Opeth
February 11, 2026
Riviera Theatre
Chicago, IL
Mahrou Senoba
The February 11, 2026 Chicago stop landed early in the North American leg of Opeth’s The Last Will and Testament tour, and that “early‑tour energy” was unmistakable—focused, hungry, and carrying just enough unpredictability to feel electric. Outside the Riviera Theatre, a bundled‑up line stretched down the block, Chicago fans buzzing despite the cold.
Katatonia opened with a brooding, meticulously controlled set. Touring behind 2025’s Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State and adjusting to the departure of longtime guitarist Anders Nyström, the band leaned deeper into their atmospheric, clean‑vocal identity. The performance felt introspective and textural—less about weight, more about emotional contour—like a group quietly recalibrating its center of gravity in real time.
That restraint evaporated the moment Opeth walked onstage. Opening with “§1,” they signaled a band fully reawakened. Supporting their 2024 album The Last Will and Testament, Opeth reintroduced harsh vocals for the first time in over a decade, reconnecting with their death‑metal roots while preserving the progressive nuance they’ve honed since. The set moved like a living organism—quiet passages blooming into towering riffs before collapsing back into stillness. By the time “Deliverance” closed the night, its final riff spiraling into a hypnotic loop, the entire room felt caught in a shared exhale.
What makes this pairing resonate is history as much as sound. Katatonia and Opeth emerged from the same Swedish ’90s metal underground, bound by friendship, collaboration, and parallel evolution. Onstage, that lineage becomes tangible: Katatonia drawing inward, Opeth pushing outward, the two bands forming a dynamic emotional arc that neither could create alone.
