Pale Communion

Opeth - Pale Communion
  • Album Info
  • 2014
  • Roadrunner Records

1. “Eternal Rains Will Come”
2. “Cusp of Eternity”
3. “Moon Above, Sun Below”
4. “Elysian Woes”
5. “Goblin” (instrumental)
6. “River”
7. “Voice of Treason”
8. “Faith in Others”

Pale Communion is the eleventh studio album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. The album was released on 25 August 2014 through Roadrunner Records. The album was produced by Mikael Ã…kerfeldt and mixed by Steven Wilson. Pale Communion is the first album with keyboardist Joakim Svalberg after the departure of Per Wiberg in 2011. The album sold 19,090 copies in its first week of release in the United States, debuting at number 19 on the Billboard 200. 

Mikael Ã…kerfeldt said of the album, “I wanted to do something more melodic with this album, so there’s stronger vocal melodies and more melodies overall for this album.” Greg Kennelty of Metal Injection said the album does not contain “growls or death metal vocals”. He also described the album as “the missing link between Damnation and Ghost Reveriesor if Heritage was written directly after Ghost Reveries without Watershed having ever existed”.

AllMusic’s Thom Jurek has compared the album to Deep Purple’s In Rock and King Crimson’s early music, as well as noting the influence from jazz fusion.