[Reaper16]

36.) Opeth - Heritage


This album is actually also one of the most disappointing albums of the year. The premise is awesome: Opeth taking all of the metal and all of the harsh vocals out of their sound in order to make a pure progressive rock album. They already did this concept of sorts; 2005’s Damnation is a beautiful collection of stripped-down rock songs. Heritage by comparison is not stripped down at all. It embraces lots of classic prog music flourishes. It’s very often beautiful and it’s both challenging and something that you can study to or do work to. I guess I’m disappointed in it for a couple of reasons: the songs structures are very uneven. Passages just stop and start for no real reason. Opeth are masters of blending heavy passages in with light passages, but without the heavy passages on their palette this time around the structures get clunky. Additionally, this is an album that doesn’t progress anything. Nothing is new here. Either Opeth sounds like themselves as of late, or they sound like a 60s/70s prog band. Either way, this album feels very old. I want development, not looking back at the past just for the sake of doing it. But don’t let me dissuade you from listening to the album. It’s still really enjoyable to listen to this band weave interesting and intricate melodies together.