Review Summary: Thick as a Brick with growls
*hits blunt*
So is The Last Will And Testament meant to be the Opeth equivalent of Thick As A Brick? It’s a similarly framed concept album that consists of a long-form composition split up into seven segments (and “A Story Never Told”) with lyrics detailing a family’s parentage mysteries boiling over during the reading of their patriarch’s will. It almost plays like a meta commentary on the band itself assessing their legacy in the prog community, an interpretation no doubt exacerbated by new drummer Waltteri Väyrynen channeling Martin Lopez’s dexterous beatings and Mikael Akerfeldt’s growls resurfacing after sixteen years away. They even got Ian Anderson of all people on board for some spoken word and flute contributions.
But even with all the hubbub that comes with Akerfeldt deciding to Do The Roar(TM) again, the band’s telegraphed evolution is as obvious as ever with this essentially being the next step from In Cauda Venenum. Both releases are ominously theatrical affairs with an array of narrative soundbites and heavier segments, this album fully taking the plunge that its predecessor was just shy of trying. Parallels can also be drawn to the transitional nature of Watershed as the narrative gives purpose to its slapdash nature, the growls boasting a showman’s snarl and the extreme bits playing a supplementary role.
This concept’s framing also posits an interesting gamble not typically seen on the band’s previous dabbles, its suite-like structure giving ample temptation to play into their compositional shortcomings. On one hand, the near constant sense of escalation in the pacing leaves less room for farting around and it’s clear that each movement is done to advance the story in some way. On the other hand, it doesn’t discourage their tendency to Frankenstein random musical ideas together and the perpetual motion can make it easy for less memorable movements to get lost in the shuffle.
The execution is ultimately somewhere in between, not putting forth any demanding earworms but individual segments do get some standout points. “S1” and “S7” are the most narratively domineering pieces, the former setting the stage in bombastic fashion with the vocals immediately reestablishing the old dichotomy and the latter’s spoken segments drilling in the themes with bitter delight. The bouncier approaches on “S2” and “S3” are also nifty, I may prefer the latter’s bass-heavy Floydian slant over the former’s almost carnival hop, and it’s cool to see “A Story Never Told” utilize the traditional closing ballad to provide some extra story context.
I have a bridge to sell to anybody who was clamoring for The Last Will And Testament to be the second coming of Blackwater Park, but it ultimately evens out to be a pretty decent affair. It shows off the expected musical prowess and makes do on an enticing premise, sitting right in between the highs and lows of the progpeth era. It feels almost inevitable for Opeth to return to heavier ground after nearly two decades away and that feeling of coming full circle also makes it more intriguing than usual to speculate on where they’ll go next.
