Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt Names His Most Important Factor in Music

When Full Metal Jackie sat down with Opeth‘s Mikael Akerfeldt to discuss the new album The Last Will and Testament, one thing was evident – the musician was having fun. In fact, Akefeldt tells Jackie that having fun is the most important factor that keeps him so enamored with making records at this point in his career.

The new record is a conceptual album conceived by Akerfeldt with a fully fleshed out storyline that plays out over the course of the full length, complete with a big twist at the end. The singer-guitarist told Full Metal Jackie, “It was fun and ultimately, that’s the most important thing for me. That’s kind of why I’m still doing this, because it’s fun. I want every aspect of recording a record, writing the record to be almost like I’m playing with Lego or something like that. Like I’m still a kid having a good time.

Within the chat, Akerfeldt details how the story of a family’s life being turned upside down through the reading of the patriarch’s will came to be, who helped him conceive of the record’s big twist and what it meant to have longtime idol Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull participate in the new record, albeit in a form the musician might not have expected.

Akerfeldt also shares the experience of including one of his own family members in the recording and he addresses bringing back his screaming vocals after being without them for the last few albums.

Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie. Very excited to bring you Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt.
Opeth are back with their first album in five years, The Last Will and Testament. There’s so much to unpack with this record, Mikael. There’s such an interesting concept. The surviving family learning the secrets of their father through the reading of his will. Where did the idea initially come from and what interested you the most in developing the story?

it’s a fascinating thing. People say blood is always thicker than water. And I’m like, is it really? Just stick a wad of cash in front of them and see what happens. Not that I’m taking classes to know more about family relations or how you put together a will or anything like that, but I started [this idea] a few years ago when we did the last album.

There’s a song on there that kind of touched upon these things. At the time, I saw some interview with this guy who had fallen out with the rest of his family because of their father’s will. He had no touch with his brother, no touch with his sister. They were basically sworn enemies because of ultimately cash or how they were going to divide their father’s will. I always thought it was a bit interesting. And then along comes the TV series Succession, if you’ve seen that, which I love.

Yes. Oh my gosh. So good.

Yeah, it’s amazing.  It’s one of the best I’ve seen. Everybody I talked to is like, “Yeah, it’s the best.” But I loved it. it also kind of tapped into this topic. So as I was starting to work with this record, I was like, “Okay, am I going to write about forests again or about Satan?” I wanted something cool to work with, something that I could invest more time in, a longer story. Basically. I wanted a concept record of some kind. And that became my topic.

I started writing music, coming up with some lyrics here and there, especially the outlines of the story. And with the help of my girlfriend, after a while I had the outlines finished, I wrote down the lyrics as they would have been printed in actual testament by, in this case, the father figure that has passed away. He was like a patriarch, kind of like Succession’s Murdoch type type of guy. And that became the lyrics that became the story of the record. It’s just a fascinating topic to me.

Opeth, “§3”

Mikael, the story for this album certainly pays off with its twists and the drama it creates for the family dynamic. It feels like this was a pretty fun experience for you. I was curious if there was alternate twists or different versions of where this story might go before you settled on how it all plays out.

Well, I had almost everything. In fact, I was quite happy with the concept as it was, until I started talking again to my girlfriend. And she is the one who said, wouldn’t it be cool if there was a twist in the end? And she’s the one who dropped the idea. I’m not sure how much I’m gonna say about the story of this record, but she’s the one who came up with a twist to me. And once that fell into place, it was like, there we have it. That made it so much easier for me to write all the other lyrics, knowing that this twist is happening in the end.

It was fun and ultimately, that’s the most important thing for me. That’s kind of why I’m still doing this, because it’s fun. I want every aspect of recording a record, writing the record to be almost like I’m playing with Lego or something like that. Like I’m still a kid having a good time. So that’s so important to me.

Of course, this time I spent more time on the lyrics than I’ve done in the past. The story is a bit more clear, maybe easier to understand than some of the previous work I’ve done, but it was just intriguing.

I was really excited sending out the songs to the guys in the band and the lyrics explaining what they’re about, what the concept is about. So it’s something I know it inside out now, which hasn’t always been the case on the previous records. There’s always been kind of discrepancies that I can’t really explain in the past, but now it feels solid.

With this being a conceptual album, the story pretty much has to be three in place first. What was the biggest challenge from how you normally record in putting together this album?

I had to make decisions earlier than I’ve done in the past because you want the chronological order of everything to be like a story. Once I had decided the sequencing of the songs and written the lyrics to the songs, I couldn’t really change it. That’s in the past. You can’t make last minute calls and put a song at play seven on the record as opposed to song two or whatever. But now, once the sequencing was done and the lyrics were done, I couldn’t really change it. That was kind of liberating in a way to have that out of the way.

In writing music, there’s always so many challenges, but most of them are personal. You want to kind of impress yourself. You want to come up with something that you think is relevant. You want it to be good. You want to get the goosebumps. You want it to be where you are right now, which is how I prefer writing music that I feel is cool right now.

This was a little bit of a return, but there’s the screams on there, which I hadn’t done on the record for 15 years or something like that. So that was a big thing. And I’m very particular how I want my vocals, death metal vocals to sound. But it was all fun and that’s ultimately what I’m after is to have fun. I don’t see it as a job, really.

Mikael, one of the first talking points upon people hearing “Paragraph One” was that the screaming vocals were back. They obviously were a big part of your early career, went away for a period, and now they’re back. Having established yourself with clean vocals for a while, does it now feel that the screams are more purposeful and intentional within the music? Is Opeth now at a place where you feel you can feel free to do what you want musically without expectation, dictating part of what you deliver?

I think we were there before this record. I never felt outside pressure on where we should go. Of course, I too have heard whispers about “Opeth used to be great” and “Make Opeth great again. Make Opeth growl again.” But for the last four records, there was no room for that type of vocals. I wanted also to explore my other voice a bit more, and the music just didn’t call for it. There was no purpose of including that type of vocals on the previous four records.

But now, because there is the narrating part which is done by Ian Anderson, but also my voice is kind of the voice of the main character, the deceased patriarch, so that fit. It would fit on this. It would actually be beneficial to have those types of vocals on this record. Besides, I sounded good.

I was really happy with the way I sounded on the previous last couple of shows that we’ve done where we played mostly old stuff with lots of screaming vocals, and I felt strong and confident and I had purpose with that type of vocal. And as the music turned out a bit heavier, maybe a bit darker, I guess, whatever you call it, I saw that as a return of that vocals would be good for the overall result of this record. That’s only reason why I put it in there. It sounds good, it fits the mood, fits the record, fits the concept, fits the character and concept and everything. So, yeah, I’m happy how they came out.

READ MORE: The Five Best Songs of Opeth’s No-Growl Era

Mikael, you mentioned it, but with The Last Will and Testament, you were finally able to get Jethro Tell’s Ian Anderson on an album after hoping to do so previously. But is it true that him playing flute was more of an afterthought after initially seeking him out for the narration? And what made you first consider Ian to be the narrator for the story?

Well, Jethro Tull is no great secret if you know this band. He’s one of the biggest influences for me. I think he’s in many ways, more ways than just being a great musician, which he is, and a songwriter, just like a band leader as well. So I’m one of those guys who would go on YouTube to look at interviews with people like Ian Anderson, Ritchie  Blackmore, Joni Mitchell, stuff like that. But in this case, Ian Anderson’s interviews that I found, I just thought that his voice was a cool sounding voice, you know?

And once that the narrating aspect of this album popped into my head, I was like, it has to be him. So that’s why I reached out to him for these. He had just had a great voice. So I put him in there or asked him to do this.

I think he was a bit surprised, at least. He actually said it was surprising that somebody asked, as opposed to asking for a flute thing, which he’s really famous for, of course. He was like, “I can’t recall if I ever had that question before.” So he accepted, and I was so happy, and it came out so good.

But then he asked on an email, “Do you need some flute as well?” You know, I said, “Yes. Yes, Yes. Yeah. I do need some flute.” But at the time, I didn’t really have a part for it. I just knew that I can’t waste this opportunity. So I just shuffled through the songs and found this part on the song called “Paragraph Four” that had a slower section that would be perfect for him. So I sent that to him and he sent this awesome flute solo back.

So for me, I’ve been hunting this guy for 15 years or something like that. He was asked to be on the Heritage record but didn’t respond. So now it’s amazing that he’s on our record. It’s crazy.

I’m actually going to see him. I’m hoping to give him a bottle of something to say thanks, because I couldn’t pay him. It’s just amazing.

For this album, you worked at the famous countryside Rockfield Studios, where legends such as Queen, Motorhead, Black Sabbath and more have recorded. And I understand that you use the piano that Queen used to record “Killer Queen.” I’m curious if playing in a place with such history or using an instrument from a revered recording has ever inspired or impacted any of your works.

Maybe inspired, but not really impacted. That piano is there. It’s a black Bosendorfer with like an extra octave hidden under a lid on the keyboard. So it sat there right in the middle of the quadrangle, the big studio that they have there. And of course, you look at that instrument thinking, “oh, that’s the ‘Killer Queen’ piano. We had Joakim Svalberg play, sit down and play ‘Killer Queen’ while we listened back in the monitor room. And it’s like, “Wow, it really is. That piano sounds exactly like that, you know?” So that was amazing. And we did use that piano especially for the last ballad on the record.

But I don’t get carried away with stuff.

You’re not sentimental.

I am sentimental, but it’s just an object at the end of the day. We have been to Rockfield prior to this recording. And we decided not to use that piano because I thought the other piano, that they have, Noel Gallagher played like some fun melody on it or whatever, but it wasn’t a famous piano.I thought that one sounded better at the time.

So for this, we had the opportunity to use the Queen piano before but we hadn’t. So now was the time and it sounded awesome. I don’t know what I was thinking before, but now we used it.

I’ve also been to like Abbey Road Studios, where we did the mastering. And they have the famous Beatles studio, Studio Two, where there’s the “Lady Madonna” piano. It’s like, “Okay, that’s that piano. That’s cool.”. And there’s all these famous instruments that famous songs been recorded on. And I think that’s super cool to see and to play something silly on it or whatever, but it kind of ends there, you know? Our record is not great because it has the Queen “Killer Queen” piano.

Opeth, “§3”

Mikael, though this album is about family drama, there was actually a pretty sweet family moment for you on this record. What did it mean to you to have your daughter, Miriam appear on “Paragraph One”?

I always try to kind of trick them down to the studio to do something. And we had both Miriam and Melinda on the previous record five years ago, just doing some spoken word thing. And Frederik’s daughter Alva is also on that record, so it’s there.

I wouldn’t say they’re used to it, but they’re not completely shocked once I pop the question. So I asked Miriam, would you be interested in doing this thing? Because I had this idea, and I thought maybe you would think it’s fun. And she was like, yeah, I’ll do it.

Once that day arrived, I needed her favors down in the studio, I went up to fetch her and she was like, “I’m busy. I’m watching TikTok. I can’t do it now.” I’m like, “It’ll take you five seconds. Just come down.” And she went down completely reluctant, like, I coerced her to do it with a bad mood. She did this reading, and then stomped back to her room and that was it.

Once I was finished I played it to her, and I could see in her face she was happy. She was a bit proud. And now that the song has been released to the public. I think she’s quite happy that she did it.

Thanks to Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt for the interview. Be sure to pick up The Last Will and Testament. Stay up to date with the band through their website, Facebook, X, Instagram and Spotify accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.