Op 30 september verschijnt het nieuwe album van Opeth dat als titel Sorceress heeft meegekregen. Het is het eerste album dat de band uitbrengt bij hun nieuwe platenmaatschappij Nuclear Blast. Een zogenaamde lyric video voor het titelnummer Sorceress kun je hieronder bekijken. Zoals bandleider Mikael Åkerfeldt al aankondigde bevat de muziek wederom veel progrock invloeden uit de jaren zeventig. In het nummer hieronder hoor je invloeden van bands als Caravan en King Crimson terug.

Het album bevat 11 nummers met titels als Persephone, The Wilde Flowers en Strange Brew. De muziek en zang werden opgenomen in de Rockfield Studios in Wales waar ook Pale Communion werd opgenomen. De opnamen duurden slechts 12 dagen en het resultaat is naar verluidt intrigerend en grensverleggend.

Åkerfeldt zei over het twaalfde album van de band: “I find it difficult to understand that we’ve been going on for twenty-six years, let alone that we’ve made twelve records now, all of which I am very proud of. ‘Sorceress’ is no exception. I love this album, as does the whole band. I find that once again we’ve taken a step forward. Or sideways, Or backwards. Somewhere!? It’s different! It’s extremely diverse. And if I may say so myself, extremely good. I feel the right to say that since I like to think I know this band better than anyone on the planet. Also, I always manage to detach myself from the record and listen as a fan. It’s a fine little record. My favorite in our discography right now. Of course. That’s how it should be, right? It’s both fresh and old, both progressive and rehashed. Heavy and calm. Just the way we like it. Hopefully there’ll be others around the globe sharing this opinion. It was a joy to make it. A fucking joy to record it, and a sheer joy listening to it. So there you have it!”

De vorige twee albums zorgen nogal voor tweespalt onder Opeth fans. De band klonk minder heavy en de grunts waren volledig verdwijnen. Menigeen is benieuwd of de band ditmaal wel een heavy koers vaart. Gitarist Fredrik Åkesson zei daarover: “I would say this one is a bit more heavy — a bit more progressive hard rock heavy. More direct, maybe, some songs. Some really catchy melodies, if you wanna put it that way. It’s a bit more intense, I think, a bit darker and a bit heavier. Not going back to the death metal stuff, really, but still it’s… some songs, I think, are the heaviest we’ve done, if you compare the last three albums. I think every song is very different from each other on the album. And I think there’s a lot of songs, like the first single is gonna be [the] ‘Sorceress’ [title track]. I’m really looking forward to playing that live. It’s a bit different for us; it’s detuned and very heavy, chugging heavy. I think it’s one of those albums — I’ve said this before, but I think, again, it’s important — with the sequence of the album, you should listen from the top to the end. It’s supposed to be like a little journey.”

En over de grunts: “We love that type of stuff, and we play it still — sixty percent of the show is from the older stuff, and it’s a big part of the Opeth sound. It’s not impossible that we’ll do some kind of album like that again someday. It depends on Mike and what his vision is and what he feels like doing. So I can understand that. But once again, we’re trying to do different albums. We’ve done nine albums with the growls. But I think still this music relates with the older stuff. There’s a lot of similarities, stuff that is a bit similar. Just to put [the growling vocals] in there to satisfy that need would be kind of cheesy; it’s not supposed to be there, and then it’s gonna sound forced. I mean, Mikael screams a bit more on this one, but with the regular voice — it distorts a little bit more. But still, the element, like, more aggressive meets the more softer stuff, that yin and yang kind of thing, as it was before, with the growl and the clean vocals; that was kind of that thing, which is a very important part of the Opeth sound. But I think a lot of Opeth fans are open-minded and they enjoy both types of styles. I would like to think so.”