Pale Communion | ||||
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Cover art by Travis Smith
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Studio album by Opeth | ||||
Released | 25 August 2014 | |||
Recorded | Rockfield Studios | |||
Genre | Progressive rock | |||
Length | 55:45 | |||
Label | Roadrunner | |||
Producer | Mikael Åkerfeldt, Tom Dalgety | |||
Opeth chronology | ||||
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Singles from Pale Communion | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 75/100 |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
About.com | |
AllMusic | |
Alternative Press | |
Blabbermouth.net | |
Exclaim! | 7/10 |
The Guardian | |
The List | |
Pitchfork | 4.3/10 |
PopMatters | 8/10 |
Sputnik Music | 3.5/5 |
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 Åkerfeldt 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 Åkerfeldt 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 Reveries or 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.
The cover art was designed by Travis Smith, who has designed several previous Opeth album covers. The artwork contains Latin text. The left panel quotes Axel Oxenstierna: "Don't you know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?" (An nesci, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?). The middle panel quotes Terence: "In these days friends are won through flattery, the truth gives birth to hate." (Hoc tempore obsequium amicos, veritas odium parit, Andria, vv. 67-68). The right panel quotes Marcus Valerius Martialis: "He grieves truly who grieves without a witness." (Ille dolet vere qui sine teste dolet, Epigrammata, I, 33).