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More than three decades into their career, Opeth have trained their admirers to expect the unexpected. But even by their own standards, the Swedish progressive titans have conjured something extraordinary this time around. The band’s 14th studio exploration, The Last Will & Testament, is the darkest and heaviest record they have made in decades, it is also the most fearlessly progressive. A concept album recounting the reading of one recently deceased man’s will to an audience of his surviving family members, it brims with haunting melodrama, shocking revelations and some of the wildest and most unpredictable music that songwriter/frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt has ever written. “I have become quite interested in family, and the idea that blood is not always thicker than water,” Åkerfeldt explains. “I became interested in how family members can turn on each other. I saw an interview with this guy whose family had all turned against him, over the inheritance, so I wrote a song about that on the last record. The idea stuck with me, and then along came the TV show Succession, and I loved that series. That was in the back of my head too. It felt like an interesting topic that you could twist and turn a little bit.”
The follow-up to 2019’s widely acclaimed In Cauda Venenum; The Last Will & Testament is set in the shadowy, sepia-stained 1920s. It slowly reveals its secrets like some classic thriller from the distant, cobwebbed past, with each successive song shining more light on the stated machinations of our dead (but definitely not harmless) protagonist. The emotional chaos of the story is perfectly matched by Opeth’s vivid but claustrophobic soundtrack, which artfully winds its way towards a crestfallen but sumptuous finale. Masters of their own idiosyncratic musical domain, Opeth have never sounded more unique.
“I knew I could go a bit overboard and wild with the music, a bit heavier and a bit more metal, maybe, because I felt it would fit the concept, which is dark and kind of complex. You might dabble with the occult in your youth and write songs about Satan, but this felt like I could make a story about real evil, and about human behaviour. It felt like the music for this concept should be on the heavier side of things. It’s a pretty heavy topic.”
Proud adherents to a progressive ethos, Opeth have never repeated themselves, and The Last Will & Testament is every bit as revelatory and adventurous as its 13 predecessors. But one thing is undeniable: Mikael Akerfeldt’s peerless death metal growls are back, for the first time since Watershed in 2008.
More info > https://www.palaistheatre.com.au/all-events/opeth-tickets-ae356
Sale Dates and Times:
Public Onsale : Fri, 15 Nov 2024 at 11:00 AM
Album Preorder Presale : Wed, 13 Nov 2024 at 11:00 AM
My Ticketmaster Presale : Thu, 14 Nov 2024 at 11:00 AM
Promoter Presale : Thu, 14 Nov 2024 at 11:00 AM
Spotify Presale : Thu, 14 Nov 2024 at 11:00 AM
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia
Tickets
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