THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

I doubt I'll ever be able to write a proper review of this album as, although I own all the so called 'Newpeth' albums, nothing really connects with me much. Most modern prog stuff I can get a handle on but I struggle with this lot. I don't hear any real dynamics in the music and the typical death metal aesthetic is well up front in their music and that is just not my scene. The middle part of the album is okay , but it's just okay. There is a nice bit of fleeing flute from Ian Anderson and a keyboard solo livens it up for a brief moment but it's nowhere near enough. I don't doubt that Akerfeldt is a massive talent but it was probably time for him to fly the coup many moons ago. Difficult though when you have a money making machine and there aren't that many in prog rock nowadays.