“I wrote a few parts and tried the death metal vocals, and it sounded awesome” – Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth discusses the band’s upcoming album

In a new interview with United Rock Nations, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth discusses the band’s upcoming album, “The Last Will And Testament”, which will come on November 22 via Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget.

I had been thinking, and we had been talking in the band that we should, maybe we could try and see what happens if we write something that’s slightly heavier. And I felt I wanted to try and see if I could write music and fit that type of vocals on to new music. And I hadn’t done that for many years… It’s been a while. So I wrote a few parts and tried the death metal vocals, and it sounded awesome. Besides, it also provided a different voice to this character in the story. It became an asset that I haven’t really had the need for, for the last four albums. But now it was an asset that actually could be beneficial for the whole concept, for the whole record. It sounded awesome too. I’m happy.

We, as fans, couldn’t be happier too about this.

I don’t have social media. Obviously, the record is not out yet, so I haven’t read any reviews, but I’m on YouTube, believe it or not, every now and then, so I’ve seen some comments and videos, ‘Oh, my god, OPETH is back. Mikael’s back,’ that type of thing. And yeah, there are some screams on there. And it’s cool that they appreciate it. It’s also slightly annoying.

But let’s not cheer too much about this, or we might suffer some consequences.

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. But I’m really happy with the record. The screams sound really good. They fit this music and the concept of the record. So, all in all, I’m happy.

We also sat down with Mikael Åkerfeldt and talked about his vocals: