OPETH Performs In India For First Time

Swedish progressive metallers OPETH played in India for the first time ever Sunday night (January 25) at the Indian Institute of Technology's Saarang festival in the city of Chennai to a metal-starved Indian audience who loved every minute of it. They also took part in a signing session after the show where many of the fans got a chance to meet them, get their pictures taken and get the bandmembers' autographs.

OPETH's setlist was as follows:

01. Heir Apparent
02. The Grand Conjuration
03. Godhead's Lament
04. The Night And The Silent Water
05. Wreath
06. The Lotus Eater
07. Deliverance
08. Bleak
09. The Baying Of The Hounds
10. Demon Of The Fall
11. The Drapery Falls

Commented OPETH guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt: "India was great and pretty ubvelievable at the same time. I mean, it's so poor I couldn't believe it. Where we went is the 'real' India, not Goa which is a tourist paradise more or less. We had a 'hotel' in a student type area as the Saraang festival was just around the corner from there. It was basically located in the middle of the woods and was a pretty simple affair. No hot water, no toilet paper, no soap, obviously no room service. But with that said, our chaperone took great care of us and fixed us whatever we needed. There were several monkeys hanging out with us at the hotel. They lived in the woods surrounding it and greeted us outside our doors every morning. There were also plenty of deer hanging around, which almost seemed completely tame and unafraid of humans

"We went for a trip to see some ancient temples which was well worth it and obviously interesting to see. There were shitloads of salesmen and beggars all around which was a bit uncomfortable, but I guess they do what they need to do to make a living.

"We had been asked to judge a competition between five bands as well. They we're playing in a big amphitheater, the same where we'd be playing later on. We were asked to name our favourite band as well as our favourite singer, guitarist, bass player and drummer. Afterwards we announced the winner from stage and they were so happy... they got some free gear (including a PRS guitar) for winning too. We also did a press conference which was just amazing, I mean the people there were so loud, roaring as we came through the door. Same with the signing session. The organizer had set us up with a 50-something-man-strong security team that formed a human chain around as and walked us back and forth from the cars and into the buildings. Insane! People seemed so happy to see us and we almost got chills from the attention... and the fucking roars man...!!! Loud as fuck!

"The show went OK! There were some odd 10,000 people there and the response was great. We had some technical difficulties with the drums and bass, and monitors but overall I think we did pretty well.

"The only negative thing about the show were the sponsors, Nokia cellphones. Some fucking how they'd talked me into doing some retarded fucking thing with a new cellphone from the stage. I was gonna be given a phone and show it to the crowd, press a button and then an OPETH song would come on. Obviously, it didn't work and I was just insanely embarrased by it all. It's so NOT me! On top of that, Nokia fucked us over royally! Playing fucking shit techno in the middle of our set, had some idiot jumping on stage prancing around yelling about Nokia and whetever... plus big-ass Nokia banners in the MIDDLE of our songs as we're playing! Utterly tasteless and overall retarded! I was fuming with anger as I came offstage. They gave me the phone but I immediately gave it away to a random driver we had. It was probably worth a month's wage to him, so he was happy at least.

"So here we go: FUCK YOU NOKIA INDIA!

"But, as I said, overall it was fine, and the crowd was just fantastic! So loud and respectful... it was simply overwhelming! Thank you so much for your hospitality!"

Fan-filmed video footage of OPETH soundchecking in India can be viewed below.

(Thanks: Aniruddh Bansal / priest_metalhead)