THIS is what Heritage should have been...but wasn't. This is the perfect album for Opeth right now. They stumbled a bit with Heritage but they got right back up and made a great album. I'll be listening to this again tonight.

I agree, it's almost like they weren't ready for Heritage. Now that they've become comfortable in the style, I'd say they succeeded.

did not like. it's not just that it's not what I expect from an Opeth album, even if you hear it just as a proggy rock album, it's not that good. a led zep ripoff, a goblin ripoff/tribute, a lot of widdling about, some multiinstumentalist tendencies... it wouldn't get half the listeners it's gonna get if it hadn't come out under the Opeth name. a coupla potential growers, but nothing particularly exciting. the beginning in particular might as well have been titled "here's one for ye all who thort you'd be getting a death metal album, suckers!"

To clarify: I usually listen to brutal death so this style is a diversion that I'm enjoying - even compared to earlier Opeth albums that were at least considered death metal.

Actually the earlier Opeth albums were more black metal than death metal.

Also, Pale Communion is fucking excellent and needs to be bought by every single person ever when it comes out. Like a previous poster said, THIS is what Opeth should have done for Heritage.

Please elaborate on this.

Nah, they weren't, only My Arms, Your Hearse can be qualified as being somewhat black metal, Orchid and Morningrise had some elements but it was some sort of original progressive death metal with a bunch of other elements.

You've got my attention. Heritage just didn't interest me but I like Ghost Reveries and I love Damnation (despite it not being metal), so that's enough to get me excited for this.

I know how Opeth is generally classified. I asked Subrick to elaborate on his claim. Being a mod doesn't mean you have to chime in randomly all the time.

The riffs are more tremolo based than on later material, and not in the flowing chords manner like on songs such as Demon of the Fall. Think of Forest of October and the heavy section in that song starting at 8:36. Mikael's vocals are also higher and more reminiscent of black metal. There's also just a much more black metal vibe running through the first two albums than on the material going from MAYH through Watershed. The "death metal fury" in their sound wouldn't come about until MAYH.

Uh? I posted as a big Opeth fan who made that thread and posted a lot in it, not as a mod and I contributed to the discussion since Subrick didn't until now, I think anyone can post when they want when it's rightfully done, eh. Other people should post their opinion on the matter too since I do like genre discussions.

First 2 albums are obviously more into the melodic black metal realm than anything. In Mist, Under the Weeping Moon and Forest of October are very black metal oriented. Think about stuff like early Ancient Wisdom to compare or even some Immortal (there are plenty of 'icy' moments like in Mist). See Forest' verse as a simple example: bm styled tremolo riffs over double bass and black metal shrieks? c'mon.

Morningrise is more prog but Advent, The Night... and specially Black Rose Immortal have a lot of black metal moments going on.

Surprised to see people discussing this. It's very evident how much they switched from prog melodic black metal to prog death metal influenced stuff.

Referencing Ancient Wisdom in the context of what black metal sounds like...oi vey. Things like that remind me why I didn't post here for a good six years. Where's Snxke or UltraB when you need them.

I don't really hear any black metal on any Opeth releases. The trem picking and all that sounds more death metal than anything. Maybe its just the context of the music, I dunno.

I liked heritage a lot. I've only heard the one single for the new album but I'm pretty excited. The later part of cusp of eternity is pretty epic chromatic yes type riffing and it builds up to it well. I always liked the leads in that band as well.

I'm almost done with my first play-through of this album, and I love it. This is fantastic. Easily better than 'Heritage'. My only real complaint is that I want more! 55 minutes is a respectable length, but I could easily go for another 10 or 15. The song structures are a lot more coherent than they were on 'Heritage' and most of 'Watershed', and Mikael sounds more confident in his singing and performance. The lyrics also have improved from the last record. I'm really, really happy with this.

Looking forward to hearing this but I think I'll wait until the vinyl is officially released.

I suddenly got curious about Opeth being a prog rock band and decided to listen to this on the Internet.
I enjoyed some of it quite a bit. There are still some boring/plodding sections but in general the songs seem to hold together really well. I do wish the band would let loose a little more...I mean that song "Moon Above, Sun Below" (or was it the next track) has a few strong heavy riffs, and a bit more like that would have been welcome. The song "Goblin" sounds a hell of a lot like Goblin! Mikael seems to be trying to push his vocals pretty hard at times and I appreciate that...his clean voice used to be a little bit nondescript but now that it's often the focal point of the music it seems like he's pushed himself to step up the game.

I even dug out Orchid yesterday for the first time in what I think must be well over ten years. Brought back some cool memories. That harmony at the end of "In mist she was Standing" is still really spectacular.

Finally got around to listening to the album in its entirety and I quite like it. It's not that far removed from Heritage's series but Akerfeldt cared a lot more about making coherent song structures this time around. I think River and Faith In Others will be especially powerful with additional listens.

I can't wait to see these new songs live, I've missed their Heritage tours (somewhat on purpose), I won't miss them now.

Reminds me of an upbeat Renaissance album combined with a bit of Dream Theater so far, incredibly predictable stuff. I complained about Heritage when it came out but mostly I was just tired of Opeth, and I feel the same way about Pale Communion right now. I listened to Heritage properly a few months ago after giving Opeth a long break and it's not bad at all, and at least it had a few new ideas which I'm not getting from the new one. I'm not sure they haven't gone back a step here. These are only very early impressions though, I'm going to have to give this a few more listens before I decide on a verdict.

Consider me pleasantly surprised! Opeth were a formative band for me, insofar as they were the first band with 'extreme' vocals that I was able to appreciate. They opened the door to a lot of other great music and, although I don't often listen to them these days, I'll always have a soft spot for their classic albums from Morningrise through to Deliverance.

Having said that, I was devastated by Heritage and was completely willing to write off the band from that point, given their efforts to distance themselves from their earlier sound and the obvious shortcomings of their new approach. Pale Communion is leagues ahead of Heritage, because the band have shored up the weaknesses that made the latter a mess (i.e. coherent songwriting). While I don't expect them to ever embrace their death metal side again, at least I now have a basis for hoping that they will continue to put out decent material and that Heritage was an aberration in an otherwise solid catalogue.

Yes. This album is good. I even listened to it on youtube coming out of an iMac, and I still like it! I like how generally relaxed it is. The song architecture has a very natural, organic, and mature feel to it. It doesn't need a lot of odd modes or obvi-prog stylings insisting that it is competent and made by the skilled. It's a pretty straight forward album made by skilled and technical performers. In a way it reminds me a little of Pink Floyd. Not in that the compositions are stylistically similar, but the arrangements have a similar ease in development, as if they just arrived this way, as if they unfold according to a patient and natural inspiration with very little out of place, and hardly anything placed arbitrarily. At the same time, the arrangements don't sound as self-consciously deliberate as past Opeth, which can tend to sound obviously WORKED and WORKED OVER and eventually sounds overworked. This album has none of that. It's a very easy, undemanding, and yet subtly complex and tender album. An enjoyable and poignant set of well balanced compositions. Far more my speed than really any past Opeth. Open and closing tracks in particular. I'd love to hear this album on a proper set up. Looking forward to coming back to this. Well done, gents.

I'm loving this. Up to my third listen, tracks are well written and the performances are great - those leads are awesome! I'm one of the few that grew to like Heritage quite a bit after repeated listens (listening through a stereo with some bass helps bring out the subtleties in that one), but this one towers above that quite a bit from my first impressions. It seems to have the laid back beauty of damnation, with the jazzy/experimental elements of Heritage, but focused into beautiful songs. Time will tell, but greatly impressed so far.

Quite unimpressed with the cover/packaging on a side note. The text is all so tiny, and overall just seems lacklustre. I thought the cover of Heritage was great too.

Got the special or the regular edition? I'm getting it tomorrow probably.

Just regular unfortunately - no special editions available from my store at the time. Hopefully the special comes together better

I love everything the band does. I am not there biggest fan, or critic of them. There record are always top of my wantlist, and usually first day purchases. I never take the metal press that serious, since I just build on my music taste I have had since 1980 when I started with heavy metal.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the discord between the music and the lyrics. Mikael hasn't changed his lyrical approach since Orchid, so it's almost comical to hear these dark, oppressive lyrics like these combined with the happy vocal harmonies on the album. It doesn't both me because I've never been a lyrics person, I just find it amusing because they are very serious lyrics. There is not a total lack of melancholy on the album, but Frank Zappa's lyrics would be far more appropriate for most of the songs.

Just had my first listen. While I agree with the general consensus that this essentially a more tightly written, focused version of Heritage, it's really not THAT different. The music is genuinely beautiful and the vocal harmonies are wonderful, but it still seems to fall into that common prog rock trap of not having memorable songs. I'm hoping that will change upon subsequent listens, but on the first spin I'm having trouble finding any particular track(s) that stand out or I feel like I need to listen to again.

Another question about the deluxe edition: Are the two bonus tracks on the CD or the Blu-ray?

I agree. In general I'm left with an overall affectionate feeling without any songs standing out in an individual way. This might sound odd, but that's one of the things I like about it. It seems easy to put on and listen through without being burdensome or imbalanced .. again, like Pink Floyd. With all the songs being of fairly even quality, it could work in its favor in that songs won't get skipped, or others get singled out as hits and get overplayed. I guess that could be called "undynamic" or "flat," and technically that's true. The quality of the album as a whole is quite good, so if even if it is a basically flat line, that line is up pretty high.

They're only on the Blu Ray unfortunately (hooray for having a PS3) and they're very good. The artwork is cool (as per usual with Opeth) especially the back with the playing cards!



I don't get that comment, I don't think this is a very happy album musically, it's not silly in a funny way like Zappa. There's plenty of dark prog rock around (like their compatriots of Anekdoten or even the project of Mike's lover, Porcupine Tree). I can't for the love of Åkerfeldt imagine a song like "Moon Above, Sun Below" with "Don't eat the yellow snow" lyrics, it makes no sense to me. Yes, their sound is hardly metal anymore but there was absolutely no need to change their thematic approach to fit their musical progression. But to be fair, the lyrics shouldn't be that dark, Mike seems to live a sane and happy life!

Oh and Martin Lopez doesn't play on the album after all (he was supposed to be credited with the drums on 2 tracks) but there's nothing about that in the booklet.

Bummer. I ended up going with the regular edition. That makes it an $8 difference for two bonus tracks and special packaging.

I enjoyed your review, by the way. Such a shameless fan-boy.

And the album's great; I generally agree with what's been stated in the last few posts.

I'm really liking this, and I had no particular feelings towards Opeth.

Yeah, I have no shame whatsoever! Heritage was about an 80-84% for me but this one is pretty damn great. The deluxe version was only $16.99 so it was worth it for me, I own the deluxe editions of Watershed and Heritage so might as well continue to get 'em. The two bonus tracks are gonna probably leak somewhere so we'll be able to download them easily.

I've got a review coming up shortly and for the second time in my life I'll be doing a semi-negative review as a fan of a particular band. Well, it's definitely a step above Heritage but the flaws are still there.

Bonus tracks are available for download via the special edition, just so folks are aware. You get a paper with a code and follow the directions. But they are not on the CD, only the blu-ray and download.

Was never really into Opeth at all, but this album really got me out of the gate. Getting some sick Tarkus vibes from it.

Not entirely surprising, but pretty disappointing.

It's silly by Opeth standards. Just listen to the first 30 seconds, it sounds like circus music.

After about 8 listens, this is weaker than Heritage for me and a much bigger transition for the band. This time the dark/light interplay is completely gone and that is where Opeth excel. I feel they have responded to fans criticism about the crazy songwriting on Heritage and made the transitions smoother, less schizophrenic and it just doesn't hit the spot. The lyrics? Well, "eerie circles upon the water" wasn't deep stuff but it fit perfectly with the music. The clash between lyrics and music on Pale Communion just might be the most extreme I've heard on any album. And actually, the lyrics contain just about the only trace of Mikael's heartfelt sincerity, which is a shame. Musically, I can't believe people are comparing this to Damnation - it's another thing entirely.

I've also been revisiting their albums since BWP and to my surprise I'd have to say that Watershed (which I had previously ranked among their weakest) is the strongest and Ghost Reveries the weakest, the others somewhere in between. Damnation by itself was never a favorite but when you consider it's a double-album, that raises it up immeasurably.