SORCERESS

This is a rather disappointing album for the old school Opeth fans. There are only traces of their former heaviness in these songs. But unlike the enchanting and bleak softness of Damnation, Sorceress displays a more commercial type of softness, sacrificing their cutting edge inventiveness for something far more approachable to your regular unreflective listener with untrained ears. There's a lot of focus on keyboards and clean vocals, leaving the guitars to the background at times, highlighting the old 70's prog rock approach. While Akerfeldt is certainly a genius at capturing that retro quality, it seems his creative juices were fresher in Heritage and Pale Communion in this regard. After a couple of spins, the only songs that stand out are Sorceress and Strange Brew. Still, these songs don't stand up to even some of the weaker tracks on the two previous albums. It is still a good album, since this is Opeth after all and they have polished their production to perfection, whatever kind of music they may choose to play.