There’s a lot of mystery and intrigue here, part Agatha Christie, part F Scott Fitzgerald, part Ernest Hemmingway, set in a period where certain things were discussed only in private, but here made public in the most impactful way. Perhaps it's because of the mysteries nature of this story that has brought back the death metal influence Opeth seemingly put in their past.
In keeping with the concept it has no track names except for the last one, it’s a deliberate choice as each song is another paragraph of the will revealing another part of the story. It’s Opeth’s first proper concept album since Still Life and it may just be their best album yet. Combining all of the elements you want from Opeth with the veteran spirit you'd expect from the Swedish progressive metal act.
As if inspired by the time it is set, The Last Will And Testament features a metric tonne of jazz, as well as the aforementioned growls and death metal. These are things that they left behind on their Watershed record. Since then of course they've still been a fantastic progressive rock band, leaning more on the style of music produced by Camel, Jethro Tull and even Can. I've loved the Heritage to In Cauda Venenum era immensely but there is a huge portion of their fandom that kept the decrying the fact that they let the growls go. In Cauda Venenum took a darker turn that continues into The Last Will And Testament.
I'm not in that number that decryed the loss of the growls, as you can probably appreciate, but I'm sure huge amount of them will really enjoy the fact that they're back on this fourteenth record. It’s just another element of what is a multifaceted album, with so much happening the metallic aggression is met with huge rock swells, folky melodies and of course jazz counterpoints. I'm not going to go on about the return of the growls because really I want to concentrate on this record as it is. So as I said welcome to the jazz club. Nice.
What this album is full of is, mellotron something that has become synonymous with Opeth as a band, I'm really glad it's still there it's almost like their calling card now, those lingering eerie chords such an intrinsic part to their sound that it's almost become its own genre. Opeth now are a band that are veterans/legends/superstars, however you want to put it. Because of how they sound there are thousands of brands that try to emulate them meaning that they are almost their own genre now right?
There are bands that “sound like Opeth” we mention that phrase a lot in this publication, due to their union between the extreme side of heavy metal and the 70s influences brought in by their frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt. The Last Will And Testament definitely still resides in the 70s, §6 for instance has heavy Hammonds from Joakim Svalberg, oddly timed riffs and some brilliantly bonkers drumming from Waltteri Väyrynen, who makes his recorded debut with the band.
If it weren’t for the death growls, which Mikael still pulls off effortlessly, there would still be a heavy prog vibe to this track, as there is on §1, Martín Méndez’s bass tapping out the rhythm for the rest to follow. Fredrik Åkesson and Mikael Åkerfeldt’s guitars coming in for some of that “Opeth sound”. On §4 there’s a folky middle section featuring a Cittra and Ian Anderson’s flute, the Jethro Tull man returns with more flute on §7, but drops in throughout the record with spoken word elements to continue the narrative.
He’s not the only guest, Europe’s Joey Tempest adds some bluesy backing vocals to torrent of time switches that is the jazz/death of §2. This second chapter highlights an element that has again been explored more with this album, there seems to be a bigger use of backing vocals on this album, it gives the album a cinematic feel because of it, the last track A Story Never Told a fitting finale to this tale of mystery and intrigue, piano driven balladry, dreamy atmosphere's, harp from Mia Westlund and as a guitar solo plays to fade out the London Session Orchestra arranged by Dave Stewart, mushrooms into brilliance.
Cinematic is a perfect term for this record, the strings are used wonderfully for a full pantheon of soundscapes, be it desolation, anger, shock, all of the emotions that the characters deal with on this record and with a contrite 50 minute run time total, their shortest since Damnation, the band deliver every twist and turn of the story with focus and precision. There’s no wasted time, nothing lingers longer than it has to, there’s an immediacy which takes hold right from the beginning.
Even on §5 the longest cut on the record, which has a bristling acoustic section in the middle, set to a stirring orchestral base and Latin percussion. Åkerfeldt’s sonorous cleans shifting into the growls to enforce drama. As with first nine Opeth records, the prog rock influence has always broken up these phases of quite brutal aggressive death metal but on The Last Will And Testament the two are symbiotic, one leading into the other and back again.
While their last four albums were incredible, the band still sounding like them, but perhaps trying to break away from their youth, getting a bit mellower with age. The Last Will And Testament is Opeth angry again, it’s them reigniting the “Opeth Sound” mellotrons, heavy riffs, off-kilter riffs and yes growls. It could be their finest record. 10/10
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