Opeth singer Mikael Åkerfeldt is unsure whether it would be possible to tour with Europe: “We talked about it, but it’s hard to know…”

Opeth guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson talked with Marcus Schleutermann of EMP at Wacken Open Air festival in Germany. The album “The Last Will and Testament,” which will be released on October 11 via Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget, is one that the band is looking forward to.

We recorded [it] in February, I think. Mikael Åkerfeldt

I’m really happy with it. We recorded once again at Rockfield in Wales. So this is the third time we went to Rockfield. I would say it’s different from every other album. Definitely.

I don’t know. It’s weird. That’s not really different for us, I guess. But I’m doing some of the screams again, which I haven’t done for a long time. And there’s some guests on there. Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull is on there doing spoken word and playing flute. And Joey Tempest [of Europe] is on it. But, yeah, it’s a concept record. Somebody said it sounds claustrophobic. It’s a claustrophobic-sounding record. And there’s a lot of ideas. It’s a restless record. There’s not meandering stuff happening all the time. Even I don’t really know the songs yet. But, of course, I would say that, but I think it’s good — it’s a good record. Tempest doesn’t sound like Tempest on ‘The Final Countdown’. I had him over at my house. I asked him, ‘Could you sing a few lines?’ ‘Let’s push the record button,’ he said. At the time I didn’t have the lyrics ready, so I was, like, ‘I’m sorry. I have to record it from somewhere else.’ But he’s really going for it. He sounds amazing. I mean, I’m a big Europe fan, being Swedish. I love them. And I think for him to be on this record, it’s a bit different by his standards because it doesn’t really sound like a Europe record at all. Mikael Åkerfeldt

Is Mikael good friend with Mr. Tempest?

I guess. I guess we’re friends. Yeah. He sent me a text one day. It’s, like, ‘What’s up?’ And I was, like, ‘Hey, Joey Tempest.’ And we met at festivals, and he invited me over to his house. I mean, we know the Europe guys. Fredrik, one of his best friends is [John] Norum, the [Europe] guitar player. So, we’re good friends with the whole band. But, yeah, Joey Tempest, we hang out every now and then.

Mikael Åkerfeldt

Then they talk about a possible tour of Opeth and Europe together.

We talked about it, but it’s hard to know… Ultimately, we make the calls for who we gonna tour with. For instance, we gonna tour in North America soon with Tribulation, and they’re friends. And then we’re going to tour in Europe with Grand Magus, which is also friends. And Europe, we have talked about touring together, but it’s hard to know if people like that package or not. I’m not sure… I think [Europe] would have to play after us then, because you don’t want to go up after ‘The Final Countdown’. Mikael Åkerfeldt

He’s also asked if the songs are connected to each other on the record.

They are connected lyrically, but also to a certain extent that one song bleeds into the other, which I always liked anyways. It’s basically the reading of a testament. So it’s like paragraphs. There are no real songtitles on there. It’s a bit odd by our standards even. But you could, of course, extract any song from — we don’t have to play the whole record.

Mikael Åkerfeldt