Intriguing prog collaboration between Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth and Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. With those creative minds involved, you might expect something like Opeth's Damnation, which they both worked on, and whilst this feels like it's in similarly haunting territory, it's not quite the same. Somehow, it simultaneously manages to be more ambient and more folk-oriented than that album, taking the duo's music into meditative realms far from the energetic tumult both their regular bands are known for evoking. Weighing in at just under 48 minutes, it wisely doesn't outstay its welcome, and represents a fascinating experiment in two prolific musicians crafting something which clearly has both of their fingerprints on it - there'll be moments which remind you of the quieter passages in your favourite Opeth or Porcupine Tree albums - but at the same time lands somewhere neither of them would have arrived at on their own.

Smoulder further refine their excellent Epic Doom/US Power Metal/Heavy Metal blend on this second album, in which Sarah Ann's valkyrie vocals deliver high fantasy lyrics against a blistering instrumental backing. Michael Moorcock even pops in to provide a touch of narration on one track, making the band join an elite circle of bands to not merely draw inspiration from Moorcock's seminal 1960s and 1970s sword and sorcery works but also benefit from his creative contributions (others in the club including Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult). They richly merit it too, with an engaging, energetic sound which can't help but get your blood pumping. If you have any tolerance for cheesy fun in your metal at all, give this a try.

This is and isn't another experimental album from Sigh; to be exact, it's experimental in the sense that once again they have reconfigured their sound, but on the other hand it isn't experimental in that the material they're incorporating isn't especially unusual or unprecedented in Sigh's sound.

But on the third hand - the one you weren't expecting - it is experimental because all these old sounds are being put together with a different perspective, the band's long experience being put to great use. There's a doomier side to their avant-black metal here, adding an extra dose of heaviness, and the way the group work these slow, ominous slabs of doom into their frenetic avant-black metal landscape is the genius of this album, which stands as another excellent milestone in their expansive catalogue.

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.

Hey now, Horrendous, don't put yourself down! You might have the most self-deprecating band name in death metal but this stuff is pretty good!

Idol is the first album I've heard from Horrendous, but it's leaving me inclined to dip a little further into their discography. Apparently, they dial up the psychedelically-tinged progressive sides of their sounds here; what you get is a mixture of technically proficient, complex death metal, progressive song structures, and the occasional quieter, spacier moment - the short instrumental Threnody being perhaps the most sustained example of the latter.

Combined with lyrics which manage to be confrontational and compelling without being performatively edgy, this presents a thoughtful vision of death metal from the opening salvos all the way to the doomy album closer Obulus. In short, not horrendous at all - though I suppose "Very Good" isn't exactly a good band name.