Warthur Garden of the Titans captures a live set from Opeth which, coming after the release of Sorceress, follows a string of albums (beginning with Heritage) where they had more or less abandoned metal entirely. The set list mixes their gentler progressive rock material with more progressive metal-oriented pieces in a setlist which seamlessly blends both sides of their sound, and so the album stands as evidence that if Opeth have stopped making metal albums, it's not because they are no longer able or willing to play metal - they're just working on a different aspect of their portfolio for the time being.

Several of the songs here are Opeth live standards - indeed, if you have The Roundhouse Tapes you have renditions of several of these from about a decade earlier - but there's enough tracks which haven't seen the light of day on an official Opeth live release to ensure it doesn't feel redundant. And if you've convinced yourself that Opeth can't do justice to their metal side any more, just listen to the furious version of Deliverance that rounds out this exceptional set.

Kev Rowland On 11th May 2017 Opeth played the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado, and it has now been released DVD, Blu-Ray and vinyl formats. I was rather late coming to Opeth, but still remember when ‘Ghost Reveries’ came to my attention in 2005 – their 8th studio album – and was absolutely blown away. Since then they have moved further into the progressive field, but in its truest sense, as they mix old school early Seventies organ-dominated progressive rock with death-influenced metal, often in the same song. There is no point in trying to work out what genre is the right place to fit Opeth as Mikael Åkerfeldt threw the rule book away long ago, if he ever owned a copy in the first place, and that is certainly debatable.

Harmonies and gentle baritone vocals can give way to death growls, and heavily commercial songs can turn into metallic monsters with little or no warning. There is a huge sound to the band, incredible to think that the noise is being created by just five people. It is bombastic, heavily over the top, yet can also fall into pure folk if that is what is needed. The band are in full control, and they take the crowd with them at all times. At one point Åkerfeldt tells the crowd that it is being recorded, but that if they then buy the album any mistakes will have magically disappeared!

There really isn’t any other band like Opeth, so if you are a fan then you simply must have this. And if you’re not, why not give a try anyway?