Recommended Aussie Tunes:Psycroptic | The new single "A Fragile Existence" | Listen

Interviews : “We do prioritise a lot of the songs with the growls in the live setlist” – An Interview with Fredrik Akesson (Opeth)

By on January 16, 2017

Opeth

Swedish progressive rock and metal titans Opeth are playing at the Sydney Opera House. Even just speaking that sentence sends proverbial shivers down the spine, let alone actually experiencing it. Guitarist Fredrik Akesson is humbled and excited that this situation has finally become a reality, as they have actually been trying to make it happen for a while.

“It’s fantastic, I would never have believed that that would come through, actually,” he admits, “but it’s going to be something else.

“Our Australian booking agency brought up the idea last time we were down, there was talk about it, but they didn’t let us play, I believe. We’d asked before. But this was the first time it came through and they allowed us in. So it’s amazing.”

It may even be the very first time a hard rock or heavy metal band has played the prestigious venue. One of very few times, anyway. “I’m not sure, but maybe there haven’t been too many hard rock/metal shows going on there,” he muses, “we got in! I’m really looking forward to it. We’ve never seen the inside, and I guess it’s just a very iconic, symbolic thing for Australia. When we look at the Eurovision contest or things like that, you always see the Opera House, and when people are talking about Australia, so it’s amazing.”

The band have a very special show lined up for the gig at the Opera house. “We’re playing a long set for that particular show,” he reveals, “since we released (their most recent album) Sorceress, we did three special shows, one in London, one in New York at Radio City Music Hall, and also in LA, we did a two hour fourty minute set.

“We just base it on the regular set we play, but we also play some extra songs from Deliverance and Damnation, songs like By the Pain I see in Others from Deliverance that we haven’t played live before. So it should be a treat for someone who enjoys the band.”

The band are three albums into quite a significant stylistic shift, with their traditional progressive death metal, with an ultra-dynamic brutal/melodic tradeoff, being replaced by a more 70s influenced prog rock sound. Old school Aussie fans attending the upcoming tour need not be concerned however, as the band still includes plenty of the old stuff in their live set.

“We do prioritise a lot of the songs with the growls in the live setlist, we play a lot of that stuff,” Akesson states, “probably even more than the new stuff. We try to get a good balance between the both. I think it works pretty well to mix the stuff from the later three albums and the old stuff. It gives the live setlist even more dynamics, it breathes better, than if you’re playing the ‘grrrr’ stuff all the time! One thing feeds off the other.”

Akesson feels that, although there has been a minority of old school die-hards that have been very vocal in their criticisms of the band’s new direction, the vast majority of fans have been very open and accepting towards it.

“Overall, the reception has been really good,” he says, “I guess when we did Heritage, there was a lot of complaints, but I think we picked up a lot of new fans as well, and I think there’s a lot of old school fans that appreciate the new stuff as well. But I don’t read the internet all that much, I don’t pay too much attention to all that.”

He says that Sorceress may possibly be a window into the direction the next album might take, although that is pure speculation at this stage. “I think the latest album is slightly heavier than the previous ones, so maybe we’re going in that direction. It really depends what mindset (singer, guitarist and main songwriter) Mikael gets into when he starts writing.

“But we’re all still metalheads!” He adds, laughing.

Whatever the case, Akesson feels that the change in direction really freshened things up in the band, and that there is still plenty of creative and motivational juice left in the Opeth tank. “Absolutely,” he confirms, “it’s been challenging in a way, it’s different, but it’s a lot of fun to play some of these new songs. And I really enjoy playing the older stuff as well, I really enjoy the mix, as I mentioned earlier.

“My goal is to ‘rock til you drop!’” He laughs, “my heroes are guys like Ronnie Dio, Angus Young, Lemmy, they just went on for ever. So I hope we can just continue, and that the inspiration is still there. I guess we’ll just take it one album at a time.”

Opeth ‘Sorceress’ 2017 Australian Tour

Saturday, 4th February Tivoli Theatre, Brisbane Tickets: Metropolis Touring

Monday, 6th February – SOLD OUT Sydney Opera House, Sydney

Tuesday, 7th February 170 Russell, Melbourne Tickets: Metropolis Touring

Wednesday, 8th February – NEW SHOW 170 Russell, Melbourne Tickets: Metropolis Touring

Friday, 10th February – NEW SHOW Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide Tickets: Metropolis Touring

Saturday, 11th February – NEW SHOW Metro City, Perth Tickets: Metropolis Touring

opeth-updated-aus-tour-2017

About

Rod Whitfield is a Melbourne-based writer and retired musician who has been writing about music since 1995. He has worked for Team Rock, Beat Magazine, themusic.com.au, Heavy Mag, Mixdown, The Metal Forge, Metal Obsession and many others. He has written and published his memoirs of his life and times in the music biz, and also writes books, screenplays, short stories, blogs and more.