When I first heard “The Devil’s Orchard” from Heritage, I knew immediately that Opeth’s tenth album was going to be different, was going to make a statement, was going to grab people’s attention, for better or worse. Yes, the Swedish progressive metal band has traveled a long way from Orchid‘s death/black metal roots, gradually emphasizing the progressive aspect more and more with each release, especially in recent years with Ghost Reveries and Watershed, but Heritage is the weirdest Opeth offering yet. Make of that word what you will, but with Heritage Opeth fans the world over can expect an album that’s devoid of growling vocals (Damnation it’s not, though), flushed with odd time signatures, accentuated with classical guitar flourishes, and bursting with a clean guitar tone that noodles through bluesy riffs bordering on a jazz-metal fusion. Sure, some of that’s familiar territory, but it’s never been delivered in such overwhelming doses and is sure to divide the ranks. It’s also worth noting that Per Wiberg’s organ is featured more prominently than ever before and the songs, which have an average length of about six minutes (not one of them breaking the ten minute mark), are quite short as far as Opeth songs go. It all adds up to one unusual and unforgettable Opeth experience (including the highly symbolic cover by longtime collaborator Travis Smith), one you might not warm up to if you’re looking for another My Arms, Your Hearse or Morningrise. However, if you’ve always loved what Mikael Åkerfeldt and company can do when they let their genius freak freely, if you’ve got a soft spot for their mellower stuff and have dug the direction the band’s been heading, Heritage might just win you over.
Some people might say that France’s Alcest are a long way from their 2001 demo, Tristesse Hivernale, and the black metal roots from which they sprung, and while they certainly did take a sweeping detour into a softer, more ambient brand of metal when Neige took sole command of the band and released the 2005 EP, Le Secret, they have been steadily reclaiming that extreme sound little by little, through 2007′s Souvenirs d’un autre monde and right into this, their latest effort, Écailles de lune. The sound on Écailles is a contextually rich sound, a layered and dreamy amalgamation of black metal, folk metal, and shoegaze; think Orchid or Morningrise-era Opeth or Agalloch meets Jesu. Neige’s lyrical focus on the magical world of fairies always sounds more fantastic when it’s sung (or screamed in some cases) in French, but over top of the ethereal beauty of the guitar tone on this album, whether it’s as soft as a nymph’s kiss (“Solar Song”) or as brutal as a wolf’s bite (“Écailles de lune [Part II]“), it takes you to a place far beyond your imagination. A place from which you may never seek to return.
#2 The Devil’s Blood – The Time of No Time Evermore
As European as the Renaissance, as inviting as a red light, as despair-ridden as a dungeon full of skeletons, and as classic as Thin Lizzy, no new band caught my attention more this year than The Devil’s Blood, who rock the Transylvania castle party in a HUGE way. They released a demo in ’07, and a 7″ and 5-song EP last year, so call this one their first full-length, and it’s nothing but a gorgeous offering of ’70s metal (you know, the kind of metal that’s more rock n’ roll than metal, the kind that bands like Deep Purple played) and sacrilegious pop, an occult rock n’ soul record of wicked lore, perhaps summoned from the days of yore. Modernly speaking though, it’s like Urge Overkill jamming with Shiny Mama — this band is clearly the lovechild of Nash Kato and Yana Chupenko sent to hypnotize us all and steal our virtue. Yes! And their song “I’ll Be Your Ghost”? Yeah dude, far and away my favourite song of the year.
Opeth
Alcest
#2 The Devil’s Blood – The Time of No Time Evermore