“We were pretty consistent in the early stages of the tour,” remembers bandleader and ever-present singer/songwriter/guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt. “We were focused a lot on the new album and older songs which we thought would fit together with it. We didn’t play much heavy stuff on the last Aussie tour, but for this tour in Australia and Japan we’re going to mix it up a little bit. We sound good, we’ve been touring so much personally I don’t think we’ve sounded better. We feel on top of our game.”
This tour has brought some challenges for the band. Despite Heritage winning numerous awards from music publications and having received a generally positive critical reception, some fans were taken aback by the change in musical direction in Akerfeldt’s songwriting. “Some people, especially the metal fans, were a bit disappointed with the Heritage record and the tour that we did. There were some complaints from fans who didn’t like that we didn’t do any of the really heavy stuff,” says Akerfeldt. “I didn’t think metal fans were that narrow minded, but some fans found it quite provocative. Some people thought that with Heritage we were taking the piss or something, you know? When I took the screaming out they said it’s not Opeth anymore. That surprised me to some extent.
“I feel that a lot of metal fans these days don’t really know the history of metal. It only goes back maybe ten years or so for them, whereas for us we grew up with hard rock in the ‘70s. I consider that to be real heavy metal music. My view is very different to what it is for younger people, but there’s nothing I can do about that. It’s frustrating but I can understand it, I’ve been there myself. When I was younger I turned my back on many bands because they weren’t heavy enough for me.”
Akerfeldt and his bandmates were surprised by the strength of the reaction in some quarters of their fanbase, but people change, bands change. “We just do what we do,” he says. “The last thing I’m going to do is pretend to be something I’m not. I’m not into the most extreme metal music anymore, you know? Our foundations are in that type of music and I still love it, I still love our catalogue of music. But I think it would be odd if we didn’t change. I see our peers who are the same age as me and they’ve been going as long as we have and they haven’t changed at all and I find that a bit weird.”
Can fans expect more changes into the future, or a return to the heavier sounds of days gone by? Who knows? “Whatever I come up with, if I like it then it’s Opeth,” proclaims Akerfeldt. “I was very tired of the contemporary metal scene – not only the music but the whole way that metal sounds. I don’t listen to that stuff anymore. We’re quite a progressive band but I’m quite regressive in my personal taste and music – I go back to the ‘60s, ‘70s or ‘80s. I don’t listen to what’s going on in the metal world today because quite frankly it’s not for me. It’s not relevant.”
One thing Australian fans can expect is to see more of Opeth in years to come. “Australia has always been good to us, ever since our first visit there. It was amazing. It’s so far away, literally on the other side of the planet, to go to Australia for a Swedish band and have the support that we have there is amazing. We’re trying to work a lot more in Australia, it’s a priority for us.”
BY JOSH FERGEUS
