islandclaws

<img src=http://www.metalinjection.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Opeth-Heritage-album-cover-604x604.jpg alt=opeth

Track list:

01. Heritage
02. The Devil's Orchard
03. I Feel The Dark
04. Slither
05. Nepenthe
06. Haxprocess
07. Famine
08. The Lines In My Hand
09. Folklore
10. Marrow Of The Earth

Tour dates:

(with Katatonia)

9/19: The Palladium @ Worcester, MA
9/20: Webster Theater @ Hartford, CT
9/21: Webster Hall @ New York, NY
9/22: Webster Hall @ New York, NY
9/23: Trocadero @ Philadelphia, PA
9/26: Newport Music Hall @ Columbus, OH
9/27: Expo Five @ Louisville, KY
9/28: Cannery Ballroom @ Nashville, TN
9/29: Amos’ Southend @ Charlotte, NC
9/30: Center Stage @ Atlanta, GA
10/1: House of Blues @ Lake Buena Vista, FL
10/3: Warehouse Live @ Houston, TX
10/4: Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater @ Austin, TX
10/5: Granada Theater @ Dallas, TX
10/6: The Beaumont Club @ Kansas City, MO
10/7: First Avenue @ Minneapolis, MN
10/8: Burton Cummings @ Winnipeg, MB
10/10: Edmonton Events Centre @ Edmonton, AB
10/11: MacEwan Hall Ballroom @ Calgary, AB
10/13: Commodore Ballroom @ Vancouver, BC
10/14: Knitting Factory Concert House @ Spokane, WA
10/15: Showbox SoDo @ Seattle, WA
10/16: Roseland Theatre @ Portland, OR
10/18: The Warfield @ San Francisco, CA
10/19: Mayan Theatre @ Los Angeles, CA
10/20: House of Blues @ San Diego, CA
10/21: The Fox Theater @ Pomona, CA
10/22: Marquee Theatre @ Tempe, AZ
10/24: The Complex @ Salt Lake City, UT
10/25: Ogden Theatre @ Denver, CO
10/27: The Rave @ Milwaukee, WI
10/28: Vic Theatre @ Chicago, IL
10/29: St. Andrews Hall @ Detroit, MI
10/30: Guelph Concert Theatre @ Guelph, ON
10/31: Mr Smalls Theatre @ Millvale, PA
11/1: Rams Head Live! – Baltimore, MD

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This is a big album for metal fans, so I felt it deserved it's own thread. I'd expect discussion of it would dominate the current metal thread, especially once the first single drops.

joeblow69

Honestly, this will be the first Opeth album I make sure I hear all the way through before buying.
Ghost Reveries bored me, and I only liked the first couple songs on Watershed.

I hope they can step up their game a bit!

Mordred

Was about to start this thread because this is gonna cause a lot of discussion:

http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2011...70s-prog-rock/

No harsh vocals on Heritage.

joeblow69

Well I guess I can skip it then.

islandclaws

I'd say I hope they're prepared for the backlash, but I know Mikael doesn't give a fuck.

This bothers me. Mike is blessed to have one of the best clean voices in metal, but he also possesses an unholy growl that sounds like Satan trying to pass a flaming turd - it's positively inhuman. For him to ignore that entirely, and to alienate a large part of Opeth's fanbase by making a "clean" record, is disheartening.

Mordred

Yeah, I love Michael's harsh vocals more than any one else's, so I'm not sure how I feel about this. I really liked the 70's prog feel of Damnation and have a feeling I love this album too, but I think I'll miss the death vocals.

bunkaroo

Here's how I see the vocal thing:

Opeth has earned the right to do whatever they want to do. IMO they have delivered quality after quality album. I see them as a true progressive band trying to push their own boundaries and challenge themselves. I'm sure they are more than capable of churning out Blackwater Park 2, but for me, as a fan and a musician, I am excited to hear what they're trying now.

So if there are no harsh vocals, so be it. For all we know the next record after Heritage will be unrelentingly brutal with nothing but harsh vocals. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and see what they have up their sleeves.

islandclaws

A little more info I found:

-The album was played to journalists in 5.1 surround sound

-NO death metal or growling

-Some bands or styles the album reminded the journalist of: Sabbath, Beatles, jazz, King Crimson, Cream, Rainbow, Floyd, funk, Purple, Piirpauke, classical music, My Dying Bride, folk, Love, Jethro Tull, Maiden…

-Mikael said that he's been bored of death metal since 90's and its time is over for Opeth, and he's wanted to do this kind of album since when he was 20.

bunkaroo

I recall him saying something similar about "Burden" from Watershed. Like he wanted to do a big Robin Trower-esque ballad of sorts. It's all good.

If the death metal is truly over, then so be it. I love his clean singing voice so more of that is not a bad thing. I hope we hear more of the female vocalist from Watershed as well - wasn't it the drummer's girl or something like that?

Mordred

Yeah that was Martin Axenrot's girlfriend. She did have a really cool voice.

House13

I personally hope that this isn't the end of the harsh vocals, but if it is so be it. Like many people I feel that they are an amazing band and no matter what they put out it will still be amazing. Hell half the bands listed that the journalists listed are bands I love listening to whenever I'm not rocking out to something heavier.

Regardless I will still buy whatever they put out and still see them on tour.

Ravenous

NOW Im really interested in this album. I love Opeth and they have become a bit stale, this may mix it up. And Im all for clean vox. That was my biggest disappointment with Damnation, I want a CD thats balls out metal with clean vox, almost like the ends of "When" and "Moonlapse Vertigo" So now i got high hopes here.

Imprint

Here's their setlist from Bonnaroo yesterday. I thought they would play one or two songs from the new album, but they didn't.

The Grand Conjuration
Face of Melinda
The Lotus Eater
In My Time Of Need
Master's Apprentices
The Drapery Falls
Hex Omega

House13

I bought tickets to see Opeth and Katatonia in Louisville, KY. Now I really have to decide whether I go see them the next night in Nashville or if I want to head to Kansas City or Chicago. The band is amazingly live and I feel like I just have to see them twice on this tour (if not more).

islandclaws

More from Mikael:

"We recorded 12 songs, where ten are on the album. Two songs are being saved for the special edition. So there's ten songs and Per (Wiberg; former keyboardist) is still on the album even though he isn't in the band anymore. He's playing keyboards on the entire album. I'm plating keyboards too. We also have new keyboardist Joakim Svalberg (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, GLENN HUGHES) who is going to tour with us. He's not a member yet. We just did the first show with him (at the Bonnaroo Music And Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee) a few days ago. He's also on the album playing the opening number ('Heritage'). The songs are all over the place. I'd like to think that all of the songs have their own identity so to speak. One song is a little tribute to RONNIE JAMES DIO (called 'Slither') and it's a kind of gimmicky sounding song, tongue-in-cheek. The working title of that song was called 'Kill The Queen'. It's done as a tribute to him because we love him so much. The other songs move from folk music to prog-rock to jazz, crossed with PINK FLOYD and fusion like HERBIE HANCOCK or WEATHER REPORT. We actually have the (former) drummer/percussion player from Weather Report on the album - Alex Acuńa (ELVIS PRESLEY, PETER GABRIEL, CARLOS SANTANA). We also have a Swedish fusion flutist who is playing a flute solo to a doomy riff. It's all over the place and a fun listen. It's really challenging and I don't think it's boring. It's very complex with a beautiful mix and a beautiful master. It was mixed by Steven Wilson (PORCUPINE TREE) and myself and mastered by a guy by the name of Peter MEW at Abbey Road Studios in London who has engineered many, many obscure records that I've collected over the years. It was recorded at an old, vintage studio in Stockholm called Atlantis studios, which used to be a record label called Metronome. It's where ABBA did all their albums pretty much. So back to these songs, I don't know how to explain what they sound like. They are all over the place. And one song is not representative of the whole album."

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I like what I'm hearing.

Apple Gooncha

Not that it wasn't already, but this has pretty much become my most anticipated album of the year (behind the new Steven Wilson solo album). I'm either going to see them in Nashville or Louisville, depending on which show the people I plan to go with prefer. I've never seen them live, but have their dvds and really enjoy them, and back in my day of collecting live bootlegs I heard some pretty good ones from them... And since I've been in to them since about Deliverance, I'm really excited about seeing them.


Oh, and I like Katatonia a lot too...

bunkaroo

I am not going to pass judgment on this disc until I hear it like 10 times. It sounds like there will be tons to digest.

islandclaws

I bought my tickets for the Fox Theater show on 10/21. $36 after fees - decent.

Ravenous

I dunno if Ill go for the SE. Stupid roadrunner always does something than a rerlease a few years later.

On a bit of a side note, any of you guys order from The End Records? I did an order just now for Thy Catafalque and had to pay shipping. Did they really get rid of the free shipping?

Josh-da-man

According to their website, free shipping is available on media mail orders over $40, and First Class/Priority orders over $100.

I don't know when they changed that, but I remember media mail being free not too long ago.

islandclaws

If they only recorded 12 tracks, and the extra 2 are on the SE, then I don't see a reissue happening anytime soon. If they did, it'd probably be with a DVD containing footage I don't care a whole lot about.

islandclaws

And we've got track lengths...

1. Heritage 02:05
2. The Devil's Orchard 06:40
3. I Feel The Dark 06:40
4. Slither 04:03
5. Nepenthe 05:40
6. Haxprocess 06:57
7. Famine 08:32
8. The Lines In My Hand 03:49
9. Folklore 08:19
10. Marrow Of The Earth 04:19

Total runtime: 57:04

Apple Gooncha

I mean, I'm sure there will be one, but has it been confirmed anywhere that there will be a SE of the album released on the same day as the "standard" version?

islandclaws

No confirmation yet, but Mikael did say there were going to be multiple configurations. Watershed had an SE released the same day as the standard edition, so there is some precedence.

edclem

hopefully the packaging will be better than the watershed SE
Still, the 5.1 mix was a nice add.

What would be spectacular is a blu-ray lossless audio version...