With a few live albums already under their belt, it was certainly the perfect time for Sweden's Opeth to put out a new one that chronicles their recent shift to more straightforward prog & hard rock music, which started with their 2011 release Heritage. In May of 2017, the band played this show at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, expertly filmed & recorded for this multi-media box set release. With over half the tracks performed taken from the Heritage, Pale Communion, and Sorceress albums, the 'post death metal' era is well represented, but as they have always done, the band dips into their back catalog of extreme metal classics for a well rounded set.
As most folks in the US can attest, May can still be a chilly month, and the band & audience were met with some cold temperatures on the night of the shoot, Mikael Akerfeldt making mention numerous times during the set how windy and chilly it was on stage. No matter, as the band ripped into nearly 90 minutes of material that spanned most of their career. Kicking off with the title track of the most recent album, "Sorceress" got things going in mighty fashion, and led into "Ghost of Perdition" from their popular Ghost Reveries album. Part death metal, part prog, this one is an endearing classic that showed Akerfeldt still in fine form on the death metal growls. The legendary "Demon of the Fall" from My Arms Your Hearse is up next, the oldest track performed on this evening, the fans eating it all up, another great example of their blend of death metal and progressive metal. Back to the Sorceress album for the quirky prog/hard rock sounds of The Wilde Flowers, another stellar track that showed off the guitar skills of Fredrik Akesson and Joakim Svalberg's masterful keyboard textures.
From the beloved 2003 album Damnation comes the gorgeous "In My Time of Need", complete with soaring Mellotron and beautiful Akerfeldt vocals, who incites the audience to sing along on the chorus, which is followed by more recent classics in "The Devil's Orchard" and "Cusp of Eternity", two more examples of just how varied Opeth's sound has gotten in recent years, chock full of metal, prog, and hard rock flavors. The mighty "Heir Apparent" from Watershed might just be the most impressive song here, delivered with majestic might, Martin “Axe” Axenrot blistering on the drums, Martin Mendez grooving hard on his bass, and the twin guitars absolutely crushing, Akerfeldt moving between growls & clean melodic vocals seamlessly. The catchy "Era" is up next, Akerfeldt's so called 'pop rock song' from Sorceress, another classic of killer instrumentation and catchy vocal hooks, which then leads into the mammoth closer, Deliverance, nearly 15 minutes of death metal fury and majestic prog, the climax so potent with all members giving their all amid a bombastic light show.
Though some might grumble at the somewhat short run time of 90 minutes, the track list is super, the camera work & audio stellar, and the performances just killer from start to finish. Mikael tells the crowd early on to forgive them for any 'fuck-ups', but there's none to be heard here, Opeth once again showing why they are one of the greatest live bands on the planet. Potential live album of the year right here folks!
See more about this release on our recent YouTube show!
Tracklist:
01. Sorceress (live)
02. Ghost Of Perdition (live)
03. Demon Of The Fall (live)
04. The Wilde Flowers (live)
05. In My Time Of Need (live)
06. The Devil’s Orchard (live)
07. Cusp Of Eternity (live)
08. Heir Apparent (live)
09. Era (live)
10. Deliverance (live)
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