Gig

Opeth – Gig Review & Photo Gallery 21st November @ The Palais, Melb VIC

Rod Whitfield

/10

Nov 24, 2025

7 min read

Opeth
The Palais, Melbourne/Naarm, VIC
November 21^st, 2025
Support: Caligula’s Horse

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen the C-Horse. They’re always fabulous value. They’re almost the perfect choice to support Opeth – you can hear the influence of the mighty Swedes in their sound and songs, especially in their earlier works. Although, of course, they have something going that’s uniquely their own too.

Another word that always springs to my mind when I witness review these Brissie legends is ‘class’. Their presentation is just classy, on record and on stage. And tonight is no exception.

They’re pretty much a one-guitar band these days, after spending much of their career with a twin-guitar attack. But when that one guitar player is Sam Valen, it is no problem. He is one of the best heavy music guitarists around, although that fact is recognised nowhere near enough. His sound is so crisp and clear, his playing so fluent. He embodies the term ‘tasteful shredding’.

But then of course, the whole band is superb at what they do. Each member is a master of their craft, although the whole is still greater than the sum of its parts. Tonight, as only support, they get a decent length support slot: a full forty-five minutes, which they fill completely with just five songs. It’s a night for ‘prog dorks’, with both bands ripping out tunes of eight minutes, nine minutes, ten minutes and beyond. In fact, tonight is a prog dork’s wet dream.

As if supporting Opeth across the nation isn’t enough, the band are also celebrating the tenth anniversary of the release of their mighty Bloom album. So they give us the first two songs from that record: the title track and ‘Marigold’. Both go down an absolute treat. And as they finish their set with the life-affirming twelve-minute epic ‘Mute’, from their last album Charcoal Grace, all is well in the world.

Especially since we now get to experience two hours with the monumental ‘Peth!

In case you happen to be among the uninitiated, this band’s history can be traced all the way back to the very early nineties. They’ve reached the point now where their albums are chapters in time, their gigs are transcendent experiences in shrines of modern (and at the same time retro – yes, they somehow manage to be both) progressive music.

Another one for those uninformed in the lore of Opeth: approximately fifteen years ago, this band went through a transition in their sound, morphing from a monolithic progressive death metal band into a slightly more psychedelic, 70s-infused prog rock act. Some bands go through a stylistic change and it wrecks them. Others weather the storm and transition seamlessly, commercially, creatively and as far as fan attitude is concerned (and of course, not everyone is happy, but that can’t be helped). Opeth have landed fairly and squarely in the latter category.

And every show of theirs I’ve seen in the last fifteen years (which must be at least three or four) proves this. I personally prefer their 2000s output, but have found their newer tracks sit beautifully alongside the heavier stuff in a live setting, even though they’re different.

Tonight, we good a solid balance of both, although leaning ever so slightly towards the older material. I’m in heaven, as I get three of my all-time favourite Opeth tracks, ‘The Grand Conjuration’ (which is my absolute favourite), ‘Ghost of Perdition’ and the 90s classic ‘Demon of the Fall’.

Lead man Mikhael Akerfeldt is his usual schizophrenic self, vocally, and his usual affable, hilarious self in his between-song banter. There always seems to be a lot of (respectful) hecklers at Opeth shows (the ones I’ve seen at least – and tonight we even get people howling things at him in Swedish), and he handles it all in his stride, and often with hysterical, tongue-in-cheek humour.

Behind him, the band are consummate professionals, smashing out the band’s epic and often intricate tunes with absolute aplomb.

After more than one hour and forty minutes, the band leaves the stage, with Akerfeldt promising to return if we are rowdy enough. Rowdy enough we are, so they return to give us ‘just’ the one encore. It’s just that that encore runs for more than thirteen minutes. ‘Deliverance’ truly must go down as one of the all-time great live songs. By anyone. Ever.

Similarly, I think we have to put this band up there with the absolute greats of the genre. In fact, of two genres, progressive death metal and prog rock. If they’re not there already.

Thank you, once again, Opeth! We await with baited breath for your next Aussie tour.

Review by Rod Whitfield

Setlist