Heritage (Opeth album)
Encyclopedia
Heritage is the tenth studio album
by Swedish progressive metal
band Opeth
, released on 13 September 2011 by Roadrunner Records
.
The album was recorded in early 2011 at Atlantis studios in Stockholm
, Sweden. It was produced by Mikael Åkerfeldt
, engineered by Janne Hansson and mixed by Steven Wilson
. A critical and commercial success, the album moved 19,000 units in the United States
in its debut week and charted at number 19 on the Billboard 200
.
, Mikael Åkerfeldt told Classic Rock Magazine that he was finally writing for a new Opeth album. Originally, the first two songs Åkerfeldt wrote for Heritage were in the style of Watershed
. After hearing the songs for the first time, Martin Mendez
told Åkerfeldt that he would be disappointed if the album continued in that direction. Relieved that Mendez was not interested in doing another conventional Opeth album, Åkerfeldt scrapped the two songs and started the writing process over. After composing what would become "The Lines in My Hand", he decided to write the new album in a brand new style.
On 1 December 2010, Opeth announced that they would enter Atlantis/Metronome Studios in Stockholm
on 31 January 2011 to begin recording the new album with Janne Hansson engineering and Steven Wilson mixing. By late March, mixing was complete, and in April, Per Wiberg
was relieved of his duties in Opeth as part of a mutual decision with the band.
On 25 May 2011, Heritage was announced as the album's title. On 26 July, the band premiered the album's first single, "The Devil's Orchard", on Stereogum
. On 11 September, the album was streamed in its entirety on NPR Music
. On 23 September, the music video for "The Devil's Orchard" was released.
and Magma
. The album's title track is influenced by Swedish pianist Jan Johansson and Swedish folk music. "Slither" is a tribute to Ronnie James Dio
, who died during the album's writing process.
In the press release for Heritage, Mikael Åkerfeldt revealed that he felt as though he had been building to write the album since he was 19 years old. The album signals a departure from the musical style of Opeth's past albums, being one of only two albums by the band not to feature death growls (the other being Damnation
). In a review for Allmusic, Thom Jurek called Heritage the band's most adventurous album, describing the songs as "drenched in instrumental interludes, knotty key and chord changes, shifting time signatures, clean vocals, and a keyboard-heavy instrumentation that includes Mellotrons, Rhodes pianos, and Hammond organs".
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72, based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Thom Jurek of Allmusic praised the album's bravery, awarded it with 4 stars out of 5 and said: "Love it or hate it, Heritage, for its many excesses -- and stellar conception and execution -- is a brave album". Raziq Rauf of BBC Music gave a very positive review to the album and wrote, "Heritage has some strong predecessors to live up to. But it will surely be seen as one of their most accomplished works in years to come". Rolling Stone
critic Chuck Eddy was also positive towards the album, noting "They exhibit unexpected energy and rhythm". Popmatters
critic Brice Ezell commented, "Heritage isn't the type of record to blow away one's mind upon first listen; it takes time to grow in its complexities". Dom Lawson of The Guardian
said, "The Swedes' 10th album, Heritage, is a brave, melancholic and often beautiful heavy rock record that revels in the warm, analogue tones and shimmering mellotrons of the pre-punk 70s while still exuding a sense of wonder at new ideas". Sea of Tranquility reviewer Murat Batmaz also praised the album, calling it "a slow-burning masterpiece. Its vision and its power are timeless."
The album also received some mixed reviews. Uncut
magazine wrote, "On Heritage, [they're] jettisoning practically all trace of heavy whatsoever". Q
magazine noted, "Drifting, dreamy and at times, driving, it's further proof of the Swede's eclecticism". Similarly, Kerrang!
magazine wrote, "It's an album that succeeds on its own terms but if it really does mark the effective end of Opeth as a metal band, that will remain our loss". Patrick Smith of Drowned in Sound
also had mixed feelings about the album, and wrote, "Akerfeldt should be praised for breaking free of an often repetitive genre – there's nothing wrong with radical reinvention. But this departure didn't need to be quite so lacklustre".
for Heritage was revealed at the beginning of June 2011, done once again by longtime collaborator Travis Smith
. As confirmed by Åkerfeldt in a video interview with Face Culture, it is rife with symbolism. The tree represents the band flourishing in the present while its roots "going down to hell" represent the band's death metal history. The faces on the tree are those of the current band members, with Wiberg's head falling off the tree representing his departure. The skulls underneath the tree also represent past band members.
.
Opeth
Additional musicians
Production
Additional personnel
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Swedish progressive metal
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
band Opeth
Opeth
Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. Though the group has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force throughout the years...
, released on 13 September 2011 by Roadrunner Records
Roadrunner Records
Roadrunner Records is an American record label that concentrates primarily on heavy metal bands. It is currently a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.-History:...
.
The album was recorded in early 2011 at Atlantis studios in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden. It was produced by Mikael Åkerfeldt
Mikael Åkerfeldt
Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt is a Swedish musician who achieved fame as the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of progressive death metal band Opeth as well as the lead vocalist of death metal band Bloodbath. He was the vocalist and guitarist for the band Sörskogen and the guitarist of the band Steel...
, engineered by Janne Hansson and mixed by Steven Wilson
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
. A critical and commercial success, the album moved 19,000 units in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in its debut week and charted at number 19 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
.
Background
During a press junket in September 2010 for In Live Concert at the Royal Albert HallIn Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall is a live double album by the Swedish progressive death metal band, Opeth. The DVD was recorded on April 5, 2010 and was released on September 20, 2010 in Europe and on September 21, 2010 in the rest of the world...
, Mikael Åkerfeldt told Classic Rock Magazine that he was finally writing for a new Opeth album. Originally, the first two songs Åkerfeldt wrote for Heritage were in the style of Watershed
Watershed (Opeth album)
Watershed is the ninth full-length studio album by the Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth. Published by Roadrunner Records, the album's special edition was released first as a music download on the Italian iTunes Stores on May 19, 2008.Watershed is the first studio album by Opeth to...
. After hearing the songs for the first time, Martin Mendez
Martin Mendez
Martín Méndez is the bass guitar player of progressive death metal band Opeth and second most constant member of the band, behind lead vocalist, songwriter and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt....
told Åkerfeldt that he would be disappointed if the album continued in that direction. Relieved that Mendez was not interested in doing another conventional Opeth album, Åkerfeldt scrapped the two songs and started the writing process over. After composing what would become "The Lines in My Hand", he decided to write the new album in a brand new style.
On 1 December 2010, Opeth announced that they would enter Atlantis/Metronome Studios in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
on 31 January 2011 to begin recording the new album with Janne Hansson engineering and Steven Wilson mixing. By late March, mixing was complete, and in April, Per Wiberg
Per Wiberg
Per Jonas Wiberg is the former keyboardist of Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth, and a member of Michael Amott's stoner metal band Spiritual Beggars. Wiberg toured with Opeth from the 2003 Deliverance/Damnation tour onward, and joined Opeth officially in 2005. Wiberg provided backing...
was relieved of his duties in Opeth as part of a mutual decision with the band.
On 25 May 2011, Heritage was announced as the album's title. On 26 July, the band premiered the album's first single, "The Devil's Orchard", on Stereogum
Stereogum
Stereogum was one of the first MP3 blogs. It was created by Scott Lapatine in January 2002 with a focus on independent and alternative music news, downloads, videos, and gossip. Stereogum has received several awards and citations, including the 2008 Plug Award for best music blog, Blender's...
. On 11 September, the album was streamed in its entirety on NPR Music
NPR Music
NPR Music launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music discovery. The Web site is a project of National Public Radio, a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to 797...
. On 23 September, the music video for "The Devil's Orchard" was released.
Musical style
Heritage is influenced by a multitude of artists, including Alice CooperAlice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
and Magma
Magma (band)
Magma is a French progressive rock band founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him. In the course of their first album, the band tells the story of a...
. The album's title track is influenced by Swedish pianist Jan Johansson and Swedish folk music. "Slither" is a tribute to Ronnie James Dio
Ronnie James Dio
Ronald James Padavona , better known as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal vocalist and songwriter. He performed with, amongst others, Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, and his own band Dio, which means God in Italian. Other musical projects include the collective fundraiser...
, who died during the album's writing process.
In the press release for Heritage, Mikael Åkerfeldt revealed that he felt as though he had been building to write the album since he was 19 years old. The album signals a departure from the musical style of Opeth's past albums, being one of only two albums by the band not to feature death growls (the other being Damnation
Damnation (album)
-Notes:# The vocal melody in the chorus of "To Rid the Disease" is borrowed from a track recorded by Mikael Åkerfeldt's sideproject Sörskogen, "Mordet i Grottan".-Opeth:* Mikael Åkerfeldt – vocals, guitar; producing and engineering...
). In a review for Allmusic, Thom Jurek called Heritage the band's most adventurous album, describing the songs as "drenched in instrumental interludes, knotty key and chord changes, shifting time signatures, clean vocals, and a keyboard-heavy instrumentation that includes Mellotrons, Rhodes pianos, and Hammond organs".
Reception
Heritage has received generally favorable reviews. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72, based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Thom Jurek of Allmusic praised the album's bravery, awarded it with 4 stars out of 5 and said: "Love it or hate it, Heritage, for its many excesses -- and stellar conception and execution -- is a brave album". Raziq Rauf of BBC Music gave a very positive review to the album and wrote, "Heritage has some strong predecessors to live up to. But it will surely be seen as one of their most accomplished works in years to come". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
critic Chuck Eddy was also positive towards the album, noting "They exhibit unexpected energy and rhythm". Popmatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
critic Brice Ezell commented, "Heritage isn't the type of record to blow away one's mind upon first listen; it takes time to grow in its complexities". Dom Lawson of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
said, "The Swedes' 10th album, Heritage, is a brave, melancholic and often beautiful heavy rock record that revels in the warm, analogue tones and shimmering mellotrons of the pre-punk 70s while still exuding a sense of wonder at new ideas". Sea of Tranquility reviewer Murat Batmaz also praised the album, calling it "a slow-burning masterpiece. Its vision and its power are timeless."
The album also received some mixed reviews. Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
magazine wrote, "On Heritage, [they're] jettisoning practically all trace of heavy whatsoever". Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
magazine noted, "Drifting, dreamy and at times, driving, it's further proof of the Swede's eclecticism". Similarly, Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
magazine wrote, "It's an album that succeeds on its own terms but if it really does mark the effective end of Opeth as a metal band, that will remain our loss". Patrick Smith of Drowned in Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
also had mixed feelings about the album, and wrote, "Akerfeldt should be praised for breaking free of an often repetitive genre – there's nothing wrong with radical reinvention. But this departure didn't need to be quite so lacklustre".
Artwork
The cover artCover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
for Heritage was revealed at the beginning of June 2011, done once again by longtime collaborator Travis Smith
Travis Smith (artist)
Travis Smith is an American graphic artist best known for designing heavy metal album art. He has been called "renowned" by Alternative Press and "unquestionably one of the most talented graphic artists in metal today" by Chronicles of Chaos...
. As confirmed by Åkerfeldt in a video interview with Face Culture, it is rife with symbolism. The tree represents the band flourishing in the present while its roots "going down to hell" represent the band's death metal history. The faces on the tree are those of the current band members, with Wiberg's head falling off the tree representing his departure. The skulls underneath the tree also represent past band members.
Supporting tour
Opeth toured North America in September and October in support of Heritage. In November, the band toured Europe with Pain of SalvationPain of Salvation
Pain of Salvation is a Swedish progressive rock band featuring Daniel Gildenlöw, who is the lyricist, chief composer, guitarist, and lead vocalist. Their sound is characterised by powerful, accentuated guitar work, broad vocal range, abrupt switching between heavy and calm passages, intense...
.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits taken from Allmusic:Opeth
- Mikael ÅkerfeldtMikael ÅkerfeldtLars Mikael Åkerfeldt is a Swedish musician who achieved fame as the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of progressive death metal band Opeth as well as the lead vocalist of death metal band Bloodbath. He was the vocalist and guitarist for the band Sörskogen and the guitarist of the band Steel...
– electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, MellotronMellotronThe Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
, grand piano, vocals, sound effects - Fredrik ÅkessonFredrik ÅkessonKarl Fredrik Henry Åkesson is a Swedish heavy metal guitarist. He is a current member of Opeth. He is also active in Krux, Monsters of Metal and Talisman.-Biography:...
– electric guitar, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together... - Per WibergPer WibergPer Jonas Wiberg is the former keyboardist of Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth, and a member of Michael Amott's stoner metal band Spiritual Beggars. Wiberg toured with Opeth from the 2003 Deliverance/Damnation tour onward, and joined Opeth officially in 2005. Wiberg provided backing...
– grand piano, Mellotron, Rhodes pianoRhodes pianoThe Rhodes piano is an electro-mechanical piano, invented by Harold Rhodes during the fifties and later manufactured in a number of models, first in collaboration with Fender and after 1965 by CBS....
, Hammond B3Hammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard... - Martín MendezMartin MendezMartín Méndez is the bass guitar player of progressive death metal band Opeth and second most constant member of the band, behind lead vocalist, songwriter and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt....
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, upright bass - Martin AxenrotMartin AxenrotErik Martin "Axe" Axenrot is the drummer for the bands Opeth, Bloodbath and Witchery. Axenrot played with Opeth on their last five tours, filling in for then drummer Martin Lopez. On May 12, 2006, he officially joined the band as Lopez left permanently...
– drums, percussion
Additional musicians
- Alex AcuñaAlex AcuñaAlejandro Neciosup Acuña aka Alex Acuña is a Peruvian drummer and percussionist, in the Afro-Cuban jazz style.Born in Pativilca, Peru, Acuña played in local bands from the age of ten, and moved to Lima as a teenager. At the age of eighteen he joined the band of Perez Prado, and in 1967 he moved...
– percussion (on "Famine") - Björn J:son LindhBjörn J:son LindhBjörn J:son Lindh is a Swedish flautist, keyboardist and composer. Lindh has scored music for films including Mannen på taket, directed by Bo Widerberg and Jägarna, directed by Kjell Sundvall...
– fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
(on "Famine") - Joakim SvalbergJoakim SvalbergJoakim Svalberg is a Swedish musician best known as the new keyboard player of Opeth. Svalberg is also involved in a band named elGamo with which he is currently working on their first record...
– grand piano (on "Heritage") - Charlie Dodd – sound effects
Production
- Mikael Åkerfeldt – mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
, engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Steven WilsonSteven WilsonSteven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
– mixing, effects engineering, vocal engineering - Peter MewPeter MewPeter Mew is a British music audio engineer at Abbey Road Studios where he is now senior mastering engineer. He came to Abbey Road in 1965 as a tape operator and has since worked with many artists at the studio...
– masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced... - Janne Hansson – engineering
Additional personnel
- Jasper Schuurmans – project coordinator
- Sandra Artigas – photographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
- Travis SmithTravis Smith (artist)Travis Smith is an American graphic artist best known for designing heavy metal album art. He has been called "renowned" by Alternative Press and "unquestionably one of the most talented graphic artists in metal today" by Chronicles of Chaos...
– art direction - Monte Conner – A&RA&RArtists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
Chart positions
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
12 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 16 |
| Belgian Albums Chart | 87 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
23 |
| Danish Albums Chart | 8 |
| Dutch Albums Chart | 10 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 2 |
| French Albums Chart | 24 |
| German Albums Chart | 9 |
| Hungarian Albums Chart Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... |
22 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
34 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart | 26 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart | 8 |
| Polish Albums Chart OLiS OLiS is the official list of the highest selling music albums in Poland. The list exists since October 23, 2000 and is provided by ZPAV.... |
28 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
22 |
| UK Rock Albums Chart | 1 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
19 |
| US Rock Albums | 6 |
| US Hard Rock Albums | 2 |
| US World Albums | 3 |
Release history
Heritage was released by Roadrunner Records. The album was released on CD, as a standard edition release, special edition release, and a limited deluxe edition release. The deluxe edition will be limited to 500 copies, and will be released on 28 November 2011.| Region | Date |
|---|---|
| Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
14 September 2011 |
| Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
16 September 2011 |
| Belgium Belgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... |
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| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
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| Ireland Ireland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth... |
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| Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
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| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... |
19 September 2011 |
| Portugal Portugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the... |
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| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
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| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
20 September 2011 |
| Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
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| Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
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| Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
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| Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of... |
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