Big "Krone" talk

Prog band Opeth: back to the roots

Gentlemen with style and a conceptual superstructure for a new prog metal masterpiece: Opeth around frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Reigning Phoenix, Terhi Yilmaeinen)

With their new album "The Last Will And Testament", Swedish prog metal legends Opeth bring a 100-year-old story into the present and draw on old strengths. Frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt reveals to the "Krone" how he won Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull as a guest, why the story is also connected to his family and what 35 years of Opeth trigger in him.

The timelines are merciless and joyful at the same time. "The Last Will And Testament" is Opeth's 14th studio album and the first since the more diversely recorded "In Cauda Venenum" (2019). Five years between two albums has never happened before for the Swedes. But for veteran fans of the uncrowned European prog rock kings, there are even more reasons to break out in unbridled jubilation even without listening in advance. On the one hand, it's the first concept album in a quarter of a century (!) ("Still Life", 1999), on the other hand, boss, singer and frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt uses his distinctive death metal growls again for the first time in 16 years ("Watershed", 2008) - and anyone who is a metal fan or knows one knows that nothing is as popular as a musical retrospective. The eternal hope that a favorite band might hit you again like it did when you were still an adolescent.

The concept requires toughness
"For me, music is first and foremost spontaneous and driven by my instincts," Åkerfeldt tells the "Krone" in an interview, "most of the time I have no idea what I'm actually doing. I enjoy making music and love writing songs. The music that you ultimately hear on Opeth albums comes from this basic attitude. I can absolutely understand that my death metal voice makes fans feel nostalgic and think back to the past, but it doesn't feel like that to me." The fact that Åkerfeldt, at the age of 50, is suddenly leaving the quiet folk-prog paths of recent years and leading Opeth into the prog-metal waters that secured them sold-out halls and a loyal fan base decades ago is entirely due to the album concept.

Roughly speaking, the story takes place after the First World War, when a merciless and strict family patriarch not only bequeaths his estate and property in his will, but also reveals shocking family secrets. It is about jealousies, newly opened rifts, illnesses and narcissistic solo efforts. The normal and still everyday madness, embedded in a frame story that goes back around 100 years. "The main character called for this voice," explains Åkerfeldt, "he is evil, unreliable, heavily religious and rules the family with an iron hand. This basic mood called for heavier music, which I have been moving away from for several years." The songs simply bear paragraph signs, because every single song is named after one in the will. Not googleable and absolutely unusable for Spotify. In other words, everything that Åkerfeldt and his band have always loved and created music for.

Dealing with ancestors
"Every listener can identify with the subject matter because almost everyone has been confronted with the topic of death in the family. In addition, there is an evil side to almost every family that people don't like to remember. Maybe it wasn't 20, but 50 or 60 years ago for you, but there's a black sheep everywhere." Despite the distant concept, Åkerfeldt also dealt strongly with his own family as a result. "I'm lucky because most of my ancestors lived to a very old age and died of natural causes. We never fought over property or money, but I am aware of a certain coldness. When my grandfather died, my father and I sat by his deathbed. He always loved us, but he couldn't put it into words. On his deathbed, I told him that I loved him and he accepted it, but it would never cross his lips. The same with my father. Maybe that's why I'm so overly protective and shower my children with phrases like that."

The eight songs on the album stretch to around 50 minutes of material, making "The Last Will And Testament" one of the shortest and most compact albums in the band's almost 35-year history. The brutality has been shot back into the Opeth limbs not only vocally, but also musically. Hard guitars, bursting drumming, wild solos and lead-heavy riffs - everything that Åkerfeldt has worked off in recent years returns here in concentrated form. Although he writes the songs single-handedly, teamwork is important to him. "As the guitarist, I actually have the least important role in the band. Everyone is part of the band for a reason. Each instrument is as important as the others. I am the songwriter, but then I can reach into my magical suitcase, where the most fantastic musicians are inside, who help my visions become reality with their skills. I would be absolutely nothing without the band."

Prog legend as guest
Opeth fans can welcome none other than Jethro Tull mastermind Ian Anderson as a famous guest on the new album, who guides them through the conceptual story as narrator. Åkerfeldt himself is still surprised that he got him for the project. "Maybe it was because we deliberately asked for the narrative structure and not, like everyone else, whether he would play the flute for us on the album. He's a very authoritative guy, for whom I have the greatest respect. He sent over his vocal tracks and they fitted perfectly. He also asked if we wanted his flute on the album," laughs the frontman. Guitarist Fredrik Åkesson smiles: "The instrument wasn't actually planned for this album, but you don't tell Ian Anderson not to play the flute! So we looked for a place and of course we found it." Not really audible to normal ears, but also present in the backing vocals: Europe legend Joey Tempest, an old friend of the band.

On "The Last Will And Testament", Opeth go back to their past without forgetting the present or slipping into eternity. It's an incredibly narrow, but very successful balancing act that could actually manage to not only bring back the old fans who have been scared away, but also inspire the new fans who are closer to the quieter sound for this side of the Swedes. "It's simply a new chapter in the band's music and each new chapter sounds completely different from the old one," Åkerfeldt tries not to interpret the musical turn too strongly, "I'm not particularly interested in what we used to do. I've never been guided by a certain direction in our discography, I've always followed my vision and my heart. For many, 'The Last Will And Testament' may remind them of the past, but for us the album feels fresh and current."

The band as a legacy
The big tour for the album is - for the time being - still without an Austrian live date, but this could happen on the next slide or through festival shows. Three and a half decades with the same band so successfully in this business makes Åkerfeldt smile. "When we got our first record deal, I had just grown up and thought I'd buy myself a Rolls-Royce and a penthouse in New York and London. I realized relatively quickly that the materialization of my rock start dream didn't work that way and I had to work hard for everything. Over the years we built up a following and had a lot of success. In the meantime, Opeth has become something like my legacy. The band means a lot to a lot of people and I'm grateful for that. Fortunately, we can make a living out of it and make people happy. That's not so bad for a project that started without any plan or intention, is it?"