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Opeth’s Heritage will likely forever stand as one of the most polarising albums of all time. The shift from death metal to 70s style prog rock, coupled with a complete lack of harsh vocals from frontman Mikael Akerfeldt understandably left a lot of fans unsatisfied. Not only that but the change in genres was not handled in the best way. While I enjoyed the album overall, it seemed far more scattered and aimless than the band’s previous works. With that in mind many fans aren’t too excited for the release of their upcoming 11th studio album, Pale Communion.

Listening to Pale Communion, I find myself thinking two things. One, this album is pretty great. Two, it’s unlikely to win back the band’s old fans. Akerfeldt is continuing down the same road he started on with Heritage and clearly has no desire to turn back. This alone is understandably going to turn some fans away. Opeth were a fantastic metal band who refined their sound over time, culminating with the masterpiece that is Blackwater Park. The change in genres essentially creates the feeling that the band is starting all over again, and that refinement is no longer there. But given the huge improvement over Heritage it’s clear we’re getting there.

Both Heritage and Pale Communion are attempts to recreate the feel of 70s progressive rock, and they have so much in common that it’s impossible not to compare them. But while the former felt like a haphazard attempt to hark back to that time period, the latter is a much more successful throwback. For someone who is clearly a huge prog rock fan, Akerfeldt felt extremely out of his depth on the last album, as if he understood that prog needed weird song structures and unusual time signatures, but didn’t fully understand how to put them into a good song. On this album however, his vision is much better realised, mixing said weird song structures with lush vocals and beautiful, atmospheric music.

By far the highlight of the album is the masterful “River,” a track that not only works as a fantastic throwback to early prog rock, but could easily serve among the best of the genre’s heyday. The gorgeous “Moon Above, Sun Below” is a close runner-up. Interestingly these two tracks, and the instrumental “Goblin” are, I think, the songs that seem to deviate the most from Opeth’s typical structure, and are way better off for it. While songs like the lead single, “Cusp of Eternity” are certainly not bad, they feel like somewhat better versions of what we heard on the last album, rather than the excellently executed evolution of the album as a whole.

It may seem to people reading this that, while I’m comparing this album to Heritage a lot, I’m failing to explain how it stacks up compared to their earlier work. Truth be told, it’s such a different beast that it’s impossible to compare the two. My gut instinct would be to say that it’s not as good as their old material. It certainly isn’t as good as Blackwater Park, but that’s perhaps too high a benchmark.

Honestly I think it’s kind of unfair to compare this album to Opeth’s earlier works. There will always be a subset of fans who will never like anything the band does again as long as it isn’t death metal. And that’s fair, the change in style is so drastic that it was never going to appeal to everyone. But judging it on its own merits, Pale Communion is a pretty great imitation of 70s prog rock. There isn’t anything new on this album, it’s purely a throwback, so if you’re a fan of the genre it may come across as somewhat generic. But while it has some flaws, it also shines in other places and tracks like “River” and “Moon Above, Sun Below” really elevate the album to another level.

Pale Communion comes out August 26th on Roadrunner Records.