OPETH's MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT Doesn't Have It In Him To Write Super-Aggressive New Music

October 7, 2015

Guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH says that "it's not likely" he will ever write music again that will call for the type of harsh vocals that characterized the band's early efforts.

OPETH took a sharp musical turn with 2011's "Heritage" album and its follow-up release, 2014's "Pale Communion", their complete lack of death growls and relative dearth of heavy distorted riffs seemingly flying in the face of the notion that the band was at the top of the progressive metal heap.

During a question-and-answer session with asQme, Åkerfeldt was asked if he will use any of his "screaming" vocals on OPETH's next album, which is expected to be written and recorded next year for a tentative 2017 release. "I don't know," he responded. "It depends. If the songs that we write, if they need the screams, they will be on there. [But] I have a feeling that I won't write those kind of songs."

He continued: "I've been screamin for twenty years or something like that — more than twenty years. I'm not as good as I was, and I don't have the… I mean, I'm a pretty chilled out person, so I don't really have that in me anymore. I can do it — I can do it when we're playing some of those old songs — but for me to write new music that's as aggressive as the music I wrote ten, fifteen years ago, it's not likely. But you never know. It's not like I don't want to. I just wanna write good songs, and if they need that type of vocals, yes, we will have them."

OPETH's eleventh studio album, "Pale Communion", sold around 13,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 19 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"Pale Communion" was released on August 26, 2014 via Roadrunner Records. The cover artwork was once again created by Travis Smith — with art direction by guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt. The CD was produced by Åkerfeldt and mixed by longtime collaborator and PORCUPINE TREE frontman/guitarist Steven Wilson.

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