Opeth and “Blackwater Park” just showed the way that metal should be played in nowadays!!! A Mega-Band that is called OPETH and it’s going to crush everyone that stands in their way! Mike Åkerfeldt, the singer and the guitar player of OPETH, talks about his band and answers also to our “Weird” Questions! 

M: We're basically a metal band that takes influence from many other genres than just metal. Today's metal is lacking feeling we think. Most bands today are bollocks! We try n do something different and after 5 albums I still feel we are improving and finding new sounds.

2. Which is the reaction of the press and of the common fans for the album? Did you expect such a reaction?

M: It's been really good, hyped almost...I don't mind, we deserve every ounce of success as we've been working for a long time + we have never ever sold out to shallow biz such as image. We care only about the music and everything else is just crap! I think the music industry pretty much sucks and most of the bands suck too. I couldn't care less what people think about us, but when we get bigger gigs, bigger crowds, more money I'm happy because we're getting somewhere. I know we never sold out or came out with less than 100% music.

3. What do the lyrics talk about and who writes them? Which are your favorite lyrics subjects? What is the music that you like to hear on your free time?

M: It's always about death in any other way.... 

4. What do you think about the Internet and all those things that happened with Napster and Metallica? Which is your opinion about the free music that anyone can find over the Internet?

M: I don't care much for it as I'm a musician and depend on the cash to get me and the band through. You probably wouldn't like if I was to get 5 % of your salary.... I know it's a double-edged sword as we have probably found some new fans through the interneet/napster and so on, but I've made up my mind about it and I don't approve. It's never been necessary before...I always went out and bought my records.... I went to the store and listened...that's part of the whole thing. This whole business have worked for over 50 years, and now all of a sudden people are to lazy to get their asses to the music store, maybe it's me who’s close-minded or getting old and shit, but there you go.

5. Who are your favorite singers and from whom you have been influenced most?

M: David Vincent, Ronnie Dio, Rob Halford, Chuck S, Coverdale.... all these I listen to on a regular basis and they rule! 

6. Tell us, if you weren’t a singer on a metal band, what do you believe that you could do in order to live? Can you imagine yourself doing something completely different than being a musician?

M: I have been in the past.... I had several jobs to get me through, although most of em have been related to music.... I work sometimes in a record store, I've worked for over 3 years in a guitar store, I worked on a gas station changing tyres, I've worked with construction supplies etc....I'm not fukkin impossible, I know when I gotta take care of my shit...

7. If Aliens kidnapped you and you were forced to give them 3 albums of Metal music so they could finally discover why that kind of music is so genius, powerful and divine…which ones you would choose to give them? And why?

M: Tough question.... entire catalogues of Sabbath, priest and maiden is probably essential to every collection but if you could just give em 3 records...."sabbath bloody sabbath", "altars of madness" and "some Opeth record"!

8. Can you remember an album that you have bought and when you heard it you wished you never had bought it and you wanted to play Frisbee with it?

M: All the time...Dispatched is probably the lousiest stuff I've ever heard.... there’s too many to mention really. I get free stuff from companies all the time and as I said before I'm a hard guy to impress. I think everything is shit basically and it's almost like it's a problem for me.

9. Ok Mike, we wish you the best for that album. The last words of this interview belong to you.

M: Thanks for the interview + sorry that I come across like a complete bastard!

  by Thanos (Mc)