Opeth – Pale Communion: first thoughts
If one thinks of a band that has undergo artistic changes and yet manages to keep their trademarks, one can’t hardly miss out Opeth. The swedish band started their career back in the early 90’s as a death metal band, who caught the attention of the listeners with prolonged songs and skilled musicianship.
Over time, and after some line-up-changes, Mikael Åkerfeldt’s love for progressive rock grew stronger. “Heritage”, the predecessor to “Pale Communion” showed the new Opeth: basically no death metal (or any metal at all) could be found in the songs, while 70’s progressive rock dominated. The album couldn’t grab the attention due to the surprisingly weak songs. A band like Opeth, who’ve always showed remarkable songwriting skills, couldn’t have been satisfied with the results, one would think.
And now, a few years later, “Pale Communion”. There’s no going back to death metal, no heavy guitars, no growls. Nohing. Opeth continue their journey into weed-laden progressive rock – and managed to write catchy songs. “Moon Above, Sun Below” is a nice example of Opeth 2014: catchy and at no seconds of it’s more-than-then-minutes-run boring or repetive. The album grows with every time one listens to it.
Stay tuned for a more detailed review of “Pale Communion”!