Opeth "Pale Communion"

Pale Communion is the eleventh studio album by Swedish progressive rock 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).

Pale Communion was met with positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic (a review aggregator site which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from music critics), based on 12 critics, the album has received a score of 75/100, which indicates "generally favorable" reviews.

Track listing

All tracks written by Mikael Åkerfeldt.

1. "Eternal Rains Will Come" 6:43
2. "Cusp of Eternity" 5:35
3. "Moon Above, Sun Below" 10:52
4. "Elysian Woes" 4:47
5. "Goblin" (instrumental) 4:32
6. "River" 7:30
7. "Voice of Treason" 8:00
8. "Faith in Others" 7:39

Total length: 55:45

• Recorded at:

　- Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, UK.

　- Junkmail Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. (Lead vocals)

　- Atlantis studios in Stockholm, Sweden. (Hammond organ)

　- Angel studios in London, UK. (Strings)

• Mixed at No Man's Land Studios in Hemel Hempstead, UK.

• Mastered at Audio Archiving Company in London, UK.