I know you were all just thinking, "Fucking hell, when's the new Opeth album coming out, I'm going to cry every day until it comes out and rape a thousand horses each time," but don't worry, you can relax now because their 10th album 'Heritage' is coming out on September 20th. Here's the tracklisting, which will give you absolutely no idea of how the album will sound and is therefore completely pointless to reveal really.

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

Well, isn't that great boys and girls? I think Haxprocess is my favourite song so far, but maybe Marrow of the Earth will overtake it soon, who knows?

This is what Mr Ankerfank has to say about it all:

"It will be our 10th album/observation. I dig it; we all do. In fact, it feels like I've been building up to write for and participate on an album like this since I was 19."

Åkerfeldt went a little deeper and described the music contained within "Heritage", saying, "It's quite intense at times in some 'old' murky way, and quite beautiful and stark at times, if I may say so myself.

"It's obvious I'm going to say nice things about it since I wrote, basically, the whole piece, but I guess it will raise a few eyebrows and it certainly is an acquired taste.

"I think you'll need a slightly deeper understanding of our music as a whole to be able to appreciate this record.

"I've realized my influences for this album are so diverse that I can't really say what it sounds like.

"If I can compare it to any other band, it would have to be OPETH, but it's different from the stuff we've done before.

"I've listened a lot to ALICE COOPER for the last year, yet I can't say it sounds like 'No More Mr. Nice Guy'.

"I hope you'll like it once you hear it."

Cheers.

I used to like Opeth years ago. Saw them on their first US tour when they supported Amorphis, and they blew Amorphis away. Probably 75% of the crowd left after Opeth.

But they bore me badly now.

Fantasticals

I told you Opeth were the best, here's the front cover for the new album!



Hahaha!

That sums them up really doesn't it.

You leave my Opeth alone!

It looks like an old 70's prog album, tidy!

Great! The last Opeth album was the highlight of their career thus far, some achievement in itself, so I have very high hopes! I think a lot of metal fans write them off without really having sat down and listened to them.

Well done Bill! What joy it brings me to hear you say that. I almost agree (I did 100% agree when Watershed first came out), but looking back on it all, I think Ghost Reveries was still their ultimate peak, it had such a wonderful mix of lovely atmosphere and musical wonders and scary growling men. Watershed was amazing, but it didn't flow quite as nicely as a whole album as Ghost Reveries did. Although Hessian Peel is probably my favourite Opeth song ever now.

You're right with your second comment. A lot of people listen to them once, maybe a few times, they hear that the music is slow, they hear some acoustic things here and there and they think 'this is rubbish and gay etc.' But really it's amazing when you absorb their goodness. When I first got Ghost Reveries and put it on, I was terribly confused, but I remember feeling lovely when I heard the amazing bits of the song, and I went into the other room (I was at uni in my shared flat ting) and said to the bloke who was there 'I think I might have just bought the best album ever, but I'm not sure yet.' And there you go. I was willing to give it a go, and I was rewarded with splendour and goodness when it all finally made sense in my brain.

I also think it doesn't help that Opeth recently(ish) got signed to Roadrunner and that they are now associated with a big bunch of wankers on the same label. But they're not a typical Roadrunner band at all, and they obviously let Ankerfank get on with whatever he wants to do, so that's just bloody lovely.

And basically, to my knowledge, they're the first band to have brought the growl and the blast beat into the Royal Albert Hall, and perhaps even the word 'cunt'. Surely that deserves a well done in itself.

I have been waiting for this album for way too long! can't wait for it to come out. Don't you be hatin' haters!

What's an Opeth?

That front cover suggests that this is either going to be the best thing they've done ever by miles or the biggest pile of shit. There will be no middle ground. I'm definitely interested in hearing this. After Ghost Reveries' power and majesty, I found Watershed a little disappointing. I enjoyed the lighter moments but thought the heavier moments lacked the intensity and force that I'd expect. I think I prefer Blackwater Park to it too.

I believe you have an interesting point there, and I think their heavier moments are becoming less convincing as the days go by, because Mikael seems like he'd rather be a lovely folky 70s prog joy like Comus. The softer moments on Watershed were amazing - for example, Burden, or the middle section of Porcelain Heart (the heavy bits in that song were rather boring), and the first half of Hessian Peel which was incredible. And the intro was lovely as well, although they could've done without that woman singing, that was a bit too Disney-like for Opeth, luckily they didn't sing in harmony together or the gayness would've been too much even for me. So I am hoping for lots of lovely joy on this new album, and I hope the heavy bits are very good, but secretly I hope it won't be a metal album at all so all the wanker Opeth fans that ruin all their gigs by being wankers can just fuck right off.

Here's a lovely section from a very recent interview that makes me highly happy indeed:

Mike: Your vocal chords must really take a beating on tour, Mikael. Going from screaming to harmonizing melodically must take its toll on you. Do you have any tricks for keeping your vocals fresh when you tour heavily?

Mikael: No, not really. It does take its toll though. I’ve been having some problems or something with my screaming lately. That might be because I’m not as super-interested in it as I once was when I was younger. With that said, we did a show just the other day at the Bonnaroo Festival and it was pretty rocking, I think. It’s sounded pretty cool playing our set there. So I don’t think I try anything to keep my voice in shape, really. I’m more wary about not being able to deliver the clean vocals. I don’t want to lose that. I want to be able to hit all of the smooth notes, and I don’t want to lose the ability to do that harmonizing. The screaming thing I have been doing for such a long time now, I don’t think I can take it much further. I don’t really enjoy it as much as I used to, but that’s just me right now.

http://www.lithiummagazine.com/intervie ... -13th-2011

I read in another interview that there'll be loads of prog-rock and folky bits and jazzy bits too, and a bit where a flute is played over a doomy riff, so I think this new album might actually be the best thing ever. I hope that he's going to finally embrace the lovely musical goodness that's inside him fully, and stop trying to force the metal out all the time, as it seems form what he says - which back up Watershed a lot actually - like he's not interested so much in the growling stuff anymore. I guess some of the 'tr00' Opeth fans won't be too happy about that, but I think it'll make Opeth into a more amazing musical band if they do this properly. It's absolutely prove on Watershed, where the finest moments are definitely the not-so-metal moments.

Glorious. Thanks for listening.