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The Latest Breaking News from Mikael Åkerfeldt

“He says he’s mediocre. I understand – I say the same thing. But he’s a great musician, and that has nothing to do with ability”: What Mikael Åkerfeldt’s peers really think of him

Steven Wilson, Mike Portnoy, Steve Hackett and Arjen Lucassen list the reasons they like and admire Opeth leader Mikael Åkerfeldt

Louder

“The lyrics just blew my mind. That song changed the way I write. I think Steven Wilson is really poetic”: Killswitch Engage’s Jesse Leach loves Porcupine Tree

Killswitch Engage vocalist Jesse Leach chooses his favourite Porcupine Tree song, and gives some love to Pink Floyd and Mikael Åkerfeldt

Metal Hammer

“I was so sick. I had tunnel vision and couldn’t walk. I was crawling to the toilet and I thought I was going to die”: The unbelievable rise of Opeth, the band who went from death metal no-hopers to prog royalty

Inside one of the most remarkable success stories in modern metal

Metal Hammer

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“When the saxophone started we laughed and skipped it… The reason I dismissed them then is exactly why I like them now!” How doom and occult keyboardist Carl Westholm was converted by Van der Graaf Generator

Ex Candlemass and Avatarium member was won over by prog veterans’ Godbluff album – and it started with a photo of Mikael Åkerfeldt with Peter Hammill

Louder

“It’s a really good album, but I’m not sure it’s better than the ones that came before. You ask, ‘Why didn’t this happen sooner?’” Many consider Blackwater Park to be Opeth’s masterpiece. Opeth don’t

The classic line-up had assembled, Steven Wilson was contributing and Mikael Åkerfeldt was mining songwriting gold – but you can’t convince him the 2001 release was their magnum opus

Metal Hammer

“It was s***. The singing’s s***, the playing’s s***”: Opeth covered a beloved Iron Maiden song – and Mikael Åkerfeldt really, really doesn’t like it

The Opeth frontman also reveals which of his songs he feels are overrated in a new interview with Metal Hammer

Metal Hammer

“Haven’t we been f***ing great tonight?!” Prog metal legends Opeth bring a career-spanning setlist, staggering visuals and more than a little self-confidence to sell-out London show

Rejuvenated after latest album The Last Will And Testament, the prog/death metal masters honour both sides of their sound with cinematic accoutrements

Metal Hammer

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“I’m a Nirvana fan, but it was just a regular guitar to me”: Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt left unimpressed by Kurt Cobain’s “haunted” Martin acoustic

Åkerfeldt got a chance to play the late Nirvana frontman’s 1953 D-18, aka Grandpa, in a recent visit to the Martin Museum

MusicRadar

“It didn’t feel that good. There was nothing special about it, other than it had belonged to Kurt Cobain.” Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt wasn’t impressed when he got to play the Nirvana frontman’s guitar

The Opeth mainman admits he wasn’t that wowed when he recently got his hands on Kurt Cobain’s “haunted” guitar

Metal Hammer

“Someone told us that guitar was haunted – people who had it had accidents. I’m a Nirvana fan, but it was just a regular guitar to me”: Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt said the Martin museum felt like the “Holy Land,” but one guitar he played there left him cold

Åkerfeldt was decidedly more moved when handed a 19th century Martin, a guitar so pristine he was scared to play it

Guitar World

“It had a 13-minute spoken-word black mass on the B-side”: The mysterious late 60s album that Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt says invented Satanic rock

Six months before Black Sabbath released their landmark debut album, another band were praising Satan

Metal Hammer

“From here I drew a line to Pink Floyd and painted my room black … who knows where I’d be now if I’d never heard them?” Mikael Åkerfeldt, Bruce Soord and others pick their favourite Camel albums

Five prog musicians explain the lasting impact of Andy Latimer’s band

Louder

"After shaking her hand, I went out and had like five cigarettes in a row just to calm myself down. I get starstruck easily": Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt on the time he met ABBA's Agnetha Fältskog and had dinner with her

Mikael Åkerfeldt looks back on the time he was starstruck after meeting fellow Swedish legend, Agnetha Fältskog from ABBA

Metal Hammer

"Most of my favourite bands, their fourteenth album was shit": Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt on ABBA, nearly buying a record shop, and their awesome 14th album

When ABBA-mad Opeth leader Mikael Åkerfeldt met one of their singers, he “lost it”. She didn’t sing on their new concept album, but some other, perhaps unlikely, big names did

Metal Hammer

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Louder

“We did ask him… he replied, ‘You can’t afford me!’” Steven Wilson didn’t work on Opeth’s new album, but Ian Anderson did – while fans are still processing the return of growl vocals after 16 years

Mikael Åkerfeldt and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson regret that people focus so much on one element of their sound, when there’s so much more to The Last Will And Testament

Metal Hammer

The 10 best prog metal albums of 2024

Leprous, Opeth, Slift and others have presented some truly forward-thinking excellence this year

Louder

“I only asked for the spoken-word part, then an email comes in – ‘Do you need some flute?’ I wasn’t going to say no!” How Opeth’s The Last Will And Testament wound up featuring Ian Anderson, Joey Tempest and growled vocals

Mikael Åkerfeldt insists his band’s new concept album, featuring Jethro Tull and Europe men, is no return to their death metal past – and won’t keep prog fans away

Louder

“Mikael Åkerfeldt’s growls sound suitably deep… he hasn’t lost any power. And there’s much more than menace to his performance”: Opeth’s The Last Will And Testament

Family drama, a pair of prog legends and even the bloke who sang The Final Countdown… Swedish prog metal kings have made a concept album like no other

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Louder

"A tremendous album, up there with their turn-of-the-millennium high-water marks": Opeth return to extremity on the inventive The Last Will And Testament

Succession meets Edgar Allan Poe on prog metal kingpins Opeth's fascinating fourteenth album

Guitar World

“I wouldn’t normally be caught dead with a Tele because I think they’re ugly, but that’s the only guitar I used”: Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt and Fredrik Åkesson on their love of “stupid riffs,” and “recapturing that old death metal magic”

Opeth may have returned in a way to their sonic roots on their new album, The Last Will And Testament, but – with appearances from a Neal Schon signature model and a “not very metal” trick picked up from Eddie Van Halen – there are still plenty of quirks to…

Metal Hammer

"This is Opeth’s best since the career-making heights of Blackwater Park and Ghost Reveries." The Last Will And Testament is Opeth at their most groundbreakingly brilliant

Opeth go Miss Marple via Edgar Allen Poe on the prog-death-jazz metal odyssey that is The Last Will And Testament

MusicRadar

“What we are after is not perfection. You’re looking for the flaws… the noise… earth hum. You’re looking for the arm-tight playing… the human aspect”: Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt on inspirations, intuition, shred, and the problem with modern metal

A sprawling story of dark familial secrets, freewheeling prog and Åkerfeldt death growls, solos inspired by Peter Green and Ritchie Blackmore, Opeth bequeath everything a prog-metal fan could ever want on The Last Will And Testament

Metal Hammer

"I’ve thought about writing a will, just to make sure my daughters don’t throw my records away." With guest appearances from Ian Anderson and Joey Tempest, plus the return of death metal, The Last Will And Testament is Opeth's biggest swing yet

Mikael Åkerfeldt spills the tea on Opeth's prog metal rock opera The Last Will And Testament

Guitar World

“No-one’s seen me with a Tele before. I wouldn’t normally be caught dead with one – I think they’re ugly”: Mikael Åkerfeldt explains why a Fender Telecaster was the only guitar he used on Opeth’s new album

Åkerfeldt had secretly used a Tele when he recorded the soundtrack to Netflix's 2022 miniseries Clark, but never wielded one with Opeth before recording The Last Will and Testament

Metal Hammer

“I hate the term ‘thinking man’s metal’. That kind of term could hurt the band”: The story of Opeth’s Blackwater Park, the album that changed prog metal forever

How Opeth seized the prog metal throne with 2001’s genre-defining Blackwater Park album

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