THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be hyped for a new Opeth album. Sure, I'm a fan of the band, and I'll still check it out when it comes out, but if you were to tell me in say 2022 or 2023 that Opeth was making a new album, I wouldn't really mind. This, on the other hand, had me constantly refreshing YouTube throughout all my breaks in between classes to see if it was uploaded early. I had incredibly high expectations for this album, especially seeing two certain special guests that I'll get to soon, and also the fact that this was the first Opeth album with actual Death Growls in over a decade. And I was not let down in the slightest. Not only did The Last Will and Testament exceed my expectations, it blew them out of the water. For my money, this record stands next to Blackwater Park, Still Life, and Ghost Reveries. The perfect mix between complex progressive rock, gloomy death metal, and somber electric ballads made such an incredible listening experience for me, and the overall production and sound quality are top notch. After all these years, Michael Åkerfeldt's voice is still one of the greatest in his musical field, and he masterly pulls off both clean and growling vocals. For the whole personnel, it includes Michael Åkerfeldt on vocals and guitar, Fredrik Åkesson also on guitar, Martin Mendez on bass, Waltteri Vayrynen on drums and percussion, and Joakim Svalberg on keyboards. As for the special guests, Mirjam Åkerfeldt and Joey Tempest appear as backing vocalists, while the one and only genius behind Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson, appears on flute, backing vocals, and spoken word. Apart from Ian, the other important guest I would like to mention is Dave Stewart, who has helped write music for Egg and has written substantial and excellent material for Hatfield and the North and National Health in the past. As for the concept behind the record, it's about a wealthy post-World War II patriarch who dies and leaves his will to his daughter, revealing unknown secrets about the family in doing so. Originally, it was hard for me to find the real meaning (I couldn't really understand some of the vocals, and I didn't want it spoiled through reading the Wikipedia page or going through interviews), but after repeated listens, I found the true concept.

The album opens with the echoing footsteps in the background of §1 (Section 1), a series of six other songs of similar titles that would continue throughout the album. The emptiness within the music is broken by a sudden hauntingly coherent yet uncanny beat, with a burst of crushing guitar flowing into the song. When Michael starts to sing, he once again proves that he is, and will always be, one of the top death growlers to ever live. Normally I'm not really into death metal, but Opeth is such a good band, and there is something so outstanding about Michael's performance. You can feel absolute horror and perfection within the now ever-changing song structure, with it displaying passion, distress, and fear all in one song. In true Opeth fashion, they play this gruelingly incredible music for a couple minutes before making a complete stop and transition into a lush orchestral performance. This section continues until the songs end. It is evident that this album will be nothing like what the band has been putting out for the past decade, and I believe §1 will go down as one of Opeth's best album openers.

§2 continues the orchestral sound from §1 into the opening before immediately jumping back into the death metal aspects. This one is a bit more on the death metal side of the scale than the progressive death metal side, but it's still full of weaving progressive elements. I would also like to mention that the band has these incredible dynamics between growls and clean vocals, making it just the right amount of regular singing for a normal progressive rock enjoyer. The next section is where the one and only Ian Anderson steps in to narrate the story. Another note I would like to add is that I think the band made a genius choice to get Ian on this album, not only because he's a big star within the community but also because his vocal style fits perfectly for the post-World War I era. Moving on, the band goes through some more chilling sequences of dynamics and a second Ian Anderson narration bit, with the keyboards and mellotron adding a lot to the overall feel. This wraps up §2, proving yet again that this will be an incredible landmark for the band.

The next track on the record, §3, is the shortest song on the album and the first with only clean vocals. It opens with a groove that I found similar to The Leper Affinity, but without the death growls, and it includes a couple of breakouts within this area. Because of the death aspects of the song being released, the overall progressive material has a lot more room to breathe. It flows into technical playing and strange tempos and time signatures as Michael provides an incredible deep voice in the background. The song keeps on evolving into entirely new songs within a couple of seconds of every one of these smaller compositions, making it a true staple of the progressive rock and progressive metal subgenre. The song doesn't fade out into quiet measures however, and dies at the peak of this experimentation.

§4 opens with a heavy and jazzy beat that returns some of the death metal styles and much more gloomy music that continues at a progressive pace, completely changing everything in the song in a matter of seconds, and landing at a short yet sweet folk section that easily glides into a new rhythm that sounds similar to early Jethro Tull. This Jethro Tull feel is also helped out by the flute by Ian in this song. It gradually rises, adding more death growls over time and getting heavier and louder. It grows until it reaches a full climax and immediately dies out into silence. This one goes by a little faster than I thought, despite it being seven minutes. This also brings up the one problem I have with this album. The reintroduction of the death growls into the band just makes their music sort of blend together. If a track isn't a major standout to me, it just sounds kind of bland.

Moving on, §5 begins with a lovely orchestral piece that gets interrupted by a bombastic drum blast that evolves into sheer progressive expanse. I also must add that this song perhaps has the most impressive drum technicality in the entire album. The vocals make the song feel even more decrepit and old and masterfully captivate the listener in the story with this feeling. The band continues this jam session vibe of the song until ramping up the intensity and returning to the darkness of older themes on this record. This bleeds into an almost ambient feel, with Michael's singing turning more echoey and distorted. The instrumental bits after this are absolutely insane and chaotic, culminating in a gloomy, clean vocal area that roughly continues until the end of the song but with continuing dynamics in the singing style.

§6's opening is similar to Molotov 1502 before being blown away by another rapid fire drum sequence. The next thing that comes can be described as vocal jazz combined with progressive metal; that actually somehow makes a good combination. Opeth turns to the more death metal aspects pretty quickly after this however and engages in performing some material similar to some of the earlier days in the between Still Life and Watershed. The guitar solo also sounds like something from the 80s with its sound and speed within the notes, which could be both a good thing and a bad thing depending on who you talk to, but I generally think it's a cool one. This extends to the end of the song, with it closing out with a soft and mellow riff accompanied by a lush noise in the background.

The last one of the paragraph songs is §7, which opens again with a drum part that is followed by the rest of the band joining in. This song is more of a slow burner when it comes to growing into Opeth's traditional death metal sound, but it's still an enjoyment. Ian Anderson returns to narrating in this song again, with the low piano adding even more of a touch to his low and old voice. The guitars in the next section where they kick back into the heavier material sound similar to John Petrucci, and to me, it sounds like something they'd do around 1999 to 2005. I must add that the keyboard solo is lackluster, though. The heavier stuff in this piece of the song, though, is more calm, complex, and slow, while still retaining the whole metal concept. Apart from Michael interrupting the song with a chorus of what sounds like only his voice, that pretty much concludes the song.

The album closes with the much more somber song A Story Never Told. It begins with a melodic and twisted guitar riff that sounds almost nothing like anything on the album. A short break through with the rest of the band is followed by a soothing piano number and Michael's absolutely beautiful, clean vocals. The band goes back into playing all together again, only briefly interrupted by more piano work. The guitar solo at the end though is just perfect and really embodies all this emotional power that has been building in small crevices around the album. The guitar solo continues until a slow fade out that wraps the album up perfectly and concludes another masterpiece by Opeth.

In conclusion, this album is a technically heavy and progressive masterpiece. After a string of 3-4/5 albums, Opeth is back to making some of the greatest in the genre. As much as I love the new Alphataurus album, without a doubt I can say this is the best record of 2024. From it's high progressive nature, returning death metal styles, and the gorgeous crescendo that is A Story Never Told, this is tied with Blackwater Park as my favorite Opeth album and will most likely go down in the genre's history as one of the greatest progressive death metal albums out there. This is an absolute beast of an album that deserves a 5/5 in every way.