Opeth - Eternal Rains Will Come

Heaven help the poor souls who accidentally stumble onto a shuffled Opeth playlist. It must be the audio equivalent of having a car accident or being stuck inside a washing machine. From death metal to prog, from intense growls to folksy acoustic pandering and clean drawls, it’s a real box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get. Hell, lead singer Mikael Åkerfeldt has been quoted as saying that he doesn’t “see the point of playing in a band and going just one way when you can do everything. It would be impossible for us to play just death metal”. Which might not have pleased all of the fanbase, but it certainly made for some interesting output.

That’s not even taking the time to mention the fact that most Opeth albums are concept albums – designed to tell one singular narrative throughout each track, so better listened to all in one go – which makes it all the more remarkable that you can pick any given one and it’s likely to be a killer. Like, say for instance, our expert recommendation of Eternal Rains Will Come, a track that falls squarely into the latter half of the death/freeform equation. Packed full of jazzy influence that rides closer to Yes than Obituary, it also manages to give way to static bursts of punchier guitar and the occasional floaty piano work to really round out that “this is much less heavy than I was expecting, but boy do I dig it” feel. So, take around seven minutes away from your exoectations (and your work, maybe, if you’re not too much of a cog/performing lifesaving heart surgery currently) and let this one really flow through you. Though, honestly, it might be worth the lawsuit.