MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT On OPETH's Musical Evolution: 'I Don't Believe In Staying True To The Roots'

In a new interview with Brazil’s Monsters Of Rock TV, OPETH guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt spoke about the importance — or lack thereof — of staying true to the band’s roots while taking OPETH‘s sound and songwriting to new heights with each successive album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  ”I don’t really pay too much attention to our roots, to be honest. They are there regardless if I want it or not, so I don’t really have to think about those kind of things. I think that some of our fans would probably disagree and say that we have abandoned our roots, and to some extent, I suppose that’s true, but the kind of core of our sound from the beginning wasn’t to attach ourselves to a specific sound or — how do you say? — a specific direction. It was always — the idea was always [to keep] evolving.

“I remember from early on that we talked amongst ourselves in the early incarnation of the band that it would be great if we could be one of those bands who could do anything we want,” he explained. “Even when we did the first album, I was 19 years old, but I already started dabbling in death metal music. I was heavily into progressive rock. I was into singer-songwriter music. I had bought myself a couple of jazz records, a couple of fusion records, some classical music, all sorts of stuff. And I felt early on it would be impossible for me to carry on being in a band if I couldn’t allow myself to write music without boundaries. And who’s gonna set boundaries for us? I mean, nobody’s in that position. And in the early days, we didn’t even have fans. [From the very beginning, we were] thinking we can do whatever we want. There was no references. It was just us trying to put together music that we liked. And pretty early on we started shifting. I mean, the first album is similar to the second, but then we made a shift, and then after that we made another shift, and then later on we made another shift. And it always evolved. And I always liked that.”

Mikael added: “For me, I don’t believe in staying true to the roots, because those roots don’t really exist in the same way in our band as they do in maybe some other bands. I don’t know. Our roots has always been to evolve.”

As previously reported, OPETH was honored in the “Best Hard Rock/Metal” category at this year’s edition of the Swedish Grammis awards (Swedish Grammy equivalent),which was held on March 27 at Annexet in Stockholm.

“The Last Will And Testament”, OPETH‘s fourteenth studio album, was released last November via Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget. The LP was written by OPETH frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt, with lyrics conferred with Klara Rönnqvist Fors (THE HEARD, ex-CRUCIFIED BARBARA). “The Last Will And Testament” was co-produced by Åkerfeldt and Stefan Boman (GHOST, THE HELLACOPTERS),engineered by Boman, Joe Jones (KILLING JOKE, ROBERT PLANT) and OPETH, with Boman, Åkerfeldt and the rest of OPETH mixing at Atlantis and Hammerthorpe Studios in Stockholm. The strings on “The Last Will And Testament” were arranged by Åkerfeldt and returning prog friend Dave Stewart (EGG, KHAN) and conducted by Stewart at Angel Studios in London. Not one to miss a beat, visual artist Travis Smith returned to the fold, crafting his 11th cover, a haunting “photograph” reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick‘s infamous “Overlook Hotel” photograph. Miles Showell (ABBA, QUEEN) also revisited mastering and vinyl lacquer cutting at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Åkerfeldt rolled out the red carpet for storied flautist and JETHRO TULL mainman Ian Anderson. Not only do Anderson‘s signature notes fly on “§4” and “§7”, he narrates on “§1”, “§2”, “§4”, and “§7”. Joining Anderson, EUROPE‘s Joey Tempest lends a backing vocal hand on “§2”, while Åkerfeldt‘s youngest daughter, Mirjam Åkerfeldt, is the disembodied voice in “§1”.

Making his recorded debut alongside OPETH‘s long-established lineup of Mikael Åkerfeldt, guitarist Fredrik Åkesson, bassist Martin Mendez and keyboard maestro Joakim Svalberg on “The Last Will And Testament” is new drummer Waltteri Väyrynen, who joined the band in 2022.