SORCERESS

Sorceress is a very versatile album, as most Opeth albums are. In Sorceress, Opeth explores new areas the band has never been to and experiments with different styles. The first single and title track sounds like progressive grunge as the chorus has a very "grungey" sound and it reveals an upbeat, powerful style without the previous usage of growls. The Wilde Flowers is a little cheesy, but the second half of the song makes up for it and the chorus grows on you. The lyrics aren't the best which is fairly consistent throughout the album. Will O The Wisp, the second single, is a nice folk sounding song. It's very smooth and relaxing and has good melodies. Chrysalis is a pretty wild song and definitely needs a couple of listens to really understand. It is very upbeat and then like The Wilde Flowers, has a calm ending which transitions nicely, directly from some solid soloing. Sorceress 2 is a very mysterious song. It's very short and features soft and beautiful vocals. The Seventh Sojourn has a tribal theme and is almost an instrumental with the exception of the ending. The ending is very mysterious and sounds like Sorceress 2. It's also the highlight of the song as the tribal sounding majority, with its repetitiveness, does not have much replay value. Strange Brew is the best song on the album. The intro is very relaxing and then about two minutes in it breaks into absolute chaos. The tempo is extremely fast and it's very satanic sounding. Then the vocals come in very strongly followed by some fierce soloing that just matches perfectly. The piano on this track is so haunting as the song slows down again. And then that killer guitar hits again and it's just chilling. Everything synchronizes so well with the vocals and transitions so nicely. When it's all said and done, this song will go down as one of Opeth's greats. A Fleeting Glance is another good one with the vocals having a very light and finessed touch while matched with clean electric and acoustic, and a nice bass line. It's just a very well flowing song. Then the chorus hits towards the end of the song matched with guitar of the same melody and then a short but sweet solo. The ending is performed with great bliss and tops off a lovely listen. Era is not a highlight of the album, but it is a great ender and really sums up not only the album, but where Opeth is right now musically, "The end of an era, one starts a new.". Sorceress is an album that rocks hard at times and shows off beauty at other times. However, it does this in a manner that we have not seen before with Opeth. The transitions in this album are stellar and the melodies are as good as ever. I do not see Opeth in decline whatsoever as they are evolving and transforming their style each album.