Opeth

Opeth first surfaced in Sweden during 1990, when the group boldly labeled itself the "most evil band in the world," and it has since grown into one of Northern Europe's most significant heavy metal acts. Although the outfit began by exploring occult-laden, doom-infused death metal on the 1995 debut Orchid and its 1996 successor Morningrise, the 1998 release My Arms, Your Hearse already wove progressive textures into the mix and earned widespread international praise. As individual members matured and the lineup evolved, both the creative direction and instrumental range broadened considerably. The 2001 album Blackwater Park stirred controversy among strict death metal listeners yet won strong support from progressive metal audiences worldwide. By the arrival of the 2005 effort Ghost Reveries, a landmark blend of death and prog metal, the band was appearing on charts across numerous territories and reached the Swedish Top Ten. Throughout the 2010s Opeth moved toward an unadulterated prog and folk-metal sound on 2011's Heritage, an album that marked the long-anticipated break from death metal conventions, a shift further emphasized on 2015's Pale Communion, which moved more than 19,000 copies in its opening week in the United States.

Guitarists Peter Lindgren and Mikael Åkerfeldt formed the band in Stockholm in 1990 and gradually incorporated progressive elements along with acoustic passages into their Swedish death metal framework. Live performances routinely traversed multiple stylistic territories, with individual pieces frequently stretching beyond ten minutes. Candlelight Records, drawn to this distinctive approach, issued the debut full-length Orchid in 1995, which featured bassist Johan de Farfalla and drummer Anders Nordin. Dan Swanö of Edge of Sanity produced the ambitious follow-up Morningrise in 1996, after which the group joined Morbid Angel for a short tour. Century Media subsequently licensed the first two albums for American distribution and prepared to release the next record on both sides of the Atlantic. Following the addition of bassist Martin Mendez and drummer Martin Lopez, formerly of Amon Amarth, the 1998 album My Arms, Your Hearse received enthusiastic notices and positioned Opeth as a leading voice in progressive metal that retained death metal origins.

Still Life, issued in 1999, revealed further prog rock leanings, and the following year the band performed its initial U.S. show at Milwaukee Metalfest. Blackwater Park, named after a little-known 1970s psychedelic prog ensemble, surfaced in early 2001 and generated considerable excitement among progressive metal listeners who began grouping the act with experimental outfits such as Tiamat. Rather than pause after this momentum, Opeth delivered Deliverance in autumn 2002. The next year the group startled followers with Damnation, an album that stripped away nearly all heavy metal characteristics in favor of acoustic instruments and classic songcraft. Ghost Reveries arrived in 2005 and signaled a return to earlier strengths. Subsequent years brought personnel adjustments: drummer Martin Lopez departed in 2006 and was succeeded by Martin Axenrot of Bloodbath, while guitarist Peter Lindgren exited in 2007 and was replaced by Fredrik Åkesson from Arch Enemy. The live recording Roundhouse Tapes: Opeth Live appeared in 2007, followed by the new studio album Watershed in 2008. Another live set, In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, emerged in 2010; captured at the renowned London venue, it presented the breakout album Blackwater Park performed in full.

For 2011's Heritage the band executed a pronounced stylistic turn. While composing the material, Åkerfeldt drew inspiration from Swedish folk traditions, Alice Cooper, and numerous points in between, resulting in a sound that stayed recognizably Opeth yet leaned far more toward prog than death metal, effectively signaling the final departure from the latter. The cover artwork carried symbolic references to this transition, and Heritage marked the last Opeth recording to include keyboardist Per Wiberg. Released in September on Roadrunner, the album laid the groundwork for the next phase of the group's development. After an extensive world tour and extended hiatus, the members reconvened in Sweden to work with mixing engineer Steven Wilson. Pale Communion, issued in August 2014, confirmed the complete adoption of prog rock. In June 2016 Opeth joined Nuclear Blast and revealed plans for the new album Sorceress alongside a teaser video. July brought the first of eight YouTube webisodes, which disclosed that the record had been tracked in twelve days at Rockfield Studios in Wales, the same site used for Pale Communion. Sorceress reached stores at the end of September amid an American tour. While preparing the subsequent album the band released Garden of the Titans: Opeth Live at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, serving both as a tour document and an interim release between studio efforts.

Opeth returned to Park Studios in Stockholm to compose and track the 2019 album In Cauda Venenum, whose Latin title translates as "the poison is in the tail." Guitarist Fredrik Åkesson stated that the aim was to "be as epic as possible," and according to Åkerfeldt the finished work stood as the band's "heaviest album" despite its firm grounding in prog metal. The set appeared simultaneously in Swedish- and English-language editions, the former on the group's own Moderbolaget imprint and the latter on Nuclear Blast.

Five years passed before another studio album materialized. Drummer Axenrot departed in 2021 and was succeeded by Waltteri Väyrynen, previously of Paradise Lost. In 2024 Opeth announced its fourteenth studio album, scheduled for November release on Reigning Phoenix. The concept album The Last Will and Testament generated substantial anticipation once it was confirmed that the band would revisit its origins, delivering one of its heaviest collections in decades and incorporating death metal components, including screams and growled vocals, for the first time since 2008's Watershed.