Scandinavia has been the spiritual home of Doom/Death metal for years with various bands ploughing the heavy riffed furrow with various degrees of interest from the rest of Europe. So Sweden’s Opeth appear at first glance to be entrenched firmly in that genre, but to dig a little deeper is to find something far more bewitching.

This latest release may lead to a new genre/category. After experimentation with the “heavy” Deliverance and the “lighter” Damnation CD’s they have managed to meld the two conflicting styles with great skill and some fine songs to achieve, well, for want of a better word DoomProg!!(ProgDoom?, I dunno!!!)

Singer Mikael Akerfeldt morphs from primeval gutteral growling to perfect AOR as the mood of the songs alternate, and a fine pair of lungs he has. You would swear they were a different guy, maybe they are!!

Opening track Ghost of Perdition slams into a volley of deep strapping riffs coupled with the aforementioned growling, subsequently fading into acoustic guitars and a tinkly mellotron organ and we are in Argent/Camel and even Floyd territory. Despite the bizarre premise the music ebbs and flows, these guys are more than proficient musicians and the organ and guitar solos manage to reflect a prog-rock era gone by but still remain fresh.

All the tracks are of traditional proggy (self indulgent?) length, usually over the eight minute mark, yet the ideas within captivate and sustain your interest. The myriad of time changes and layered texture of the songs and of the various instruments used keep the ear interested, and every now and again you are reminded that this is doom with some chunky D-tuned fretwork binding it all together. For me there is no outstanding track, the memorable riff in The Grand Conjuration is superb, but all in all this isn’t prog with doom bolted on or vice versa, it’s a cleverly conceived hybrid.

Quite possibly one of the albums of the year, it one that will appeal to a wide rock audience. Oh and nice to see daft songs titles, reminiscent of Rush in their pomp, like Reveries/Harlequin Forest. What’s all that about?