Warthur Sometimes you need to go away to get a better handle on where you come from. Every so often, a band comes along who ends up going on a musical journey far away from the style which they originally made their names with, only to return to that genre and produce some of their best material within that format thanks to the broader musical perspective and the expanded range of techniques that journey has invested them with. Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, for instance, drifted away from their early death-doom style for much of their middle career, only to produce some of their best albums in that vein once they came back to it.

Now, with The Last Will and Testament, Opeth have pulled off the same trick. For their run of albums from Heritage onwards, they've been more in a traditional progressive rock vein than the blend of proggy death metal and death-inflected prog metal that put them on the map. However, in the album preceding this one - In Cauda Venenum - echoes of heavier styles could be heard if you listened carefully, spurring speculation that they might one day make their big return to metal. That's what they have done here. Sure, it has plenty of quieter passages - but so has Still Life or Blackwater Park; unambiguously, The Last Will and Testament sees Opeth returning to the prog-death kingdom they founded, Mikael Åkerfeldt even breaking out old-school harsh vocals here and there alongside his clean vocals.

At the same time, this isn't a retreat to Opeth's comfort zone so much as it's a new departure. It's a concept album, like Still Life, but goes deeper into that territory than that album did, with an even bigger focus on presenting a narrative and even throwing in a touch of theatrical flair absent from that work. The story is all about a family who come together to hear the reading of the titular will - the final testament of their tyrannical, estranged patriarch. In that sense, bringing back the harsh vocals just plain makes sense - if you want to capture all these characters' perspectives, the more distinct voices the better. In fact, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame not only provides some flute contributions here and there, but also throws in some narration here and there.

But where this really offers a departure is the way that Opeth's four-album expedition into retro-prog territories has polished and refined their command of the less heavy side of their sound, with quiet moments of folk-tinged or classically orchestrated music worked in to excellent effect. Having Anderson along for the ride becomes doubly appropriate, because whilst the style here is far from retro, it's learned enough lessons of the past to truly claim to be part of a musical tradition you can trace back all the way through Anderson's pioneering work with Jethro Tull (along with Anderson's other first-wave prog peers).

Maybe you love both classic-period Opeth and their more recent prog-embracing, metal-abjuring works, in which case you don't really need this review - you're going to listen to Last Will and Testament sooner or later anyway and you'll probably enjoy it just as much as the rest of their discography. But this is also an excellent album for anyone who's pickier about their Opeth. If you loved their metal-oriented work but felt that the albums from Heritage on went in a direction you weren't inspired to follow, then this may well be a great point to get back on board, because they're offering sounds here they've allowed to lie fallow for over a decade. If, on the other hand, you came onboard with their recent work but aren't quite keen on their metal side, this might put you off - but I'd encourage you to give you a try, because this might be the "in" you needed to really get to grips with the band's metal roots.

As for me, I think it easily slots into the top tier of Opeth releases. At the very least, it's their best metal-oriented album since Ghost Reveries, and it may well be on a par with any of their other studio efforts.

adg211288 We need to be clear about thing before we get into this review for Opeth's fourteenth studio album The Last Will and Testament: Opeth isn't 'back' just because this album marks their return to the extreme progressive metal sounds of yesteryear. They never went away, and have produced a string of progressive rock based albums (the most recent two reintroducing metal ideas in a different manner) that proved that Mikael Åkerfeldt doesn't need to growl in order for Opeth to be Opeth. As a band, they are so much more than that. I for one was quite content with the direction they were going in. No band should be forced to make music they're not feeling just because the fans expect it.

With that said, it's also very difficult to not, after the sixteen years since Mikael last growled on an Opeth studio album (which was 2008's Watershed), not to be excited by the idea of a new Opeth album in their 'classic' style. The burning question is, of course, if The Last Will and Testament does that?

Well yes, it does, and more besides. The album's sound is like a coming together of the old and new, with plenty of different elements being thrown into what is once again a more extreme metal based sound. There's symphonic progressive rock elements which, for my money, appear the most extensively since Opeth's 2014 Pale Communion album. It also verges into more experimental/avant-garde territory and makes use of a bit of flute courtesy of Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, so also provides some spoken word vocals. Spoken word is music is rather hit and miss for me, but this technique works on The Last Will and Testament by virtue of not being overdone. The album also contains more minor genre references including classical music and jazz rock. It sounds like old Opeth, but new Opeth is in here too. This isn't a throwback album, it's the culmination of their career to date.

As their first concept album since 1999's Still Life, The Last Will and Testament is structured to reflect a will reading. Except for the final song, A Story Never Told, which serves as an epilogue of sorts, the tracks are not named except to be referred to as paragraphs one through seven (denoted by the § symbol). This has the small drawback of not having a clear reference point which to refer to the songs by, but the songs are able to quickly assert themselves apart from each other all the same. Most make use of Åkerfeldt's growling vocals, except for §3 and A Story Never Told. The former is still a metal song but the later is the album's only full progressive rock song. This means that the growls are being used more than on Opeth's last extreme album Watershed which only had them in three out of seven songs. Compared to older Opeth though they've avoided any single songs that cross the ten minute barrier, going for more median lengths between five and seven-odd minutes.

All in all I think The Last Will and Testament is an excellent Opeth album. As a still new record I can't really say how I will feel about it in relation to their other albums a year or two from now, but as an extreme progressive metal album it sits in good company with their earlier work especially the period of Still Life through to Watershed, while also not ignoring that the prog rock era Opeth happened. I don't think this was an album made under fan pressure to go back to their more popular sound, more like Mikael Åkerfeldt began to feel this sort of music again, especially to tie into a concept record. It really is anyone's guess whether this will mark a permanent return to the style, but I don't think it matters either way. Opeth is a band with nothing to prove; they will do what they want and don't have to stick to a ridged style. That is, ultimately, what makes them an exciting band. I wouldn't rule out future observations sounding like either or of their distinct eras, or perhaps something new entirely.