Power Trip

You never know what you’ll get when it comes to Opeth—and that ’s the beauty of Opeth. With their 12th album, Sorceress, the Swedish out fit brings the guitars front and center again.

- Richard Bienstock

“GENERALLY, people are a little bit afraid of change,” says Opeth main man Mikael Åkerfeldt. “But we’re one of those bands that thrives on change. We need to experiment.”

True to Åkerfeldt’s words, the Swedish outfit long ago made their name on their experimental approach to metal, which saw the band, under the singer and guitarist’s guidance, forge a singular sound that mixed aggressively dark and dense death and extreme-metal riffs and rhythms with a hefty dose of acoustic instrumentation and proggy instrumental exploration. In the last few years, however, Opeth’s deathmetal tendencies, as it were, have taken a backseat in their music: Their last two albums, 2011’s Heritage and 2013’s Pale Communion, were gentler, more classic-rock and prog-inspired affairs, and completely free of death-metal–type “growling” vocals. Some longtime fans of the band have lamented this shift, particularly when it comes to Åkerfeldt’s new singing style. But, the frontman says, “I like to think there’s more to this band than just screams.”

For those fans who are as open to the idea of change as Opeth themselves seem to be, they’ll find plenty to love on the band’s new and 12th full-length, Sorceress. The 11-song effort is hardly a return to the raging technical death metal of early classics like 1995’s Orchid and 2001’s breakthrough Blackwater Park. But it is also a decidedly heavier affair than either Heritage or Pale Communion. “In terms of hardrock aggressiveness I would say the sound on the record is a bit more accommodating to those types of riffs,” Åkerfeldt acknowledges. “The guitars are a bit louder, I think. And generally there’s more of a hard-rock feel.”