[ARCHIVE/Review] Opeth - 'The Last Will and Testament', 03.12.24.
Note: We’ve had an absolute plethora of changes to our team, with the addition of multiple new staffers recently! As well, the ISC crew have been absolutely smashing it on the content front, with a myriad of great gig/album reviews and more. Props to my collective of very-patient, ADHD-weathering staffers at ISC. Appreciate-cha.
Now, in terms of staff content, another project (among too many, Jesus Christ - talk about foisted-by-my-own-petard) is the finalising of the ISC Dead Blog necromancy ritual. For those new to the site or just dropping in for the the first time - a) WELCOME :) and b) we unfortunately lost our previous website to a failed domain-transfer amongst other hijinks, at 6pm approx AEST on NYE 2024. Big sad.
I’m proud to exhume a fantastic review by stellar musician and music-lover, Hamza, in his wonderful ode to Opeth’s most recent LP in The Last Will and Testament. Just as much a joy for me to read now as it was in December.
Be sure to follow us via our various links and such top-right/bottom of post. Plenty, and I mean PLENTY of incoming content via my wonderful team this year.
Peace, Love and Iconic Swedish Progressive Death Metal xoxo - Brady.
Album Review: Opeth - The Last Will and Testament LP
Author: Hamza.
Original Post Date: 12th December, 2024.
It’s been a little while since I was genuinely excited for a new Opeth album. Not necessarily because I ever stopped enjoying their music, but what they were putting out and what I was getting into were just in different place. It’s not them, it’s *me,* so to speak. We drifted apart, but I’ll always cherish the time we spent together: Blackwater Park, Ghost Reveries, Damnation, and Still Life will always be special to me.
Uhhh, yeah. It'll be a surprise if Opeth ever puts out an album that embeds itself as deeply into my musical DNA as those albums did – but that’s true of all of our high school favourites, isn’t it? Here we are with Opeth’s fourteenth (!) record, The Last Will and Testament, and so far, it's surpassing my expectations.
A concept album split into seven paragraphs ('§1,' '§2,' - read: 'Paragraph 1,' 'Paragraph 2,' etc.) and a “twist” of a final song 'A Story Never Told,' the album’s framing device takes us into the reading of a conservative patriarch’s will, the lyrics seeming to be a mix of the his otherwordly reflections, the singular and collective thoughts of various family members, and direct readings of the will in the form of spoken word sections. We’ve got hints of “Knives Out”-style family drama, gothic themes of botched inheritance and disease. It’s all very enticing, and although I won’t comment too much on the story, it certainly adds a vibe to the album, a sense of cohesion that might not otherwise be there; on first listen – hell, for me, even on 15th – the songs on the album sorta blend together, but I’m a lot more willing to accept this if I think of the music as a single piece split into parts (“§1,” “§2,” etc., after all).
Musically, The Last Will and Testament is a fun mix of the post-Heritage Camel-prog era and the earlier Steven Wilson-era. There isnt much of the melancholic folk vibe that characterised the latter, but we do have the oft-commented return of Mikael Akerfeldt's growls (sounding better than ever, I have to say) and there are plenty of riffs that would have been just as at home on Ghost Reveries as on In Cauda Venenum, and it’s a very welcome sound. Also intact are the Opeth-ian musical detours that we’ve all come to know and love, '§4' including a beautiful harp interlude (played by Mia Westlund) right in the middle, which takes us into a very 70s-inspired flute-solo courtesy of Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, who returns on the flute on a handful of tracks and also performs much of the album’s spoken word. There's a suitably cinematic flair to the album, especially with the inclusion of strings (courtesy of the London Session Orchestra) on tracks like '§7' and '§3,' which often mix with a diverse mix of keys (piano, Hammond organ, mellotron) from Joakim Svalberg (and apparently Akerfeldt too, as Wikipedia dubiously informs me). Mikael's arrangement of these tracks is impeccable and very subtly layered, and there's textural, atmospheric sounds going on that I don't think I've ever really heard Opeth explore to this extent before; I think back in the day, they would have gotten a similar effect with haunting acoustic passages, but on this album it comes more from the interplay between the keys, strings, and guitar lead lines.
The performances are as good as they've ever been; everyone is audible, sits nicely in the mix and gets their chance to shine. Particularly worth are highlighting is drummer Waltteri Väyrynen's first album performance, which is suitably excellent and fits right in with all of the Opeth-ian grooves we've comes to love.
As much as the songs do blend together, they're becoming more and more distinct the more I listen to it. As late as this review is, I still need time to digest; like a lot of Opeth's best music, it's entrancing, and hypnotic. I wouldn’t call it easy listening, but it’s definitely rewarding, and the album has a lot to offer the attentive listener. In fact, this review feels incomplete: my first draft was a lot larger, and something more substantial might get published later as I form more of an opinion on how the album comes together and how it sits in Opeth's discog. As it is, I heartily recommend the album: I’m enjoying The Last Will and Testament more and more the, uhhh, more I listen to it.
Editor’s Note - 20.02.25:
Reminder! Opeth still have tickets onsale for their upcoming Australian/NZ Tour - in fact, due to high demand, additional ticket sales and a change of location have been announced for the New Zealand leg.
To scope out the skinny on these Swedish progressive metal giants’ upcoming massive tour, see here for the artist/promoters’ press release right here on our site with all the details you’ll need for the Australian leg. Heavy News article with NZ-related changes coming soon, and more information as it occurs.
Nice lil’ bonus - contained within you’ll also find what I personally hold dear as an Arch-Interview of mine. That is, as a bassist, one of my utmost long-term bass-player idols in Opeth’s Martin Mendez. There’s a full video and/or audio-only podcast version contained within, accessible also via our Youtube Channel and various podcast platforms.
This will be my 9th time seeing Opeth live and let me tell you now - there’s many, many reasons why I’ve never skimped on a tour since my first experience in the mid-late aughts. It’s a fantastic spectacle few bands can match in terms of granduer and grandiosity. Well worth your consideration.
Thanks for joining me in another iteration of Hamza’s fantastic reviews. He has some more progressive happenings in both musicianship and music-reviewer form. Be sure to check out his fantastic doomgaze/post-rock band in Melbourne’s Sliknita while you’re here. Here’s their Bandcamp!
