Review Summary: Gentle Giants.
Unfortunately, a new Opeth album is nowadays often met by a series of boring complaints that feed into themselves like a nerdy Human Centipede;
"Why are Opeth not the band I want them to be?", "Why are they writing objectively bad music?", "'70s prog sucks, man.". Granted, what they do now fits into an Avenged Sevenfold category of heavy metal regurgitation, what can be said though is that Mikael Åkerfeldt is undeniably in tune with his Prog leanings and knows how to engage
Aqualung without totally reproducing it. With the liminal nature of
Heritage leading many to lose interest in Opeth as an artistic vehicle,
Pale Communion displays their qualities in a far more rounded environment. This is apparent on "Cusp of Eternity", where Åkerfeldt approaches song structures with focus on melodic aspects and greater emphasis on distorted guitar. Elsewhere he breaths life into compositions with varying degrees of success; "Goblin" and "Moon Above, Sun Below" are some of the bands most affecting and entertaining pieces yet, and more than make up for the completely flat nature of tracks like "River" and "Elysian Woes". As it bounces freely between Robert Fripp, David Crosby and James Hetfield,
Pale Communion is refreshingly guilt-free fun from the once revered death metal vehicle. It's difficult to ascertain whether the wider metal community will accept this flourishing Opeth as the diehards abandon it; one thing is for sure, nobody mimics Rush and King Crimson quite like Åkerfeldt does.
