Something we don't understand! - 44%
When Heritage was about to be released Akerfeldt said,” I think you'll need a slightly deeper understanding of our music as a whole to be able to appreciate this record.”
I being an understanding, deep and rather a huge Opeth fan was thrilled! But after listening to the album, that quote was like asking a guy to watch his Ferrari get smashed up and then wanting him to have a wider vision!
Steven Wilson produced this album and I believe that the band should have asked the help from another producer who is more familiar with the new different approach with a bit of Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and Sabbath influence, and if you love any of those bands, you will surely dislike Opeth’s album.
Heritage is without doubt loaded with new ideas which are unfortunately unrelated, it lacked the dark Opeth atmosphere we are used to and lacked any originality what so ever. What I loved about Opeth previously is taking chances on music and compositions; in Heritage music is passionless and careful, a bit underdeveloped, disjoint and rather unbalanced!
Good jazz-infused moments can be found in some songs and Fredrik played good guitar solos, but the whole album lacked any decent guitar riffs, lacked any growls and lacked any Opeth character. Per’s keyboard playing took over very vast areas and held some kind of connection in places, but it was used instead of guitars in a confusing way as in “The Devil’s Orchard” and this continued in other songs like, “I Feel the Dark,” and “The Lines in My Hand.” Piano was a major part in the title track “Heritage” which gave it a mellow feeling but been overwhelmingly repetitive and somehow boring.
Some parts of songs are awesome mentioning Häxprocess where I thought, “Finally a good song that I may like”, but as the rest of the album; it was played carefully and turned lame, so whatever attracted me; lost me! As the riffs were flat and somehow lacked cohesion. “Folklore” might be the most jointed, related together and most balanced song technically.
The only thing that gained my utmost pleasure was the lyrics because as always Opeth delivers great lines and equally great emotions throughout the words. However, those lines would fit death metal songs more than the direction of classics’ that Opeth headed for, so it failed to win me over completely.
I could not hold a sigh when listening to these lines from Nepenthe:
"Friends would leave me in my darkest hour
Yet trust me with their lives"
Listening to the album made me want to go back and listen to Damnation or any old Opeth album and I ended up listening to Dio and praying he won’t be able to hear his tribute song “Slither” wherever he is, though it is one of the best in the album.
Whether you are a Death Metal fan or a progressive fan, this album is not for you, I know many Opeth fans will be pissed off and grunting their teeth about this, but it’s time to call things by their names… “What is good is good and what is bad is bad. “
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