MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT Labels New OPETH Album As “Restless”, Its Music Is “An Explosion Of Ideas”

Opeth‘s upcoming album has been the subject of many conversations in the prog-metal circles during the past couple of weeks, especially after the first single revealed the band’s return to growling vocals, which have been absent since the arrival of Heritage. Frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt has provided some recent insights into the inception of, The Last Will And Testament, which is set to release on October 11 through Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget, and the most recent one came during an interview with Bloodstock TV‘s Oran O’Beirne.

Over the course of the conversation, Åkerfeldt discussed the tone of the album, particularly in reference to its lead single “§1”. He noted that the track may indeed reflect the overall atmosphere of the album: “There are some screams on the other songs — not all of them, but on some of the other songs. Good screams, I must say,” he commented.

“It’s a very restless record. Somebody said claustrophobic. And it’s not a very happy record. It’s very — I mean, every metal band says the word ‘dark’, but it’s… restless, it is my best, to sum it up. We don’t linger on anything. It’s just like an explosion of ideas. It’s like TikTok.”

The album’s title is indicative of its central theme, which revolves around the reading of a deceased patriarch’s last will and testament. Mikael explained: “It is a concept record. The whole record is about the reading of the last will and testament of this main character that’s passed away — a rich, old fuck. Conservative, old, stern, noble patriarch who passed away, and the record started when he summoned his three children to go through with solicitors, his last will and testament.”

This concept didn’t come out of nowhere, as Mikael shared his inspiration: “It’s not completely my idea. I got interested in the topic even on the last record. There’s a song on there called, the English title was ‘Universal Truth’ — I think we did a video for that one — which also dealt with kind of those types of, like how blood’s not always thicker than water, how money can drive family members into chaos. So, I got interested in that topic. And also along comes the TV series ‘Succession’, which is, I’m not sure if you’ve seen it, but a great TV series about a power struggle between siblings taking over after their Murdoch-type father.”

“It’s interesting. And it also helps me if I have a theme of sorts if I’m gonna write lyrics. Otherwise, I end up writing stuff, I don’t even know what they mean,” Åkerfeldt concluded.

Pre-orders for The Last Will And Testament are available here.