I just picked up the new Opeth album, “Heritage”.

It’s Opeth, but it’s not.

For fans of their death metal heritage well… it’s certainly not “Morningrise”. It’s not “Damnation” either, tho I can see people drawing immediate parallels since “Heritage” is kinda on the mellow side. But it’s not even “Watershed”, yet it seems to just be an evolution of where Opeth has been going with their later albums. There’s no question it’s still Opeth in terms of composition, song structure, lyrical content, and so on. It is Opeth… but unlike anything they’ve done before.

It’s more “progressive”. It’s more jazzy. “Famine” made me think of Jethro Tull (guess why?). Still has that “spooky” overtone to everything. No death growl vocals (tho I honestly don’t blame Mike for that… the longevity of my throat would appreciate it too). In fact, if you look at the setlists for the tour going on right now, it’s rather a mellow overall set… like maybe I should be sitting at a small round table with a cigar and cognac while I listen, but certainly no mosh pit here.

Like all Opeth albums, I’ll need to listen to it numerous times before I can really form my opinion. This is just first listen reaction. I do dig it, and while it feels so familiar, it feels so different. Just have to keep listening to see where I end up placing it.