The Last Will and Testament

The album is a concept album set in the post-World War I era, telling the story of a wealthy, conservative patriarch, whose last will and testament reveals shocking family secrets. Seven of the album's eight songs consist of the reading of the father's will in the presence of his three children, a twin pair of son and daughter in their 20s and a young, polio-ridden girl. Their father first confesses that the young girl is not related to the twins by blood. Instead, he claims she was born of an affair he had with a handmaiden of the house. Presented with a lie about an affair between the maid and an estranged father, the matriarch of the family agreed to take the girl in. She was subsequently brought up as a blood heir of the family, even after the matriarch's untimely passing. Following this revelation, the father discloses an even greater truth: unlike their sister, the twins are not his biological children at all. He explains that he and his wife had tried to conceive children of their own, but to no avail. Although he puts the blame on his wife's apparent infertility, the father agreed to try one of their servants as a sperm donor. The result of this was the twin pregnancy, which the father attributes to blind luck. As the young girl is his only child by blood, the father names her his heiress and proprietor of the family's legacy. Upon the twins he bestows worthless heirlooms as a reminder of the fragility of heritage, concluding the reading of the will. In the closing track "A Story Never Told", a letter written by her mother reaches the girl, years after her father's passing. It reveals that the mother had lied to the father, the girl was the result of a different affair and the patriarch was not her biological father, as he was sterile all along.^[15][16] Except for the closing track, all song titles on this album consist solely of a section symbol (§) and a number from 1 to 7, rendered as Roman numerals (I to VII) on the physical variants. This was explained by frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt:

The lyrics are like the reading of the testament. That's why the songs don't have titles, just paragraph one... two... down to seven.^[16]

The album received acclaim from critics and fans alike. It was praised as a return to form, akin to earlier efforts like Ghost Reveries and Watershed, while simultaneously expanding upon the prog-infused sound established in the band's recent catalogue, especially since Pale Communion. Ian Anderson's contributions were also singled out for praise.^[4][7]

The album's cover art, designed by Travis Smith, bears resemblance to The Shining's Overlook Hotel photo, which appears at the end of the film.^[17]