OPETH Guitarist Says Next Album Will be 'Different' From 'Heritage'

Brian Giffin of Australia's Loud magazine recently conducted an interview with guitarist Fredrik Åkesson of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Loud: The reaction to "Heritage" was very mixed. I quite enjoyed it, but I know a lot of people didn't. What are your own thoughts about the album now?

Fredrik: I'm proud of the album. I think it's a very good album. I understand the controversy about it, but it was something the band needed to do — something different to break out of the box, or however you want to put it. And also the album is called "Heritage". It's about the musical heritage of the band. It's a bit of a flirt with old hard rock themes, [like the] Ronnie James Dio tribute track, for instance or, you know, there's a bit of RUSH in there or some Swedish folk.

Loud: What direction is OPETH likely to go in this time?

Fredrik: Um... well, I would have to say, in a somewhat different direction to "Heritage". [laughs] It won't be a step back, but it will be different. Maybe more intense in a way. You'll have to wait and see. I was in the studio today and put down my solos and I was very happy about it. The song I heard that Mikael [Åkerfeldt, guitar/vocals] wrote today sounds very cool. I think that's all I can say at this point! I'm sorry. [laughs]

Loud: Are you working with Steven Wilson again this time?

Fredrik: It's too early to say. Right now we're in the writing process. Maybe later on, I would say.

Loud: You're actually working on new stuff at the moment. How long is it going to be before we see a new OPETH album?

Fredrik: The plan is to try and record at the end of September, when we're done with all the touring. This is the longest break we've had between albums. I think the longest break we had before this was before "Watershed". It's not gonna happen this year, most likely the year after.

Read the entire interview from Loud magazine.