OPETH Announce Title And Track Listing For Upcoming Album "Heritage"

3 days ago, Swedish progressive metal icons, OPETH, announced on their official site that their upcoming 10th studio album will be titled "Heritage" and that more information will follow soon. A day later Roadrunner Records confirmed the track listing as well as the first single/video off the record for the song "The Devil's Orchard."

"Heritage" was produced by the band's own founding member/frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt, while mixing was handled with the help of Steven Wilson (frontman/guitarist for fellow label mates PROCUPINE TREE).

Mikael Åkerfeldt had this to say about the record:

"It will be our 10th album/observation. I dig it; we all do. In fact, it feels like I've been building up to write for and participate on an album like this since I was 19."

"It's quite intense at times in some 'old' murky way, and quite beautiful and stark at times, if I may say so myself. It's obvious I'm going to say nice things about it since I wrote basically the whole piece, but I guess it will raise a few eyebrows and it certainly is an acquired taste. I think you'll need a slightly deeper understanding of our music as a whole to be able to appreciate this record. I've realized my influences for this album are so diverse that I can't really say what it sounds like. If I can compare it to any other band, it would have to be Opeth, but it's different from the stuff we've done before. I've listened a lot to Alice Cooper for the last year, yet I can't say it sounds like 'No More Mr. Nice Guy'. I hope you'll like it once you hear it."

Artwork for 'Heritage' was done by longtime collaborator Travis Smith, who worked with Mikael Åkerfeldt on the cover art's concept and execution.

Track listing for Heritage is as follows:

• Heritage
• The Devil's Orchard
• I Feel the Dark
• Slither
• Nepenthe
• Haxprocess
• Famine
• The Lines in My Hand
• Folklore
• Marrow of the Earth

Release dates for "Heritage" have not yet been announced. Roadrunner Records confirms that the album will be available in a wide variety of packages that should suffice all die-hard OPETH fans. The band is also set to embark on a 7 week headline tour of the U.S.; dates for the trek are yet to be announced.


[Source: Roadrunner Records, Opeth.com]