Opeth followers – ourselves included – have one thing actually distinctive to look ahead to because the band prepares to launch their new album, The Final Will And Testomony, on October 11 by means of Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget. The album, recorded on the iconic Rockfield Studios in Wales earlier this 12 months, appears to be shaping as much as be a departure from the norm, even by Opeth‘s eclectic requirements, if we’re to imagine the masterminds behind its inception.
Guitarist and vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson just lately mentioned the upcoming launch in an interview on the Wacken Open Air pageant, with Åkesson noting that the album stands out from their earlier work.
“I am actually proud of it,” he mentioned, highlighting their expertise recording at Rockfield Studios. “We recorded as soon as once more at Rockfield in Wales. So that is the third time we’ve gone to Rockfield. I’d say it is completely different from each different album. Positively.”
Åkerfeldt admitted that whereas the album maintains the band’s signature sound, it is also one thing fairly completely different: “It is bizarre. That is not likely completely different for us, I suppose. However I am doing a few of the screams once more, which I have never performed for a very long time. And there are some company on there,” he added, referring to the album that includes contributions from Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, who provides spoken phrase and flute, in addition to Joey Tempest from Europe.
“It is a idea document. Any individual mentioned it sounds claustrophobic. It is a claustrophobic-sounding document. And there is a whole lot of concepts. It is a stressed document. There is not any meandering stuff occurring on a regular basis. Even I do not actually know the songs but. However, in fact, I’d say that, however I feel it is good — it is a good document,” Åkerfeldt revealed.
The album’s construction is one other intriguing facet, with songs which might be lyrically linked and sometimes circulate into each other. “They’re linked lyrically, but additionally to a sure extent that one music bleeds into the opposite, which I all the time favored anyway. It is mainly the studying of a testomony,” Åkerfeldt defined. “So it is like paragraphs. There are not any actual music titles on there. It is a bit odd by our requirements even. However you could possibly, in fact, extract any music from — we do not have to play the entire document.”
The collaboration with Joey Tempest is especially intriguing, as Åkerfeldt famous, “Tempest would not sound like Tempest on Europe’s greatest hit ‘The Closing Countdown’. He sounds superb. I imply, I am an enormous Europe fan, being Swedish. I really like them. And I feel for him to be on this document, it’s kind of completely different by his requirements as a result of it would not actually sound like a Europe document in any respect.”
The friendship between Åkerfeldt and Tempest seems to have grown over time, with the Opeth frontman sharing that they often hang around and alternate texts. “I suppose we’re buddies. Yeah. He despatched me a textual content at some point. It is, like, ‘What’s up?’ And I used to be, like, ‘Hey, Joey Tempest.’ And we met at festivals, and he invited me over to his home. I imply, we all know the Europe guys. Fredrik, one in all his greatest buddies is John Norum, the Europe guitar participant. So, we’re good buddies with the entire band. However, yeah, Joey Tempest, we hang around now and again.”
As for the opportunity of a joint Opeth/Europe tour, Åkerfeldt hinted that it has been mentioned however stays unsure. He mused, “We talked about it, however it’s onerous to know… In the end, we make the requires who we gonna tour with. As an illustration, we gonna tour North America quickly with Tribulation, they usually’re buddies. After which we will tour Europe with Grand Magus, that are additionally buddies. And Europe, we’ve talked about touring collectively, however it’s onerous to know if folks like that package deal or not. I am unsure… I feel Europe must play after us then since you do not need to go up after ‘The Closing Countdown’.”
Pre-orders for The Final Will And Testomony can be found here.
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