Heritage

It was recorded between 31 January and 21 February 2011 at Atlantis / Metronome Studios in Stockholm, engineered by Janne Hansson, produced by Mikael Akerfeldt and mixed by Steven Wilson — his first work with the band since Damnation in 2003. The first two songs Akerfeldt wrote for it carried on from Watershed. Martin Mendez told him he would be disappointed if the album went that way, so Akerfeldt threw both out and started again; from "The Lines in My Hand" onwards he decided to write the whole record in a new manner. "Slither" is dedicated to Ronnie James Dio, who died while it was being written. Travis Smith's cover shows a tree whose roots run down to hell and whose branches bear the faces of the current members. The head falling off it is Per Wiberg's; he left in April 2011, after the recording. The running order here is the original's as printed.