MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT Says New OPETH Album Is “A Claustrophobic-Sounding Record” With “A Lot Of Ideas”

Opeth followers – ourselves included – have one thing actually distinctive to stay up for because the band prepares to launch their new album, The Final Will And Testomony, on October 11 by way of Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget. The album, recorded on the iconic Rockfield Studios in Wales earlier this 12 months, appears to be shaping as much as be a departure from the norm, even by Opeth‘s eclectic requirements, if we’re to imagine the masterminds behind its inception.

Guitarist and vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson lately mentioned the upcoming launch in an interview on the Wacken Open Air competition, with Åkesson noting that the album stands out from their earlier work.

“I am actually pleased with it,” he stated, highlighting their expertise recording at Rockfield Studios. “We recorded as soon as once more at Rockfield in Wales. So that is the third time now we have gone to Rockfield. I’d say it is totally different from each different album. Undoubtedly.”

Åkerfeldt admitted that whereas the album maintains the band’s signature sound, it is also one thing fairly totally different: “It is bizarre. That is not likely totally different for us, I assume. However I am doing among the screams once more, which I have never carried out for a very long time. And there are some visitors on there,” he added, referring to the album that includes contributions from Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, who provides spoken phrase and flute, in addition to Joey Tempest from Europe. 

“It is a idea report. Someone stated it sounds claustrophobic. It is a claustrophobic-sounding report. And there is quite a lot of concepts. It is a stressed report. There is no meandering stuff taking place on a regular basis. Even I do not actually know the songs but. However, after all, I’d say that, however I believe it is good — it is a good report,” Åkerfeldt revealed.

The album’s construction is one other intriguing side, with songs which are lyrically linked and infrequently movement into each other. “They’re linked lyrically, but in addition to a sure extent that one music bleeds into the opposite, which I at all times favored anyway. It is mainly the studying of a testomony,”  Åkerfeldt defined. “So it is like paragraphs. There are not any actual music titles on there. It is a bit odd by our requirements even. However you could possibly, after all, extract any music from — we do not have to play the entire report.”

The collaboration with Joey Tempest is especially intriguing, as Åkerfeldt famous, “Tempest would not sound like Tempest on Europe’s greatest hit ‘The Closing Countdown’. He sounds wonderful. I imply, I am a giant Europe fan, being Swedish. I really like them. And I believe for him to be on this report, it’s kind of totally different by his requirements as a result of it would not actually sound like a Europe report in any respect.”

The friendship between Åkerfeldt and Tempest seems to have grown over time, with the Opeth frontman sharing that they sometimes hang around and change texts. “I assume we’re buddies. Yeah. He despatched me a textual content at some point. It is, like, ‘What’s up?’ And I used to be, like, ‘Hey, Joey Tempest.’ And we met at festivals, and he invited me over to his home. I imply, we all know the Europe guys. Fredrik, one among his finest buddies is John Norum, the Europe guitar participant. So, we’re good buddies with the entire band. However, yeah, Joey Tempest, we hang around once in a while.”

As for the potential of a joint Opeth/Europe tour, Åkerfeldt hinted that it has been mentioned however stays unsure. He mused, “We talked about it, however it’s onerous to know… Finally, we make the requires who we gonna tour with. For example, we gonna tour North America quickly with Tribulation, and so they’re buddies. After which we’ll tour Europe with Grand Magus, that are additionally buddies. And Europe, now we have talked about touring collectively, however it’s onerous to know if individuals like that bundle or not. I am unsure… I believe Europe must play after us then since you do not need to go up after ‘The Closing Countdown’.”

Pre-orders for The Final Will And Testomony can be found here.