main sponsor

The Guitarist Of The Year: 6. Mikael Akerfeldt/Fredrik Akesson

Opeth may preach exclusively to the converted, but to overlook the Swedes’ staggeringly consistent brilliance is foolhardy.

Saturday, 27. December 2014  -  by  David Hayter
Opeth

Opeth have never concerned themselves with populist adoration – that is not the snide attitude of a cynic, merely an honest reaction to the reality the Swedes face. Their music has always looked inwards, even as their sound branched out towards ambrosia above and the underworld below. At this stage there is little-to-no chance of Opeth and their progressive odysseys becoming popular or cool (in the traditional sense). Instead, Stockholm’s broodiest stars appear forever destined to drift aside pop culture, even as their nous for melody becomes more attuned.

It’s hard to imagine Mikael Akerfeldt losing too many nights sleep at his outsider status. But that comfort in Opeth - their brilliance and their standing (or lack thereof) in mainstream culture – should not allow the critics of this world to overlook their continued evolution. There came a time when, after the phenomenal mid-career run that ended with 2005’s Ghost Reveries, Opeth started to be taken for granted. Great playing, unbridled imagination and amorphous atmospherics became par for the course – too easily assumed and too rarely appreciated.

Pale Communion might be light on new ideas, but it exudes majesty. The elegant phrasing of “Moon Above, Sun Below” astounds, Mikael Akerfeldt and Fredrik Akesson are masters of high and low art alike; switching between the lavish prose of Mary Shelley and the gleeful schlock of Hammer Horror in half a second, their guitarwork affords Opeth stately grandeur, psychedelic wonkiness and camp subversion in celestial unison.

2014’s Pale Communion is best viewed as a glorious culmination. The drawing together of experiments that both failed and flourished. Proof that the disparate strands of Heritage could be controlled and made coherent; Opeth’s 11th studio album did not offer innovation in a modernist sense; instead it brought two decades of evolution and experimentation to heel. For one glorious hour there was no odyssey too audacious nor sound too seditious, to escape Opeth’s imperious control.

Previous Next

Follow Us

In The Magazine

22.01.2015 21:33Enter Shikari – The Mindsweep

Enter Shikari – The Mindsweep

Enter Shikari renew their archly political assault while expanding their sonic horizons on The Mindsweep.

Cat: Album Review
28.12.2014 20:37The Guitarist Of The Year: 5. Mike Kerr

The Guitarist Of The Year: 5. Mike Kerr

Brutish, brazen and ungodly satisfying, Royal Blood rode a barrage of chugging bass grooves all the way to the top of the charts in 2014.

Cat: Features
27.12.2014 12:29The Guitarist Of The Year: 6. Mikael Akerfeldt/Fredrik Akesson

The Guitarist Of The Year: 6. Mikael Akerfeldt/Fredrik Akesson

Opeth may preach exclusively to the converted, but to overlook the Swedes’ staggeringly consistent brilliance is foolhardy.

Cat: Features
26.12.2014 18:31The Guitarist Of The Year: 7. Adam Granduciel

The Guitarist Of The Year: 7. Adam Granduciel

Soothing and sorrow-laden in equal measure, Lost In The Dream by The War On Drugs left Guitar Planet speechless.

Cat: Features
25.12.2014 20:16The Guitarist Of The Year: 8. Slash

The Guitarist Of The Year: 8. Slash

Guitar Planet has had a love/hate relationship with Slash since Velvet Revolver split, but it remains impossible to deny his freewheeling riffs and slippery solos.

Cat: Features
go to Archive ->