Interview by: Mark Lacey
It’s been 18 months since Opeth last graced the shores of the UK, and 5 years since the band’s last album. Like many in the industry, COVID caused a pause, and a subsequent change of drummer provided a further reset for a group who are no strangers to evolution. Their latest album sees a return to many of the traditional sounds that forged their early success, and the album’s absorbing story of a family dealing with the aftermath of bereavement is already being heralded as a conceptual masterpiece, and one that stands tall in their extensive repertoire.
Our review of that album is below:
MyGlobalMind.com spoke to Opeth’s guitarist, Fredrik Akesson shortly before he headed on stage for their London show.
MGM: Opeth are no strangers to the Camden Roundhouse. You famously recorded your 2012 live album ‘The Roundhouse Tapes’ here, and this will be the band’s third performance in this venue. It’s a beautiful place, and quite a different setting to your last UK performance in 2022 at the Hammersmith Apollo, where you were joined by Canadian pioneers Voivod.
Fredrik: I loved that show. For me, it’s one show I will never forget because we had Bruce Dickinson sitting up on the balcony, air drumming. I grew up listening to Iron Maiden. He came to see us before the show, and took a picture, but I was upstairs warming up. I’m like, damn it, guys, you could have told me. But then I met him last summer in Stockholm when he played with his solo band.
MGM: Opeth are such a heavy band at times, and yet you get to play these really iconic venues often better associated with softer music or classical music. The Albert Hall in Manchester also features on this tour, which is another beautiful venue. It’s a curious combination.
Fredrik: Maybe it’s because our music branches out a lot. We have a lot of calm stuff that might appeal to different type of audience than the regular metal heads. We got to play the Royal Albert Hall quite a few years back, as part of our anniversary tour for the Blackwater Park album. That was amazing. That was the first time they brought a band in there that did actual growl singing. We felt rebellious again. We’ve been fortunate enough to play a lot of different nice venues in London. Same in New York. With the bigger towns, it’s easier to have the opportunity to vary between them. London has so many nice places, and we’ve played quite a few of them now, and this is the third time here at the Roundhouse.
MGM: You mentioned the growl vocals, and of course, that’s one of the things that people have been saying a lot about your latest album, The Last Will and Testament. It’s the return of the growls for the first time since the Watershed album. This latest release also has a really interesting story concept behind it.
Fredrik: Yeah. The idea about the concept was there at an early stage, but also bringing back that element of the growling vocals. I could tell whilst we were playing some festivals; we’d always play some of the old stuff. It seemed like Mikael liked to do it, and his growl vocals became even more guttural to a certain point. It’s just fun to play that stuff. I think with the four previous albums without that element, we peaked that type of thing. We needed to do something different. Still, I think the new album, The Last Will and Testament, assembles both the prog feel of the previous four albums, and also the old stuff, but it’s also a step forward. It’s different in the sense that it’s more compressed. The songs aren’t as long, but they have even more ingredients. It’s more TikTok. With the older songs, they would tend to linger on certain sections in the song for quite some time. If you listen to the Blackwater Park, that ending is very long compared to these compositions that are a bit more compact.
MGM: The emotional subject matter of the latest album really provides for putting the growl back in, especially when you’re singing about the death and the individual character’s responses, and the ensuing conflict.
Fredrik: Yeah, and also all the different voices on the album are the father’s voices from the other side of the graves, including the growls, including Ian Anderson’s narrations and Joey Tempest’s wails in one verse. I also think Mikael brought out another side of his clean vocals. In paragraph one, it’s more like a theatrical type of voice that I haven’t heard before, which is also something new for this album.
Fredrik: Yeah, the pandemic, absolutely. The main reason is that we had still obligations for ‘In Cauda Venenum’, the previous album, that we wanted to finish. We had to finish two American tours. There were some other tours and festivals, and also, we did an anniversary tour. That’s when we played Hammersmith. We played two and a half hour shows, playing one track from each album. The way Mikael works, and writes the majority of the stuff, he can only focus on one thing at the time. We had to wait for working on the new album until we were done with all these shows we’d signed up for. But as soon as we got off touring, the writing process and recording more or less happened within a little bit more than a year. We were quite efficient as soon as we started.
MGM: Did this album feel any different for you? Waltteri Veneno is now on drums, and recording with you for the first time. Did that bring a different dynamic to the group, or did he just slot in really naturally?
Fredrik: Well, he did two of the anniversary tours, and we also did a tour in South America together. That was really good to do that before the album, chemistry-wise, and also, of course, playing-wise. He just did everything tremendously good. A very musical, but also extreme metal drummer, but very good at playing the more delicate, softer stuff, and very musical into the smallest detail.
MGM: You guys really go from one extreme to the other, don’t you, in terms of genre? There can’t be many styles you haven’t embraced.
Fredrik: We haven’t done any hip hop or disco yet. I don’t think we’ll push it that far. We say to ourselves that we’re very privileged that a lot of people come to our show because our music is weird, but we’re very happy about that and grateful.
MGM: These shows are amongst your first since the new album was released, so hopefully we’ll see you perform a number of songs from that. No doubt you’ll also be finishing with ‘Deliverance’, which has become a fan favourite here in the UK?
Fredrik: Yeah, we always do that. Mikael read somewhere that after playing these shows, our next show will be at Sweden Rock Festival, and somebody counted out that we’ll have played ‘Deliverance’ a thousand times by that show. That would be the equivalent of 10 1/2 days, only playing ‘Deliverance’. Something like that.
MGM: Probably the best recorded version of your track ‘Deliverance’ is from the ‘Garden of the Titans: Live at Red Rocks’ album that you released in 2018.
Fredrik: I’m happy how that came out with the mix. It sounds heavier than the Sorceress album. I think we sound heavier live than on the albums to a certain extent. I guess we turn up. On the albums, we tend to use single coil pickups. Live, we probably have a bit more of a traditional metal sound. That might affect it. We also have to rearrange some stuff. Like tonight, me and Mikael take some of the keyboard parts and play it on guitar instead. We have to make everything work.
MGM: How much of the new album will fans get to hear at these shows? And given the range of instruments on here, could it ever be performed in its entirety?
Fredrik: We’re playing paragraphs one, three, and seven on this tour, and also the only track with a title, ‘The Story Never Told’. We were looking at playing paragraph six, and paragraph 2 and paragraph 4. But paragraph 4 has a harp section, so we’d have to do it on guitars and arrange something, and also it has Ian Anderson’s flute solo. Some songs might require an orchestra, like paragraph five. It has a big string section. There’s a lot of strings on the album, but I guess it doesn’t have to be exactly like the album. You can always try to rearrange it. Eventually, someday we’ll hopefully do the whole album. I mean, it’s a good idea since it’s a concept album.
MGM: Tonight’s show and most of this tour sold out very quickly. Opeth and the UK have such affinity for each other, but I gather you almost didn’t make it?
Fredrik: We always enjoy it here. We’re very connected with the UK. It was very stressful the other day because we’ve just done a lot of shows in Europe, and somebody stole my passport in Hamburg. Since Brexit, I can’t get in here on my travel ID. I went to the Swedish embassy, and got this paper that would take me into the UK. But when I jumped on the flight, they refused me. Two days ago, at 7am, I’m in Düsseldorff, thinking how the hell am I going to do this? I had to go back to Sweden. I bought a flight. Nobody was awake. Somehow, I managed to take a train to Frankfurt, to take a plane home. I figured I can issue a new passport at the airport. But then they, of course, closed that function. So, I take a cab into Stockholm City, went to the police, got that pink passport, came back, just made the last flight to London, and then a car to Bristol the day before yesterday. I slept like one hour that day, but I’m so happy I made it because for a while it was close to cancelling. I’m so happy it worked. It was very stressful. But I won’t bring my passport into the dressing room anymore.
MGM: After you finish in the UK, you guys are off to South America in a couple of weeks. What else is next for you after this tour?
Fredrik: South America is going to be great. We’re playing Monsters of Rock in Sao Paulo with the Scorpions, Judas Priest, Queensrÿche, and Savatage, and Europe.
Tour dates – Opeth – Official Website
MGM: You have quite a connection with the guys from Europe, I think. Joey Tempest sang backing vocals on Opeth’s latest album. And of course, you’ve done a number of recording projects with John Norum in the past.
Fredrik: Yes. We’ve written a lot of songs together. I did three songs on his previous solo album. We saw each other a month ago, and I wrote one for the album he’s working on now. As for other shows, we’re looking at a bunch of festivals. We’re going to play Download. Then we’re doing a second European leg. Then we’re doing Australia and hopefully Japan at the end of the year. It’s a busy year.
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/Opeth
For tour dates:
https://www.opeth.com/tour-dates
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