It’s been five years since veteran Swedish prog-metal wizards Opeth released In Cauda Venenum, their most recent album. Today, Opeth announced plans to follow that one with a new LP called The Last Will & Testament. It’s the band’s 14th album, and it’s got multiple contributions from Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson, who plays flute and adds narration. Europe’s Joey Tempest also shows up on one track. Opeth have been around for a long time, but you could argue that it’s all building up to the album where they got the Jethro Tull guy playing flute on their record.

Considering Opeth’s history, it’s not exactly surprising to learn that The Last Will & Testament is a concept album. Its story takes place after World War I, when a rich old man dies and reveals long-buried family secrets in his will. Today, we’re only getting the “radio edit” of lead single “§1” — lots of Opeth songs are crazy long — but we get enough to hear the band swinging back and forth between bloodthirsty heaviness and pastoral orchestral passages. Regarding the new LP, frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt says:

I have become quite interested in family and the idea that blood is not always thicker than water. I became interested in how family members can turn on each other. I saw an interview with this guy whose family had all turned against him over the inheritance, so I wrote a song about that on the last record. The idea stuck with me, and then along came the TV show Succession, and I loved that series. That was in the back of my head too. It felt like an interesting topic that you could twist and turn a little bit.

Check it out below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “§1”
02 “§2”
03 “§3”
04 “§4”
05 “§5”
06 “§6”
07 “§7”
08 “A Story Never Told”

The Last Will & Testament is out 10/11 on Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget.