grats on 40000

Album Rating: 4.5

This is better than Heritage. It's an improvement in every aspect.

Album Rating: 2.5

Agreed.

Album Rating: 3.5

I go back and forth. I really enjoy both records. Although I can agree with Portal. This record is a little more coherent overall.

Album Rating: 2.5

"This is better than Heritage. It's an improvement in every aspect."



This is a deterioration in literally every aspect.



I'll never understand how this can be considered better than Heritage by music enthusiasts. This is just prog by numbers, Heritage actually had some adventure and experimentation and was just generally far more interesting.

Album Rating: 4.0

i cant believe you go for either of them

Album Rating: 2.5

It's pretty obvious why I'd go for Heritage.



Adventurous (especially for Opeth), jazzy musicianship, interesting song writing, one of the best drum performances I've heard and a refreshing take on classic prog without sounding like a rip off of any specific band from the 70's.

Album Rating: 2.5

yea it's like a rip off from numerous prog bands from the 70's agreed.



This album sounds more like Opeth. It's more straightforward, but more enjoyable and with better melodies. Prob with better songwriting too. Both are unimpressive and meh compared to their best albums anyway.

Album Rating: 4.5

@Jamie I respect that you think Heritage is better than this. In my case I prefer this one. This doesn't mean I dislike or hate Heritage, I even rated it with 4.0, that means it is an excellent album. The thing is that this feels a little bit more cohesive and consistent for my taste, I enjoy almost every song in here, with the exception of Goblin. On the other hand, Heritage imo feels more over the place, and a couple of songs have a lot of sections, which I consider that barely connect between themselves as a whole, an example of this could be Famine. Despite that fact, I really appreciate the experimentation and as you pointed Ax's drumming is absolutely remarkable.

Album Rating: 4.5

@adr Agreed in this part: "This album sounds more like Opeth. It's more straightforward, but more enjoyable and with better melodies. Prob with better songwriting too."



I disagree in the unimpressive part. Because both of them are impressive, for good or for bad, but impressive anyways.

Album Rating: 2.5

"yea it's like a rip off from numerous prog bands from the 70's agreed."



No, that's this album. Heritage doesn't really "rip off" any prog bands apart from two particular moments.

Album Rating: 4.0

Love this but Heritage is so much more expansive and exciting.



There's a few passages on here which go literally nowhere and rely on repeated riffs/synths to carry the song forward.



Heritage was everchanging and just so absorbing due to the fact that almost every song weaves in and out of multifaceted musical passages.

Album Rating: 2.5

Adventurous (especially for Opeth), jazzy musicianship, interesting song writing, one of the best drum performances I've heard and a refreshing take on classic prog without sounding like a rip off of any specific band from the 70's.



i agree with a good portion of this but its still a mess. good portion of the songwriting just sounds so haphazard and pasted together that i often find it hard to get through



this on the other hand doesnt have much redeeming it at all. eternal rains is good and the instrumental one is kinda cool but overall its very predictable and i know they can do much better. or maybe they cant anymore. idk

Album Rating: 2.5

"This very nearly destroys Heritage. This claim of "adventure" and "experimentation" is a crock a shit, what they really are trying to say is "has more acoustic guitars". Pale Communion is a superior prog album overall."



No, that's most definitely not what people are trying to say. Anyone with ears can hear that the musicianship on Heritage is far more adventurous and experimental than it is on here. This isn't even a "progressive" album, it's a big step back from where they were going with Heritage, which was actually progressive in nature for Opeth, not just in style.

Album Rating: 2.5

"i agree with a good portion of this but its still a mess. good portion of the songwriting just sounds so haphazard and pasted together that i often find it hard to get through"



I disagree, I think bar Famine, the songs are pretty well put together. Heritage is certainly a lot less guilty of haphazard, cut and paste songwriting than a lot of Opeth's earlier material.

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

As always I agree with JT on Heritage.

This is boring, heritage is a mess [23432]

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

Heritage doesn't really "rip off" any prog bands apart from two particular moments.

Album Rating: 3.0

Axenrot's improvement from Watershed is just astonishing.

Album Rating: 2.5

"Out of curiosity what moments would those be?"



The opening to The Devil's Orchard kinda rips off the opening of Heart of the Sunrise by Yes but the rest of the song sounds nothing like Yes at all so it is literally only those opening few seconds. The other moment I was referring to was the Jethro Tull-esque flute playing in Famine, which I guess isn't really a rip off at all but I've never liked the use of flute in that song so I like to criticise it.



"Also how is this more of a rip-off of 70's prog than Heritage if it's closer to their signature style? I think you're right but I'm trying to think of examples."



Well the reason this is seen as closer to Opeth's "signature style" is simply because there are more Opeth style vocal melodies and it's a bit tighter (as in not loose and jazzy) instrumentally. Really that has no relevance to how much it does or doesn't rip off 70's prog because a lot of the stylistic differences on Heritage weren't just 70's prog influenced. This sounds much more like a 70's prog rip off because it actually does sound like your typical 70's prog sound, even if it does have more Opeth-esque vocal melodies.