New Opeth album cover.

His choice of musicians at this point, with the direction he's taken, is utterly bizarre. They are metal musicians and the sound on Watershed did not work for me, the drumming was mechanical, the Akesson lead on track 2 sooo metal-ish it hurt. I couldn't agree more about how strange it is, though I've not listened to this new track.

I've thought the exact same thing. For someone who claims to hate most modern metal he's sure made some odd recruitment choices. The other guitarist is the typical soulless shredder, really hate that stuff. He should've asked someone tasteful, like Nicklas Barker from Anekdoten, instead.
 
Has this band ever made any good music or had any good album covers? I'm hardly surprised that this is as bad as I expected. Are their older albums different from albums like Watershed and Blackwater Park?

Go listen to Orchid, Morningrise, and My Arms, Your Hearse.
 
Opeth is one of my favs but this album cover is shit. I'm hoping the album is better on the ears than the eyes
 
The new song sucks!

They sound so uninspired nowadays. It seems like they are trying hard to get rid of their metal roots but forgetting that that's the only style they're actually good in. They are trying to replace it with some kind of boring prog rock. Sure, older albums contained prog rock elements too, but now they're pretty much losing any originality.
 
Take a song like Godheads Lament for example. Creativity and inventive songwriting all over the place. What they have been doing since WS (arguably GR): trying to be prog without having anything to say.
 
The Devil's Orchard is one godawful song, and this is coming from both an Opeth and a prog rock fan.

It's less of a tribute to 70ies prog rock, and more of a bunch of recycled Dream Theater riffs along with some faux-prog synths.

Fail.