In a recent interview with Oran O’Beirne of Bloodstock TV, OPETH mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt discussed the band’s upcoming album, The Last Will And Testament, set to be released on October 11 through Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget.
When asked if the album’s first single, “§1,” which features Mikael’s growling vocals, reflects the overall sound of the record, he responded: “Yeah, I think so. Maybe. I mean, in that sense, yeah. There is some screams on the other songs — not all of them, but on some of the other songs. Good screams, I must say. 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.”
Commenting on the album title The Last Will And Testament, Mikael said: “Yeah, well, it is a concept record that basically starts with the… The whole record is about the reading of the last will and testament of this main character that’s passed away — a rich, old f**k. Conservative, old, stern, noble patriarch who passed away, and the record starts when he summoned his three children to go through with solicitors, his last will and testament.”
When asked how he developed the concept for the new OPETH album, Mikael said: “It’s not completely my idea. I got interested in the topic even on the last record [2019’s In Cauda Venenum]. 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,” he added. “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.”
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.