Opeth’s upcoming 13th studio album, In Cauda Venenum, is set to be released next month, and expectations are flying high.
The Swedish once-death-metal, now-prog band got a visit from Music Radar this week for the expressed purpose of discussing Frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt’s 10 favorite guitarists. The preliminary interview, however, provided some interesting reaction from Åkerfeldt…
“It isn’t a concept album,” insisted the 45-year of Swede when the suggestion was made by the interviewer. “But I could have said it was and everyone would be like, ‘Oh yeah, I knew it!’”
Agreeing that the samples used throughout the album, a first for the band, lend it a coherent-whole feeling, Åkerfeldt added: “Maybe it comes across like one, but it doesn’t have a storyline like King Diamond’s records.
“When I listen to Dark Side Of The Moon, which is allegedly a concept album, I don’t understand the concept other than it’s about life, death, fear, all that kinda stuff,” he referenced Pink Floyd’s 1973 seminal effort. “Which this album is about too, in ways. In that respect, it could be regarded as a concept album but that was never my intention… I’m not going to try and sell this as a concept album!”
Ah, Mikael, we’re happy you made it big as a musician; you’re too honest to have made it as a salesperson!
