Is That All We Are?

Opeth recently announced their new record The Last Will And Testament with the unveiling of the single “§1” – which had growls. And yes, everyone lost their mind. Now in an interview with Coffee With Ola, Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt said he’s not upset that people are thrilled, but wishes some fans would be more open-minded to the non-growling material.

“I choose not to get upset. I’m an old guy. I decided I’m just gonna take in, like, ‘You love it? You love that I do that stuff? Fine. I’m gonna be happy about it. But it’s also, is that all we are? We’ve done four records in a row without that type of vocals, which people have liked, but it’s been… It’s so much focus on the screams, I almost feel like I wanna troll, just do a shit record, like really shit, obvious shit, with great screams and see what they think.”

Still, Åkerfeldt said growling on a new record was fun and a good way to give the main character of The Last Will And Testament a distinctive voice.

“Yeah, maybe it’s 50-50, maybe more. But it was fun doing it again. I hadn’t done it on an Opeth record for quite some time. Watershed was the last [album] with that type of vocals. I wrote the songs. I started with the one called ‘§1’. So I tried some screams to see if it fit with the music, because I hadn’t written music with the intention of having that type of vocal for a long time. So I didn’t know if it was gonna work, but it sounded great to me. So I was, like, ‘Okay.’ Besides, it’s a concept record and it gave a voice to that main character in the story. So that felt, like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna try.'”

Opeth will hit the road throughout October with Tribulation, and in Europe come early 2025 with Grand Magus. Check out the full list of dates below and get your tickets here.

w/ Tribulation

10/11 Milwaukee, WI The Rave / Eagles Club
10/12 Cleveland, OH Agora Theater & Ballroom
10/14 Toronto, ON Queen Elizabeth Theatre
10/15 Montréal, QC L’Olympia
10/16 Worcester, MA Palladium
10/18 Brooklyn, NY Kings Theatre
10/19 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE
10/20 Washington, DC -– Warner Theatre
10/22 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle
10/23 New Orleans, LA Fillmore New Orleans
10/24 Austin, TX Emo’s Austin
10/25 Dallas, TX Majestic Theatre
10/27 Denver, CO Mission Ballroom
10/29 Phoenix, AZ The Van Buren
10/30 Los Angeles, CA YouTube Theater
10/31 San Francisco, CA The Warfield

w/ Grand Magus

2/9 Helsinki (FI) Ice Hall
2/11 Stockholm (SE) Cirkus
2/12 Oslo (NO) Sentrum Scene
2/14 Copenhagen (DK) DR Koncerthuset
2/15 Hamburg (DE) Docks
2/17 Cologne (DE) Palladium
2/18 Berlin (DE) Tempodrom
2/19 Munich (DE) Muffathalle
2/21 Paris (DR) L’Olympia
2/22 Amsterdam (NL) AFAS Live
2/23 Brussels (BE) Ancienne Belgique