from Åkerfeldt‘s soundtrack work for the 2022 Netflix series, Clark. While everyone is going wild because the band has brought the growls back on the menu, what I find even more intriguing is the fact that OPETH has not sounded this cinematic maybe ever – not in terms of full album lengths. So, this new offering is not only a nice cross-section of the band’s long and winding career, style-wise, but it also comes off almost as a sly sequel to Clark‘s soundtrack.
As I wrote upon its release as the album’s lead single, “§1” opens the album with a somewhat “In Cauda Venenum with growls” vibe but soon adds a thick layer of cinematic flourishes. Of course, the nicely balanced mix of “Oldpeth” and “Newpeth” got fans all hyped up – and, for the next couple of weeks, the growls were the number one topic on those metal-oriented online music forums. I get it that the issue of the missing growls has been an all-important feature in the band’s stylistic approach since the devil knows when for some. What should have been a more pressing thing to discuss was the fact that, with this beast being the fourteenth full-length overall by these crazy Swedes, the band still sounded as fresh and creative as ever. Then, from the Finnish perspective, the absolutely stunning performance by the band’s new drummer, Waltteri Väyrynen, of Finnish origin, should have made the headlines just as well.
For those who know EUROPE only by their blockbuster hit “The Final Countdown,” the news about Joey Tempest featuring as a guest vocalist on this album might have come as a shock of sorts. He contributes backing vocals on “§2” and does a pretty impressive job. Then again, if you know him by the 2012 EUROPE endeavor, “Bag of Bones,” you expected nothing else. His hard-rockish falsetto crooning blends right in with the song’s atmosphere, which owes quite a bit to OPETH‘s 2016 studio effort “Sorceress,” the acoustic section, in particular.
Then, for a moment, it appears almost as though OPETH were revisiting their earlier albums with each consecutive song in this new selection. The thing is, the next chapter resonates rather thick with the air the band’s vintage-proggy 2014 outing “Pale Communion.” Then, “§5” harkens back even to the band’s controversial 2011 outing, “Heritage.” Without the growled vocals and maybe the strings, a sonic quirk that was introduced to the band’s style palette much later on “Pale Communion,” the song would have fitted the album just fine. I reckon this is what “Heritage” would have sounded like with those signature growls…
Alas, the uptempo hard-rock chapter in between, “§4” doesn’t fit my elaborate theory. Featuring nothing short of haunting flute licks by Ian Anderson of JETHRO TULL, the song is a highly cinematic prog endeavor that would have stood out remarkably on any previous album by the band! There are growls, soundtrack-esque orchestrations, and a whole gamut of vintage-proggy riffs. Yeah, there’s something very familiar about the song, recalling the band’s latest prog endeavors, but, then, there is something rather unique and fresh about the song, something which might have not come to fruition had Åkerfeldt not worked with the Clark soundtrack a while back.
That said, the next couple of chapters further cement the impression that something must have rubbed off from that soundtrack assignment. While there are ample flashbacks of both the band’s early style and later prog endeavors, the cinematic frosting is something entirely new. I must admit that the previous two albums by OPETH did not exactly win me over, not instantly. They have grown onto me over time, some songs more than others, but my initial impression of those albums was not very exciting, whereas this new selection comes off very exciting right off the bat. Okay, the closer – the only song with a proper title, “A Story Never Told” – is perhaps a bit too balladeering for an OPETH track; I mean, the band has slipped ballads in their albums before but, this time, the song seems to lack that signature ominous OPETH imprint – the foreboding sense of something murky and dark. Heck, the word, “Sorrow,” isn’t mentioned in the lyrics – not even once. The guitar solo is pretty lit, though, so I guess I will learn to like it, eventually.
In conclusion, I am not entirely sure whether “The Last Will and Testament” is a straight-up 10/10 album. What I do know is that it is the first OPETH outing to get me all excited about it after the very first spin. So, if I were to rate it, which I seldom do in my reviews, I would have to rate it a 9/10 album.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- §1
- §2
- §3
- §4
- §5
- §6
- §7
- A Story Never Told
Lineup
Mikael Åkerfeldt – vocals, guitars
Martín Méndez – bass, backing vocals
Fredrik Åkesson – guitars, backing vocals
Joakim Svalberg – keyboards, backing vocals
Waltteri Väyrynen – drums, percussion
additional guests:
Ian Anderson – flute on tracks 4, 7, and 8
Joey Tempest – backing vocals on track 2
Mia Westlund – harp
Mirjam Åkerfeldt – spoken word on track 1
London Session Orchestra – strings
Dave Stewart – string arrangements
Label
Reigning Phoenix Music
