Opeth – who are sufficiently popular to headline shows at Wembley Arena, Radio City Music Hall and Sydney Opera House in the coming months – are audibly a band with the wind in their sails here. Sorceress is wonderfully exuberant, as the band’s current and best lineup click into the higher gear that was suggested on Pale Communion in 2014. Frontman and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt’s confidence is palpable on the title track’s mischievous mystery tour, with its jazz-fusion intro and the Scorpions-like crunch of riffs that are more overtly metallic than anything Opeth have recorded in years, while the Strange Brew is an electrifying blur of crescendos, diversions, dynamics and woozy blues. As always, there are moments of elegance among the elaborate bluster: Will O’ the Wisp is a graceful salute to Jethro Tull; Persephone 2 is all shimmering harmonies and spectral menace; and A Fleeting Glance chucks harpsichord and blissful Brit-psych vibes into the mix. Sonically warm and sparkling, Sorceress marks another high point for a band that keep defying the odds by making silly old prog rock sound stupidly exciting and audacious.
