OPETH Mainman: 'My Belief In This Band And Its Music Is As Strong As Ever'

OPETH mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt has issued the following update:

"Yeah, I'm writing and it's going well. I've always been extra productive when there's a big change in my life. Sure, I write a lot of shit as well, but the way I see it is you gotta wade through some shit to find the pearls. I've deleted a few dozen ideas from my harddrive because they're not on par or better than the best stuff I've got so far. Yet, the perception of what's 'shit,' as in 'bad music,' differs radically from person to person. So I guess the worldwide response to the next OPETH record is going to be a 'masterpiece that fucking sux'....

"I'm a musician and I will always be a musician. OPETH has been the vehicle for my musical experiments for a good 17 years. I will forever be attached to that name and I wouldn't have it any other way. OPETH Mark 264758 consists of five guys who all have made up their mind a long time ago. We're musicians, whether it's with OPETH or something else, that fact will always stay the same.

"It troubles me that out of all our past members, none or not many of them have continued with music as far as I know. I haven't heard from [Martin] Lopez in a long time; I don't know what he's doing but I hope he's playing. DeFarfalla is a politician, Nordin is an aspiring long-distance cyclist, I think David Isberg might have something cooking...don't know exactly what though. Fuck knows what the rest of 'em are doing, but they're not playing as far as I know. It's like their idea of being a musician died when they parted ways with this band. With that said, I have no bitterness or resentment towards any of them and I sure as hell wish them the best of luck with whatever they're doing. I'm just slightly surprised, that's all.

"I hope Peter [Lindgren, guitar] won't follow that trend....

"Yes, speaking about Peter....

"I hired him as a bass player for a gig (with ASPHYX and DESULTORY) in 1991. We've been friends since the '80s and we knew we'd play together eventually. His band at the time were rehearsing next door to us and we're basically a three-piece then consisting of myself, David Isberg and Anders Nordin. We got a guy playing guitar for that gig so that's why Peter played bass. He soon switched to guitars. We had the same ones actually, Yamahas...kinda shit guitars but they looked alright....he had a black one and I had a white one with blood painted on it and a SAMAEL sticker below the bridge. We met up several times a week and just played guitar for hours. Most of the material for the first record was written in my boy room in Hagsatra.

"Not a day goes by without me thinking about those days. I miss him, what the fuck else can I say? Yet, it's how it is...I'm sure good things will come out of this.

"The reaction to this news has been mixed but rather calm and 'good.' I understand the sadness you feel, but it's quite heartwarming to see that most of you are welcoming Fredrik Åkesson into the band. He deserves it! He's a marvellous guitar player, really! Great guy too, we hang out a lot, at least once a week. When I'm not hanging out with him, Mendez is...

"Musically I will just continue to write music as I always have and I hope to have some contributions from the other guys as well. We don't feel like stopping just yet. As long as we feel that we can pull out a few cool tunes I think we'll try and have them recorded and released. I mean, I'm still fucking excited about music, being in this band and all. I still giggle like a fucking kid after I've come up with something that sounds cool. Myself and Jonas Renkse are talking maybe 10 times a day, playing new riffs through the phone. He's writing for a new BLOODBATH and a KATATONIA record and...yeah, it feels like the old days when we didn't do anything else than write and record stuff. With all the shit that's happened to this band lately I can't help but to feel psyched about the future. And my belief in this band and its music is as strong as ever."