Performer Notes

Personnel: Mikael kerfeldt (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, grand piano, Mellotron); Fredrik kesson (electric guitar); Per Wiberg (grand piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond b-3 organ, Wurlitzer organ, Mellotron); Mart¡n Mendez (upright bass, electric bass); Martin Axenrot (drums, percussion).
Audio Mixers: Steven Wilson; Mikael kerfeldt.
Recording information: Atlantis Studios, Stockholm (03/2011); Junkmail Studios, Stockholm, Sweden (03/2011); No Man's Land Studios, Hemel Hempstead, UK (03/2011); Atlantis Studios, Stockholm (2010-2011); Junkmail Studios, Stockholm, Sweden (2010-2011); No Man's Land Studios, Hemel Hempstead, UK (2010-2011).
Photographer: Sandra Artigas.
Heritage, Opeth's tenth studio offering, finds the Swedish band abandoning death metal: no growled vocals, no blistering fast power riffs, no blastbeats. Mixed by Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) and engineered by Janne Hansson, Heritage is easily Opeth's most musically adventurous -- and indulgent -- recording. Written primarily by vocalist/guitarist Mikael kerfeldt, these ten songs are drenched in instrumental interludes, knotty key and chord changes, shifting time signatures, clean vocals, and a keyboard-heavy instrumentation that includes Mellotrons, Rhodes pianos, and Hammond organs -- ironic since keyboardist Per Wiberg left the band after Heritage was completed. Opening with the title track, a haunting solo piano instrumental, it careens into the explosive "The Devil's Orchard," with spectacular, arpeggiatic guitar work by Fredrik kesson and matching drums by Martin Axenrot. With a huge, swirling B-3 in the backdrop, it melds progressive metal to prog rock, with kerfeldt's clear, clean singing. "I Feel the Dark" marries kerfeldt's classical guitar to piano, flute, a droning Martin Mendez bassline, and double-timed, quietly tense drum kit work. "Slither" sounds like Mot”rhead meeting early-'70s Deep Purple. "Nepenthe" begins as a ballad but shifts toward jazz-rock in the instrumental break before finding its way back to a middle ground with sparse instrumentation and taut dynamics. "Haxprogress" draws real inspiration from early King Crimson; Mellotrons and nylon-string guitars give way to kerfeldt's crooning, thundering basslines, and syncopated drums. At eight-and-a-half minutes, "Famine" is the album's most abstract cut, with guest Alex Acu¤a adding Latin percussion to the mix, creating spaciousness in a long intro before giving way to colliding prog rock at the seam where King Crimson's "Larks Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2" meets Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick." "The Lines in My Hand" is the set's most aggressive cut, with a deeply satisfying guitar crunch. "Folklore," with its myriad instrumental and vocal parts, complex melody, and breakbeats, comes off as an eight-minute suite before closing with another jazz- and folk-inflected instrumental entitled "Marrow of the Earth." Love it or hate it, Heritage, for its many excesses and sometimes blurry focus, is a brave album. It opens the door for Opeth to pursue many new directions and reinvent themselves as a band. ~Thom Jurek

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (p.68) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Add flutes, Middle Eastern percussion and Celtic- and flamenco-specked guitar beauty, and you have a career record that reimagines prog as actual rock & roll..."

Record Collector (magazine) (p.99) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Acoustic and keyboard textures of all kinds blend with unpredictable arrangements and unexpected sonic sidesteps..."

Uncut (magazine) (p.86) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[C]hugging riffs segue into extended passages of jazz fusion or sombre Scandinavian folk."

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Album: Heritage
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Heritage	More Info...
2)	The Devil's Orchard	More Info...
3)	I Feel The Dark	More Info...
4)	Slither	More Info...
5)	Nepenthe	More Info...
6)	Häxprocess	More Info...
7)	Famine	More Info...
8)	The Lines In My Hand	More Info...
9)	Folklore	More Info...
10)	Marrow Of The Earth	More Info...
2)	The Devil's Orchard	More Info...	0:06
3)	I Feel the Dark	More Info...	0:06
4)	Slither	More Info...	0:04
5)	Nepenthe	More Info...	0:05
6)	Haxprocess	More Info...	0:07
7)	Famine	More Info...	0:08
8)	The Lines in My Hand	More Info...	0:03
9)	Folklore	More Info...	0:08
10)	Marrow of the Earth	More Info...	0:04

Album: Heritage
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Heritage	More Info...
2)	The Devil's Orchard	More Info...
3)	I Feel The Dark	More Info...
4)	Slither	More Info...
5)	Nepenthe	More Info...
6)	Häxprocess	More Info...
7)	Famine	More Info...
8)	The Lines In My Hand	More Info...
9)	Folklore	More Info...
10)	Marrow Of The Earth	More Info...
2)	The Devil's Orchard	More Info...	0:06
3)	I Feel the Dark	More Info...	0:06
4)	Slither	More Info...	0:04
5)	Nepenthe	More Info...	0:05
6)	Haxprocess	More Info...	0:07
7)	Famine	More Info...	0:08
8)	The Lines in My Hand	More Info...	0:03
9)	Folklore	More Info...	0:08
10)	Marrow of the Earth	More Info...	0:04