Opeth at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom
Opeth and Katatonia played their first U.S. shows in the summer of 2000, at the then-still-prestigious Milwaukee Metalfest. Sound problems plagued both sets, and the event wound up being an unkind introduction for both bands and fans. Just over 11 years later, the longtime Swedish comrades returned together to the Brew City Thursday night, nearly unrecognizable from a decade ago, but still inspiring devil horns from the packed house at The Rave.
Mikael Åkerfeldt has asked a lot of Opeth fans over the years, leading his band through numerous stylistic evolutions, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the recently released Heritage is completely different from any of the band’s past work. Åkerfeldt has abandoned death metal growls and blast beats for a throwback ’70s prog sound, which was always present in Opeth’s music but never so overwhelming. So old-school fans were likely left cold by Thursday’s performance, as the band played most of its new album and cherry-picked a handful of older tracks that didn’t contain any harsh vocals. It was undeniably an evening of Opeth-lite.
Yet it worked. Obvious choices like “Closure,” from the band’s only previous non-metal album (2003’s Damnation), and early ballads, like “Face Of Melinda” and “Credence,” were given new life. The band’s Record Store Day single, “The Throat Of Winter,” was a highlight during the mini-acoustic set, and the crowd’s attempts at rhythmic clapping were foiled over and over again by the song’s shifting time signatures. It’s a very retro trip that Opeth is currently on, but to Åkerfeldt’s credit, he has given himself over to it completely. The only weak moments were the tracks from 2008’s Watershed; there are far better choices in the Opeth catalog, and nobody needs a crappy drum solo in the middle of “Porcelain Heart,” or anywhere else.
“Slither” was specifically dedicated to Ronnie James Dio (who passed away last year), but the whole production could have be seen as a tribute to the ’70s metal god. By sticking to clean vocals only, Åkerfeldt ruled out 75 percent of his band’s catalog, but he put together a cohesive testament to the origins of metal as well as the power of his own songs. Many fans are undoubtedly hoping this is just a phase, but when all is said and done, the new material worked at least as well live as any of the old stuff; stripped of album filler, the new songs felt less like reconstructed relics and more like vibrant new pieces of the Opeth canon.
Katatonia has also evolved into a less abrasive band over the years—from the pioneering death/doom of the early ’90s to the slick (but still melancholy) Tool-esque fare on its last two albums. But whether it’s the infusion of new blood (guitarist Per “Sodomizer” Eriksson and bassist Niklas “Nille” Sandin), touring with old mates, or some newfound serenity in the life of frontman Jonas Renkse, the band played with a fervor almost inappropriate for the listlessness of Renkse’s lyrics. It was a rousing set that captivated the crowd despite a complete lack of any pre-2001 material, in effect washing away the memory of Metalfest 2000 for good.
