Review Summary: Opeth tweak their new formula while displaying hints of their past and showcasing a bright and promising look for the future.
To call this album highly anticipated in the metal community would be an understatement. The hype surrounding the release of
Pale Communion was massive and unrelenting. Websites like Ultimate Guitar and Sputnikmusic.com were abuzz with fans speculating and conversing over what Opeth would do next after dropping the daring and controversial
Heritage back in 2011. Death growling and almost all elements of their signature style were extinguished, leaving only the vaguest remnants of their songwriting tropes intact. It was instead replaced with a vintage sound more akin to the melancholic, atmospheric progressive rock of the 1970s. It ultimately fractured the fan base and weeded out many hardcore metal fans while bringing new ones into the fold. Lead singer/songwriter and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt would only add fuel to the flames in interviews with controversial rantings about the current state of metal and progressive rock, as well as their fans.
Around the turn of the decade, some wrote Opeth off as a band long past their glory days, who abandoned their classic style along with their loyal fans. After all,
Heritage did come off as a bizarre and unprovoked move. The schizophrenic nature of predecessor
Watershed portrayed the progression however, beautifully accentuating Åkerfeldt’s increasing penchant for playing progressive rock over heavy metal. With news of a new Opeth album, the questions came in response: Would Åkerfeldt ever growl again? Was
Heritage just a stepping stone, an anomaly in an otherwise consistent run of game changing progressive death metal albums? Well,
Pale Communion is neither groundbreaking nor disappointing, and is enough of a left turn from
Heritage. Its melodic style and eclectic compositions display hints of the band’s past while showcasing a bright and promising look for the future.
"Eternal Rains Will Come" kicks things off with an abrupt drum and keyboard fill into a swing rhythm. This quickly transitions into a subtle groove before more transitioning into a quite piano line, until the full song kicks in with a mid-tempo prog jam into a dynamic, instrumentally dazzling outro. This should already serve as the answer to fans’ questions: the growls are probably gone for good, along with the dense walls of guitars and frantic metal drumming. However, cracks of light from their past shines through this new style in the form of the following tracks "Cusp of Eternity" and "Moon Above, Sun Below." The former showcases old school Opeth in the form of a shredding guitar solo over the main heavy riff before a dissonant hard rock section in the vein of
Ghost Reveries grooves through to the outro.
The best moment of the album comes in the first few minutes of "Moon Above, Sun Below." A classic sounding clean guitar melody builds to an old school Opeth riff transitioning into the fastest and most shredding guitar solo of the record, as the backing instruments ratchet up the intensity. These build to an incredible crescendo which then jarringly leads to an a Capella section before more clean guitar. This is the most bewildering transition in an album filled to the brim with bizarre tonal shifts. While these flourishes mainly work to its advantage, they also make it sound dated at times, with Åkerfeldt’s occasional over-singing marring certain moments. They worked against
Heritage at times, and unfortunately more so on here.
One of the best qualities of
Pale Communion is its unpredictability and replayability. Forthe first time in their career, Opeth have recorded a happy sounding song, and it actually works. "River" is demanding yet inviting, almost sounding like a completely different band before Åkerfeldt’s soaring vocals come in. About halfway through it switches gears and becomes a full on progressive rock jam with trading off guitar solos and soaring melodies. "Elysian Woes" contains also contains wondrous medieval sounding harmonies, being Akerfeld’s finest performance on the record. Perhaps the biggest risk taken is album closer "Faith In Others." Bringing the increased role of strings in the album to a high, it serves as their first epic ballad in many years, and ends up being one of their most impressive and groundbreaking achievements yet.
While perhaps not as adventurous or engrossing as its predecessor, this contains enough character to serve as a worthwhile listen for those who might have been put off by the band’s recent statements. Opeth’s latest release should ease the nervousness of fans after the wonderful but surprising
Heritage.
Pale Communion ultimately serves as a statement, that Opeth’s inspiration, drive, and chops are still top notch. Their brand of genre-bending progressive music will never stop changing, and is here to stay.
