While Opeth are set to deliver their Succession-style family drama concept album The Last Will And Testament next month, the Swedish metal vets have unfurled a particularly proggy sneak preview from the collection ahead of time. The episodic epic is titled “§3.”
The new track has a bit of a different feel than the previously released “§1,” which found vocalist-guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt breaking out his vintage Opeth death-metal growl. “§3” instead plays towards the proggiest aspects of the band, beginning with a busy-noodled one-minute intro of quixotic fretboard climbing and adjoining symphony-string-styled mania. From there, it thunders into a hard-swinging arrangement that pushes Åkerfeldt’s gloomy vibrato vocal to the forefront.
You can check out the dark prog epic for yourself up above.
As previously reported, The Last Will And Testament is a concept record that takes place shortly after World War I, with its narrative centering on “a wealthy, conservative patriarch whose last will and testament reveals shocking family secrets.”
“The whole record is about the reading of the last will and testament of this main character that’s passed away — a rich, old fuck,” Åkerfeldt recently told Bloodstock TV. “[A] conservative, old, stern, noble patriarch who passed away, and the record starts when he summoned his three children to go through with solicitors, his last will and testament.”
Åkerfeldt wrote the music, while lyrics were co-written with Klara Rönnqvist Fors (The Heard, ex-Crucified Barbara). The Last Will And Testament also marks Opeth’s first album with drummer Waltteri Väyrynen, who joined the band in 2022, and likewise features guest contributions from Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson, Europe frontman Joey Tempest and Åkerfeldt’s youngest daughter, Mirjam.
The Last Will And Testament sees release October 11th through Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolage. That same day, the band launch their fall North American headlining tour. You’ll find the full details on the trip here.