I am no music critic (and an even worse photographer - see below). But I've been listening to music, particularly heavy metal and hard rock, for a long time. Back in about 2004, after having felt jaded and mainly disappointed by the grunge era, I had a revelation. A stumbled on the song "The Grand Conjuration," by Opeth, from their then newly-released Ghost Reveries album. I was blown away in a way that I hadn't been in many, many years. Then one of my coworkers turned me on to their 2001 album Blackwater Park. Again: Mind Blown!
So now, almost 25 years later, Opeth releases The Last Will and Testament, which feels, at once, very familiar, and very new.
To quote the presser: "The Last Will and Testament" is a concept record of sorts. A restless musical journey in a way mirroring my own relationship with music as a consumer of it," narrates band leader Mikael Åkerfeldt. "I pick up something here, dismiss something there. I worship and I hate music at the same time. This ambivalence leads me down some type of creative path of my own and then, all of a sudden, a collection of songs has been written. Best case scenario, these songs are good enough to impress the band. Good enough for the "powers that be" in terms of the industry. Good enough for "you"?! I love this record. I have to say it (write it). Maybe I'm proud even? There are some familiar ingredients in there I suppose. Most of our music has sprung from the same source, so I guess it's not much of a shocker if it's going to sound like "us". I'm a bit in awe of what we did with "The Last Will and Testament". It feels like a dream. There is some "coherence" and " songwriting skills" I hope, but what do I know? I tend to favour the "strange" over the "obvious", but I feel like I'm in the minority, and that's fine. So... fair warning! Don't expect an instant rush (as per usual), but if you do "get it" (have you got it yet?) right away, that's ok too!"
Yeah, I get it. There are strains of Heritage here, but the demon beneath Blackwater Park and Ghost Reveries is there, too. There's even a touch of Damnation there (still my favorite Opeth album, by the way). Yes, the flute, that heaviest of heavy instruments, makes a return, but it's perfect in its place, which happens to be Song 4 - in my opinion, the strongest piece of the entire album. If anything it reminded me of, not Jethro Tull, but. . . Kansas? But a Kansas with a more powerful underbelly, a devil dancing with hope, if you will. The progressive nature of the track (and of several others on the album) is unmistakable and irresistibly magnetic, but the growling, doom-laden counterpoint serves to create a strange storm of contrast and provides, dare I say it? Meaning.
Because at it's heart, this album is about meaning, about who we are, about what we do in relation to what we know that determines our legacy, in time. There's a story behind the story, a way to tell tales that Opeth has been brewing for some time now. What is not said (or sung) is as important, if not more important, than what is. It's in the interstices that the music becomes something beyond mere transition, another realm, between your expectations, a slipstream between death metal and progressive fusion; a universe of its own.
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