Thoughts after one playthrough in the car:

Akerfeldt growled again! Rejoice! I’ve been waiting for them to mix in a little more metal with the prog sound, and there’s moments of it which sounds pretty cool. Overall my initial thoughts are that the album is fairly good but lacks some of the repetitiveness and groove that made mid-career Opeth some of my favorite music. I usually dislike any album the first time I hear it though, so it’s a good sign that I thought this one was decent.