Artist: OPETH
Album: SORCERESS (CD)

Year: 30.09.2016
EAN/UPS: 727361382223
Media type: CD

There are few bands that can or will match Sweden’s OPETH. Since forming in the tiny Stockholm suburb of Bandhagen in 1990, the Swedes have eclipsed convention, defiantly crushed the odds, and, most importantly, crafted 12 stunningly beautiful, intrinsically intense albums to become one of the best bands on the planet; whether that be live or on record. Ask any OPETH fan. Enquire with any band that’s shared the proverbial pine with the Swedes. Or, get a label representative to talk OPETH. They’ll all tell you the same thing: OPETH are peerless. And they’re only getting better.

OPETH’s new album, »Sorceress«, their first for Nuclear Blast via the band’s imprint label Moderbolaget Records, is proof chief architect Mikael Akerfeldt has a near-endless well of greatness inside. From the album’s opener ‘Persephone’ to ‘The Wilde Flowers’ and ‘Strange Brew’ to the album’s counterpart title tracks ‘Sorceress’ and ‘Sorceress 2’, OPETH’s twelfth full-length is an unparalleled adventure, where visions cleverly and secretly change, colours mute as if weathered by time, and sounds challenge profoundly. »Sorceress« is, by definition, moored in Akerfeldt’s impressive record collection—his one true vice—but, as always, there’s more invention than appropriation at play.

“This time around I didn’t think about what I wanted to do,” Akerfeldt reveals. “I was forced to write. But once I started, it was easy. This record, like the last record, didn’t take long to write. Like five or six months. The thoughts behind this record developed as I was writing. The only thing I was thinking about with this record was to write that songs didn’t musically connect. I made sure if I had a song that was new sounding for this record, I’d make the next song completely different. I think the songs are very different from one another. It’s very diverse.”

Certainly, every OPETH record has had diversity. In 1995, »Orchid« reset the rules of death metal. Six years later, »Blackwater Park« hit the high note for musicality in a genre generally devoid of it. »Damnation«, in 2003, was the work of a band determined to upend the norm. Five years after that, »Watershed« closed OPETH’s chapter on death metal by visiting its darkest corners and holding its native brutality aloft. And in 2014, »Pale Communion« officially bridged the progressive music gap by twisting the intrepid sounds of ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s into contemporary brilliance. So, really, what’s so different about »Sorceress«?

“My music taste got a little wider,” grins Akerfeldt. “I started listening to jazz. I bought a lot of COLTRANE records. I never really thought COLTRANE would be for me because I like ‘dinner jazz.’ I like comfortable, soft, nice, and lovely jazz. Like MILES DAVIS’ ‘50s stuff. Porgy and Bess, for example. I guess DAVE BRUBECK fits in there, too. So, that’s the only new influx of musical inspiration for me. Other than that, I’ve been buying the same type of records I always have. Prog, symphonic rock, singer/songwriter, metal, hard rock… But there wasn’t anything that set me off like THE ZOMBIES or SCOTT WALKER. Nothing got me going this time.”

Actually, that’s not entirely true. Akerfeldt’s always mining for progressive gold. Good, rare music is particularly good at getting his motor running. He found double-gold in one-off Italian outfit IL PAESE DEI BALOCCHI and BOBAK, JONS, MALONE’s ultra-obscure »Motherlight« album. To wit, get Akerfeldt talking about either and he’s all too pleased to discuss the finer points of IL PAESE DEI BALOCCHI’s string-based darkness or how he fan-boyed MALONE via email to get the famed British orchestrator and one-time IRON MAIDEN producer to contribute to »Sorceress«.

TRACKLIST CD:

Album:

01. Persephone
02. Sorceress
03. The Wilde Flowers
04. Will O The Wisp
05. Chrysalis
06. Sorceress 2
07. The Seventh Sojourn
08. Strange Brew
09. A Fleeting Glance
10. Era
11. Persephone (Slight Return)


LINE-UP:

Mikael Akerfeldt | vocals, guitars
Fredrik Akesson | guitars
Martin Mendez | bass
Martin Axenrot | drums
Joakim Svalberg | keys