“Screaming, for me, is almost like rapping”: Mikael Åkerfeldt talks Opeth’s new album, The Last Will & Testament

A couple of weeks ago, Opeth announced their new album, The Last Will & Testament, out on October 11, with a new song, the awkwardly-titled §1. Much heavier than anything off 2019's In Cauda Venenum, the big talking point was that, after years of absence, Mikael Åkerfeldt's growled vocals were back.

We caught up with the Swedish prog-metal kingpin to get the lowdown on the record, the story of the concept, having lunch with members of Europe, and why he's roaring again…

The roar is back…
"The roar is back!"

Why now?
"Well, exactly. And that's always the question. Before, people were like, 'Why not do the screams?' And now it's like, 'Why do the screams?' You can't win! But also: why not? The new album, it's a concept record that I think would benefit from that type of vocal.

"I felt confident in it. We did a few tours where we played lots of older stuff, and it was fun to do it. Screaming, for me, is almost like rapping, in a way. Not that I'm a good rapper, but the whole rhythmic thing I think is interesting. I'm very particular with the screams. They have to be good. They have to be specific. I have specific taste when it comes to those. And also, of course, it has to add to the overall idea of the music. This time around, because it's a concept record, it does that. I think overall, it just made the record better, I guess."

How did it feel doing that in the studio again, as opposed to playing older songs live?
"People have asked me if that felt weird. No, it wasn't. I recorded all the vocals by myself in my cellar, sitting down, which I'd never done before. But for some reason, it worked. I told my my other singer friends that I'd sat down to record all the vocals like a lazy old man, but it worked out. I just tried it out and eventually I had a song that I thought was cool. I sent it to the guys, and they heard some of the screams and said it was cool."

Tell us about this concept?
"It starts with three siblings arriving at their family mansion. Their father, a stern, old, conservative, paranoid, evil, noble fuck, has passed away, and they're gonna divide his will between his three children, right? There's two twins, one man and one woman in their late 20s, and then a young girl who's riddled with polio, some skeletal-type of disease. The lyrics are like the reading of the testament. That's why the songs don't have titles, just paragraph one… two… down to seven.

"Throughout the reading of the testament, these kids find out a lot of about themselves, a lot of their about their father's secrets, and their connection with family. The twin siblings are the result of a donor procreation. The patriarch and his wife tried to have children, didn't work out, the patriarch blamed the wife for being barren, but they wanted children so much they tried with a donor – an actual guy having sex with his wife. She got pregnant with the twins, but in the meantime, the main character had regrets that his wife has been violated by another man. So he basically regrets the two twins, and also they are not his blood.

"Throughout the reading of testament, the twins find out that he wasn't their father, and they are ultimately left out of the will. His only true child by blood is the sick woman. She inherits everything. But she is the result of a love affair that he has had with the maid of the mansion. He lied to his wife, saying that this maid had an affair and that they should take care of her poor child like one of their own kind.

"Now, his wife has also passed away. But she kind of knew it was her husband being unfaithful, and the child is still brought up in the house. She is a blood heir. She inherits everything. Then the testament ends, and the last song, The Story Never Told, comes in. So, she's now living in the mansion. She's got it all. But then a letter arrives. It's from her mother, the maid, saying, 'I lied to your father. You're the result of another love affair. He was never your dad.' So that's kind of the twist of the story: the patriarch was sterile."

That all sounds pretty King Diamond…
"I mean, I can't deny that (laughs). He's more into characters and names and those kind of things, which I wouldn't do. But I was interested in the whole family, how family members can clash over inheritance, and blood not being thicker than water and all that kind of thing. That was even on the last record. It kind of it stayed with me, and I felt it could be an interesting, dark topic for a record with music that could illustrate it in a good way."

How long did it take to get all that together and set it to the music that worked properly with the story?
"I usually start with the music. But I had the idea, and eventually started thinking about the story and wrote down some notes. I had to sequence the songs, too. I wanted to be sequencing in a good, normal way for music. You don't want to blow your load in the first 10 minutes, so to speak. I like the kind of flowy sequencing of records, so I tried to sequence it first, musically. But then once I had the lyrics to those songs, I couldn't change it, because they have to be in chronological order. So it was maybe a little bit more work than than usual, but also more interesting and fun, I think. And I got a lot of help from my girlfriend. That twist at the end that the main character didn't have any children, that was her idea."

As well as your cellar, you recorded at Rockfield in Wales again. How was that?
"Great! The bulk of the music was recorded there, and we did some mellotron at my house, vocals, and some other effects and stuff there. Some of the solos, Fredrik [Åkesson, guitar] did back home in his studio. Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull is on it, he did his spoken-word part in some studio, I don't know where. And Joey Tempest from Europe is also on the record, and he did his stuff in some other studio. So, a bunch of different studios, but the bulk of the material was at Rockfield.

"It's a super-cool place. I love it there. Rockfield provides you with a calmness, and you're almost, I wouldn't say isolated, but you're out in the sticks on a farm. So it was good for bonding with a new member coming in [drummer Waltteri Väyrynen]. We all stuck around there for the duration of the recording, hanging out, having dinner, drinking beer, talking shit, and just focusing on on the record."

What's it like going somewhere like that, where everyone from Priest to Oasis have recorded, and seeing where Rob Halford sang something, or where Noel Gallagher recorded Wonderwall?
"It's cool. Most of the time when you go into a famous studio, you're kind of like, 'Here's the kitchen, here is the control room.' But there is a grand piano there which was the one that Queen used a lot. Killer Queen was done on that piano, and we used it on our record. So it has those things that are really cool, for sure."

How did Ian Anderson and Joey Tempest get involved?
"Well, the Ian thing came about because I asked him already years ago when we did the Heritage record if he would play the flute. I'd emailed some email, I don't know if it was the correct one, supposedly addressing Ian, about him being on that album, and I never got a reply then. So we ended up using a Swedish guy that's now passed on that record.

"Somewhere along the line I did an interview, talking about records. One was a Jethro Tull record, and I told the story that Ian didn't reply and said something like, 'That motherfucker!' I got an email from after that from the Jethro Tull management saying, 'Ian would love to play with you in the future. Just let us know.' This time, though, I wasn't really searching for his flute playing, because I've been looking at Ian Anderson interviews, and his voice is just so fucking good – his speaking voice. So I asked him to do kind of narrations, which he did. And it's insane. Along the line, he asked, 'Do you need some flute as well?'

"Joey Tempest, he was over at my house for lunch, and I said, 'There is this part. I can't really do it. It would be really cool if you would consider it.' And he said, 'Turn on the microphone.' At the time, I didn't have any lyrics, so he eventually did his parts in London. Even if they are heroes of mine, famous people or whatever, they both made everything so much better. That's ultimately why they're on there, not their names. But that doesn't hurt, either…"

Opeth's album The Last Will & Testament is released on October 11 via Moderbolaget / Reigning Phoenix Music.

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