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OPETH “The Last Will And Testament”
OPETH “The Last Will And Testament”
By Iron Sheik
OPETH return with a headphone oriented... in my case Bose earbuds being as close to headphones as is possible in my world,...dynamic ,heavy and haunting “The Last Will And Testament”, a concept album set in post World War I. I admittedly had fallen off the OPETH bandwagon after the “Deliverance/Damnation” pairing of 2002/2003 although I have kept my ear somewhat open to the releases of the 20 year gap between those albums and now in 2024.
Here I picked up on some funk, mystical Oriental sounds and tribal rhythms in the music. Is this something OPETH just recently added to their sound, or on previous albums and I just missed it? Either way it sounds as if this is the band's first incorporating of these sounds into their music to my ears. I have lost track of their innovations from album to album since "Damnation/Deliverance". So, it's been a minute.
The bass is just outstanding here, and I like the haunting ethereal and at times aggressively demanding keyboards (I hate keyboards, but hey...). I can hear OPETH of old at times too. Not saying the albums in between were bad or lacking, I just lost interest in their style of music at that point. What made me really recognize this new album as an exceptional piece of work was it filling in as background noise while I was reading the news. I know it is odd to recognize music in this manner, but it happens in all kinds of ways in my world.
Haunting, ethereal, heavy, and gothic sounding is how I can best describe this 50 minute long album, one track broken into chapters within the album title. I am liking the sound of this album more than I enjoyed their earlier work, and I like how this seems to be just a single track. Most chapters are connected one to the next with a spoken passage or soft musical piece done in a PINK FLOYD style. Plus the ups and downs of the music and vocals is insane. For the first time in sixteen years we have the return of such death metal elements as death growls.
Mikael Akerfeldt and the guys have conjured one of my unexpected favoite albums of 2024. Speaking of the other guys playing on this album we have Martin Mendez on bass, Fredrik Akesson on guitars and backing vocals, Joakim Svalberg on keyboards and backing vocals, and Walterri Vayrynen on drums as well as Mikael Akerfeldt who scorches our ears on lead vocals and guitars. Other contributors of note on “The Last Will And Testament” album are Ian Anderson of JETHRO TULL on flute and spoken word, Joey Tempest of EUROPE on backing vocals, Mia Westlund on harp, and the London Session Orchestra.
As the album plays out, shocking family secrets are revealed about a wealthy patriarch and his infertile wife. §1 leads us into the dark side of family secrets and strife."Like spiders weave rumors spread fast above regal tombs, enacted grief." I think that line summarizes the album’s story as well as opens the door to the doom to come. §2 takes the listener into a plea for forgiveness with "snow made white the street of dreams." Salvation sought for the secrets are asked for. §3 Is but a ransom that would be laid bare for a child disfigured. "This desire for wealth, lure of a prosperous well." On §4, Ian's flute adds an extra layer to the already haunting melodies. Truth of one who is cursed and "forever in debt." "Daughter, my unfortunate son, I bequeath you verity." §5 sheds light on an enigma laying forth a plethora of darkness within truth, and damnation, secrets, entombed, phantasma, virtue, spiritual leprosy, a juggernaut, forevermore, haze, bastards, abomination, revernce, with sanctum tethered to a requiem, devised,signed could be it's a "...riddle...caper...mockery...deception...No."
§6 gets very creepy and gothic :"Daughter above...vindication of me." §7 "And now time to say goodbye,I vow to lovelorn Gemini." A scion of one but deus. “A Story Never Told” is the album closer and only titled piece. "There is a road home" in these stories of an "heiress with a stranger's eyes." I think this sums up the themes of “The Last Will And Testament” even though it may be a separate piece from the chapters of the album or an epilogue to those chapters before it.
“The Last Will And Testament” has quite an atmosphere to it, and it is an excellent foray into melding 70s and 80s prog. This is a very cool current progressive death metal album steeped in past influences. I know Mikael Akerfeldt is currently or at least was a prog record junkie/collector. I remember reading how he was a consumer of all the 70s prog on vinyl he could, and it really shows. It is an excellent slab of heavy atmospheric gothic middle Eastern funk progressive death metal. Whewww, that was a mouthful! Plus the spoken passages not only fill in and propel the story they are done in such a fashion they are an excellent blended part of the music. Thanks ,Ian. OPETH have crafted an album of unparalled prog music telling a very realistic story over fifty minutes. Can we ask for more? Truth be told, I am as afraid to hear more family secrets as I am spooked by the spirits they manifest. I say let's chance it and bring more on! Until more becomes a reality, lets revel in the darkness of “The Last Will And Testament” of OPETH.
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