When a band who has a legacy as grand as Opeth’s graces the stage its hard to imagine of all the choice cuts what the band will pick. After releasing 2011’s Heritage the band embarked on a defiant UK tour, playing only material from the new album as well as soft pieces from the band’s back catalogue, as ever fans reacted in the typical forward thinking standpoint and hated it. Now after releasing Pale Communion just this August the band are back more defiant than ever to prove the naysayers wrong.

Opening up the evening are French double act Alcest whose mix of ambient post rock with slight black metal tendencies warm the crowd up well for the oncoming proverbial melting pot that is our main act. After the lights dim and the tension reaches fever pitch Mikael and co saunter out and begin with the progged out “Eternal Rains Will Come” and their first single off the new album “Cusp Of Eternity“. Being only the second date on the tour so far the band pull the two new songs off with flair and add a surprising amount of heaviness to riff driven “Cusp Of Eternity” with Fredrik Akesson firing on all cylinders owning the dissonant solo amidst Akerfeldt’s sizable wails. With a fantastically cherry picked setlist snaking its way through the bands back catalogue to sate even the most opinionated of fans, from the doleful “Windowpane” a staple of the band’s set to the black metal roots of Morningrise with “Advent” the band expertly navigate through the murky depths of the Still Life classic “The Moor” along with a haunting rendition of “April Ethereal”. All the while Akerfeldt remains with his hallmark characteristics, the perfect compare for a show as grandiose as Opeth.

Although the band might be absolute progressive power house there is constantly an air of modesty throughout the show. Refined playing with bassist Martin Lopez being completely locked in with drummer Martin Axenrot peppering songs with fills and crash cymbals not forgetting keyboardist Joakim Svalberg bringing “Elysian Woes” to life with his carefully placed keys .A rendition of the Heritage belter “The Devil’s Orchard” see’s the band’s controversial decision to change style so late in the game at long last welcome, segued into the one two punch of the folky “The Lotus Eater” and “The Grand Conjuration” conjuring up the grooviest element of the night. But its when the grand finale of Deliverance is unleashed that Opeth truly own every single person in the room.

With masterful musicianship and a fabulous setlist, not only proving that the bold decision to change their sound was not only risky but the right decision, melding their entire twenty four years as a band flitting from their black metal roots to their progressive new beginnings Opeth have proved that there is no other act like them in the world.