The new Opeth album, by the way, won't feature any death metal or growling vocals.
I posted this on another forum a couple of weeks ago. It's a quick translation of the main points from a Finnish blog article from a guy who was in Stockhom at a pre-listening of the Opeth album:
-It was played in 5.1 surround system and according to the writer the mix was good although he's usually not a fan of playing rock in other than stereo format. Åkerfeldt himself said "I first heard the record today and I didn't know they were going to play it to the media in surround. I had my doubts, but the end-result made me have goose bumps"
-It's about 56 minutes long.
-Draws to mind Sabbath, Beatles, jazz, King Crimson, Cream, Rainbow, Floyd, funk, Purple, Piirpauke, classical, My Dying Bride, folk, Love, Jethro Tull, Maiden
-No death metal parts or growling
-No modern style of "wall of guitar tracks".
-Lots of keys, piano and mellotron are featured. Some intros include clarinet and contrabass.
- "We aren't concerned about other people's opinions", Åkerfeldt stated. "If fans of death metal can't enjoy this, that's their problem"
The band leader also said that he had grown tired of extreme metal already in the 90s, but couldn't explain why the previous record still included death growls.
"I have wanted to make a record like this since I was 20", Åkerfeldt said and added that making it would not have been possible without the metal roots that brought them success.
The journalist also says: "In any case, some metal fans will have troule with Heritage, but if your hopes are more in the 70s, this album can only work. This is probably safe to assume after a single listen.
The first 7 songs are insanely good, the other 3 a bit less so."
