OPETH Wins Swedish GRAMMIS Award For 'The Last Will And Testament'

OPETH was honored in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal" category at this year's edition of the Swedish Grammis awards (Swedish Grammy equivalent),which was held Thursday night (March 27) at Annexet in Stockholm. The bands were nominated for their most recent releases, all of which came out during 2024.

"Best Hard Rock/Metal" nominees were as follows:

* AMARANTHE - "The Catalyst"
* HORNDAL - "Head Hammer Man"
* NESTOR - "Teenage Rebel"
* OPETH - "The Last Will And Testament"
* SKRAECKOEDLAN - "Vermillion Sky"

You can see video of OPETH's acceptance speech below.

"The Last Will And Testament", OPETH's fourteenth studio album, was released last November via Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget. The LP was written by OPETH frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt, with lyrics conferred with Klara Rönnqvist Fors (THE HEARD, ex-CRUCIFIED BARBARA). "The Last Will And Testament" was co-produced by Åkerfeldt and Stefan Boman (GHOST, THE HELLACOPTERS),engineered by Boman, Joe Jones (KILLING JOKE, ROBERT PLANT) and OPETH, with Boman, Åkerfeldt and the rest of OPETH mixing at Atlantis and Hammerthorpe Studios in Stockholm. The strings on "The Last Will And Testament" were arranged by Åkerfeldt and returning prog friend Dave Stewart (EGG, KHAN) and conducted by Stewart at Angel Studios in London. Not one to miss a beat, visual artist Travis Smith returned to the fold, crafting his 11th cover, a haunting "photograph" reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's infamous "Overlook Hotel" photograph. Miles Showell (ABBA, QUEEN) also revisited mastering and vinyl lacquer cutting at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Åkerfeldt rolled out the red carpet for storied flautist and JETHRO TULL mainman Ian Anderson. Not only do Anderson's signature notes fly on "§4" and "§7", he narrates on "§1", "§2", "§4", and "§7". Joining Anderson, EUROPE's Joey Tempest lends a backing vocal hand on "§2", while Åkerfeldt's youngest daughter, Mirjam Åkerfeldt, is the disembodied voice in "§1".

"The Last Will And Testament" is a concept album set in the post-World War I era, unfolding the story of a wealthy, conservative patriarch whose last will and testament reveals shocking family secrets. The narrative weaves through the patriarch's confessions, the reactions of his twin children, and the mysterious presence of a polio-ridden girl who the family have taken care of. The album begins with the reading of the father's will in his mansion. Among those in attendance is a young girl, who, despite being an orphan and polio-ridden, has been raised by the family. Her presence at the will reading raises suspicions and questions among the twins.

"The Last Will And Testament" is the darkest and heaviest record OPETH has made in decades, and it is also the band's most fearlessly progressive. A concept album recounting the reading of one recently deceased man's will to an audience of his surviving family members, it brims with haunting melodrama, shocking revelations and some of the wildest and most unpredictable music that Åkerfeldt has ever written.

The follow-up to 2019's widely acclaimed "In Cauda Venenum", "The Last Will And Testament" is set in the shadowy, sepia-stained 1920s. It slowly reveals its secrets like some classic thriller from the distant, cobwebbed past, with each successive song shining more light on the stated machinations of our dead (but definitely not harmless) protagonist. The emotional chaos of the story is perfectly matched by OPETH's vivid but claustrophobic soundtrack, which artfully winds its way towards a crestfallen but sumptuous finale. Masters of their own idiosyncratic musical domain, OPETH have never sounded more unique.

"The Last Will And Testament" is destined to be a milestone in OPETH's illustrious recorded history. The band's first out-and-out concept record, it features guest cameos from JETHRO TULL legend Ian Anderson and Joey Tempest, frontman with Swedish rock gods EUROPE. Only one of the album's eight songs has a title: closing ballad "A Story Never Told". The rest are simply labeled as numbered chapters in this slowly unfolding saga of deceit, recrimination and betrayal. Enigmatic, unsettling and immersive, "The Last Will And Testament" is a turbulent, prog metal tale like no other.

Making his recorded debut alongside OPETH's long-established lineup of Mikael Åkerfeldt, guitarist Fredrik Åkesson, bassist Martin Mendez and keyboard maestro Joakim Svalberg on "The Last Will And Testament" is new drummer Waltteri Väyrynen, who joined the band in 2022.

In a recent interview with Bloodstock TV's Oran O'Beirne, Åkerfeldt stated about the "The Last Will And Testament" album title: "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 fuck. 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."

Asked how he came up with 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. 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."

He added: "It's interesting. 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."

In a separate interview with Marcus Schleutermann of EMP, Åkerfeldt was asked how "The Last Will And Testament" is different from other OPETH albums. Mikael said: "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."

Regarding Joey's contributions to "The Last Will And Testament", Mikael said: "Tempest doesn't sound like Tempest on [EUROPE's biggest hit] '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."

Asked if he and Joey are friends, Mikael said: "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."

Asked if the songs on "The Last Will And Testament" all stand on their own or if they are all connected in some way, Mikael said: "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."