OPETH Releases Animated Video For 'Universal Truth'

Swedish prog-metal/rock band OPETH has released a dark and eerie new animated video short for the English-language track "Universal Truth", from its recently released album "In Cauda Venenum". The video for the Swedish version of the song, "Ingen Sanning Är Allas", was made available earlier in the week.

The offbeat and beautifully crafted video short was created by renowned South African-born animator/artist Jess Cope ("Frankenweenie", "Metallica: Here Comes Revenge") and follows a melancholic and bitter man on the brink of self-destruction and insanity as he delves into a sinister alternate world as reality crumbles around him. Cope previously collaborated with OPETH's Mikael Åkerfeldt on the music video for "Drag Ropes" for his side project STORM CORROSION with Steven Wilson. Working mainly with traditional animation methods, her shorts have an enticingly tactile look and feel to them and are brought to life with an unprecedented level of skill and attention to detail. Her emotive storytelling draws in audiences in a way that has seen her win multiple awards for her films in recent years.

The video short precedes OPETH's upcoming 2020 North American tour that includes two nights at the legendary Apollo Theater in New York and performances at the renowned Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and at the famed Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

Released on September 27 via Moderbolaget / Nuclear Blast Entertainment, "In Cauda Venenum" landed at No. 13 on the U.K. chart and No. 5 on the German chart. The band's previous LP, 2016's "Sorceress", peaked at No. 11 on the U.K. chart, while 2014's "Pale Communion" entered the list at No. 14 and 2011's "Heritage" landed at No. 22.

Regarding the decision to release "In Cauda Venenum" in Swedish, OPETH mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt told Revolver: "Doing it in Swedish was just an idea that popped into my head, like, 'Maybe I should fry my egg in the morning instead of boiling it.' It wasn't any deeper than that. And I figured the music climate has changed so much, does it really matter which language it's in? That was it. And it didn't have me writing more lyrics — it just had me writing more music. And the music didn't sound more Swedish or anything like that. But it was a gateway that opened, and it was fun.

Mikael added that he is "not regretting" the fact that "In Cauda Venenum" was also recorded in English. "A lot of people [in the U.S.] are saying they only listened to the English version," he said. "So I was proven right, in a way. I can say a thousand times that the Swedish version is the original version, but it's up to people to choose. I can just hope that they check out both versions. But I do think the Swedish version is slightly better — only because it was first. It's more innocent. With the English version, regardless of what you think about it, that's me trying to copy a vocal line I had done in another language. So it's less exciting to me."