Sweden’s most revered and respected progressive metal mavens Opeth will release Heritage, their third album for Roadrunner, on September 20th. The first single and video will be the song “The Devil’s Orchard.” Heritage follows up 2008’s Watershed and 2005’s Ghost Reveries, each of which garnered the forward-thinking, genre-bending band some of the best reviews of their career.
Opeth frontman and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt weighed in on Heritage, saying, “It will be our 10th album/observation. I dig it; we all do. In fact, it feels like I’ve been building up to write for and participate on an album like this since I was 19.”
Åkerfeldt went a little deeper and described the music contained within Heritage, saying, “It’s quite intense at times in some ‘old’ murky way, and quite beautiful and stark at times, if I may say so myself. It’s obvious I’m going to say nice things about it since I wrote basically the whole piece, but I guess it will raise a few eyebrows and it certainly is an acquired taste. I think you’ll need a slightly deeper understanding of our music as a whole to be able to appreciate this record. I’ve realized my influences for this album are so diverse that I can’t really say what it sounds like. If I can compare it to any other band, it would have to be Opeth, but it’s different from the stuff we’ve done before. I’ve listened a lot to Alice Cooper for the last year, yet I can’t say it sounds like ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy.’ I hope you’ll like it once you hear it.”
The album was produced by Åkerfeldt and mixed along with Porcupine Tree frontman/guitarist Steven Wilson, who is a labelmate of Opeth. Longtime collaborator Travis Smith also worked with Åkerfeldt to create, design and execute the album’s artwork.
The track listing for Heritage is as follows:
“Heritage”
“The Devil’s Orchard”
“I Feel the Dark”
“Slither”
“Nepenthe”
“Haxprocess”
“Famine”
“The Lines in My Hand”
“Folklore”
“Marrow of the Earth”
Heritage will be released in several configurations that will certainly incite the interest of Opeth’s legion of fans, known for their passion for collecting and collectibles. The album will be released as a standard version; as a special edition loaded with extras; as a box set exclusive to the Roadrunner and the bands own official Omerch webstore; and as a double LP. There is something for every Opeth fan, thanks to this expansive variety of options.
Opeth will also embark on a seven-week, headline tour of the US. Dates will be announced imminently.
Here’s a sampling of what the press has had to say about Opeth in the past few years.
“The Swedish metal band Opeth, widened its sound in the mid-90’s, letting in acoustic guitars and clean vocals, and its albums since then have been careful refinements, with long, admirably coherent songs. Watershed is broad enough to encompass death-metal pummeling as we as cello and English horn, is typically engrossing- symphonic, and in a way organic.” –The New York Times
“The musical lineup fits Opeth’s style of lengthy songs that mix aggressive, heavy passages with delicate, melodic parts, making it one of the most unique bands straddling the line between progressive music and metal.” – Billboard
“Watershed combines elements of modern metal, prog rock, free jazz and hints of European folk music, all of which come together for a seamless, unique collection of songs that will leave an indelible mark upon all who listen” — Hails & Horns
“The amount of variety on Watershed is staggering, and it’s a gift that keeps on giving. . Nobody else is as deft at weaving together such disparate elements, while still making consistently great albums.”
–Outburn
For more information on Opeth, please contact Amy Sciarretto in the Roadrunner Records Publicity Department at amy@roadrunnerrecords.com
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