Wednesday, 12 February 2025
This time, it was very much a set of the band’s making, built around the challenging and complex material from their new album “The Last Will and Testament”, but featuring both fan favourites and striking selections from their extensive output.
It is with the new material that we should start. We heard four songs from the new record, Paragraphs 1, 3, 7, and “A Story Never Told”. Åkerfeldt has remarked in interview about the concerns the band had about playing the material live because of the density and content of the arrangements, like the use of strings. He mentioned this again tonight as he explained – as if any explanation were needed – that they were touring in support of the record. Yes, we all knew that. There were no strangers in the house. In one case, there was a hard technical problem in triggering the voiceover of Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson in Paragraph 7, since the band do not use a click track. It is fair to say that any challenges were overcome. Paragraph 1 had all of the dark power of the album version, Paragraph 3 was delivered with character, the vocal performance strong, clear, and with the words articulated to underline their meaning, with Åkerfeldt almost acting. Paragraph 7, which is arguably the most complex of the new tracks played, was expertly rendered. The transitions worked well, the polyrhythms were controlled and the longer final section was exquisitely subtle, the minute differences in the dual guitar lines standing out in the mix. This longer segment requires real authority to pull off, and it worked. Here, as on “A Story Never Told”, guitarist Fredrik Åkesson nailed the guitar solo, with faith and flare. There were a few bumps in the road, with a slight slip in Paragraph 3 in the mid-section, and the barbershop quartet vocals in Paragraph 7 were slightly off. But these are quibbles. The new material sounded great live and the performance brought the tracks to life as if they were setlist staples. “A Story Never Told”, a song of beautiful simplicity, was given a special place in the set, before the encore, which allowed its lyricism to stand out against the other material on the roster which was heavier and darker.
Those other pieces seemed to have been chosen, for the most part, because they complemented the Paragraphs. There were a lot of rhythmically complex and episodic pieces. “Ghost of Perdition” was easily the heaviest piece in the set, nearly brutal in its energy, a marked change of atmosphere, a ratcheting up of the darkness for moment. Morningrise’s “The Night and the Silent Water” might have seemed an odd choice at first, but it has much in common with the songs on the new album. It is episodic and dynamic and contains moments of gentleness and of aggression or harshness. It was played with authority and confidence, and the final section with its transition from a gentle acoustic passage to a signature repeating motif was greeted with a cheer. It wasn’t the only time over the course of the evening that sections of particular songs got separate applause. The other curious choice was “Häxprocess” from “Heritage”. To play anything from “Heritage” is unusual, as it is not well regarded (an opinion not shared by the undersigned), but this version, admittedly slightly altered for the show, was first rate. Åkerfeldt’s vocals were excellent and it created such a strong atmosphere that Sentrum Scene was nearly silent for the final guitar solo.
To pull off this kind of music, you need a first rate backline. No problem. Martin Mendez (bass and traditional Andean chullo hat) and now not-so-new-guy (“He’s been in the band ten years already!” declared Åkerfeldt) Waltteri Väyrynen were on top form. They held the band, they drove the band, and they were perfectly on song. Not at note out of place from either of them but also a fluid, energetic, sympathetic and even groovy performance from them both. Even on the new material, you could see they were already feeling it as much as performing it, and Väyrynen’s renditions of the older material now have more character, more touch, swing, and musicality than when he first joined. He has started to make these patterns more his own, without showing any disrespect to the original recordings. This is synthesis is important as it helps bring the sound of all the songs together, as well as cementing his position in the band.
The production design also created a bridge, a setting for the songs that held them loosely together, starting with the haunting voiceover of Aphrodite’s Child’s “Seven Bowls”, something that was picked up by later sound effects, like the sound of a laughing crowd in “Häxprocess” or the ambient noise at the start of “Master’s Apprentices”. The visuals also created a shared backdrop, and apart from the usual Large Hadron Collider imagery for “Deliverance” and some beautiful multicoloured kaleidoscopic effects on “In My Time Of Need”, the imagery associated with the album artwork, featuring the patriarch and other family members, ghostly figures stretching their hands out across the photographs, or distorted faces passing through the centre of the projection brought unity to the production. There was also a repeating motif of a segmented, artificial skull as well that seemed to be tied in to the family story. “The Story Never Told” again was given special treatment, with a startling white stone angel figure with wings that resembled branches as much as feathers standing impassive and haunting over the stage.
Åkerfeldt was on top form otherwise. “Good evening, Stavanger…. Okay, not that, what should I call you? The Prog Collective?” He brushed off heckles left and right with his customary wit. “No, we’re not playing fucking Freebird”, and to another “Gibberish!”. He compared one drunken audience member to Ringnes-Ronny, but he was also self-deprecating as usual, saying that Paragraph 7 was a “bit of a shit song”. It was never that. More than once, he stepped aside to let another member of the band have the limelight, leaving keyboardist Joakim Svalberg lit up with the crowd’s whole attention as he picked out a piano solo at the end of “The Leper Affinity”, and disappearing into the shadows next to Mendez while Åkesson played the breathtaking solo on “A Story Never Told”.
The audience too got their moment in the spotlight, for the “DIY singalong” that was “In My Time Of Need” from Damnation. We were given a whole chorus too ourselves. I think everyone was already singing “Summer is miles and miles away”, so no trouble to carry on to “And I….”. Somehow, this never gets old. An oasis of calm in the middle of the storm of darker progressive metal.
If there was one other feature of this concert which made it stand out, it was the quality of the sound. From the first note to the last, the balance was excellent. All the instruments could be heard clearly and with appropriate emphasis. The vocals were crystal clear, whether normal or growled – indeed this may be the best vocal performance by Åkerfeldt that the undersigned has heard in person – and where there were backing or ensemble vocals, these had just the right mixture of the voices. Svalberg had a fair amount of backing vocal work in the show and his voice was excellent. Väyrynen’s drums arguably presented more of a challenge for the people at the mixing desk. Väyrynen is a forceful if even-tempered player, and the heavy contents of the setlist definitely suited his style, but he is also capable of more subtlety. The snare was clear and bright throughout but there were moments where arguably the drums could have been dialled back.
The encore started with an excellent performance of “Sorceress”, which the band must be able to play with their eyes closed, and then before the curtain fell, we had, as we must, “Deliverance”. Svalberg was swirling around behind his keyboards as it reached its climax. Like the rest of band, never mind the audience, he had hardly stood still all night, while Åkerfeldt, Åkesson and Mendez stood like living statues, grinding out the final repeating motif. This piece was its usual triumphant self, powerful, precise, beguiling in its shifts of light and shade, and compellingly relentless to the last, a microcosm of the whole show.
This was a first rate show from a band at the very top of their game. The selection and ordering of the songs was clever and engaging, the sound was near perfect, and in each song the playing and the sensitivity to dynamics was excellent, in both the older and newer material. Bravo! 5.5/6
Text: Alex Maines
Photography: Anne-Marie Forker
Vi hadde Opeth på forsiden av forrige nummer, med et laaaangt intervju med Mikael og Fredrik! Kjøp det her og nå for skarve 30 kroner!