Rock City Nottingham

Opeth

  • Date: Sun 12th October 2014
  • Doors Open: 7:00 pm
  • Supported By: Alcest
  • On Sale: Tickets Open

The legends that are OPETH are coming to Rock City and by heck, we are EXCITED!

Last time they came, they completely dominated our main stage. Expect this one to be EVEN bigger, even louder and even more jaw dropping!

Opeth is a progressive metal band from Sweden that is influenced by many diverse musical styles ranging from jazz, 1970s progressive rock, death metal, and blues. Their recent releases have deviated from their traditional death metal influenced style, with more emphasis on progressive elements. Vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt is also noted for utilizing both clean singing and death growls, often in the same track. Due to their unique blend of melodic and progressive elements, Opeth are often classified separately from more typical death metal acts. The name Opeth was taken from Wilbur Smith’s novel Sunbird and derived from Opet, a city of the moon named in the novel.

Opeth was formed in Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden in 1990 by David Isberg. Isberg invited Mikael Åkerfeldt to join the band at a practice session as a bass player, but failed to inform the current bass player or any of the other members of the band. Because of this, all band members except for Isberg quit, and Åkerfeldt soon joined Opeth after his band, Eruption, faltered. With Åkerfeldt on guitar and David Isberg on vocals, Opeth still lacked members and needing more, they were soon joined by long-time friend of Åkerfeldt and former Eruption drummer Anders Nordin and Nick Döring on bass. Andreas Dimeo was recruited as a second guitarist. Rehearsing in an elementary school with old equipment they had found, this lineup lasted less than a year and only played one show. In 1991 they spent the summer rehearsing on the island of Hamnholmen outside Stockholm with their old school friend and bass player Max Jaderberg, who suggested a more prominent bass sound.

After their first performance, Andreas Dimeo and Nick Döring quit the band. For the second performance, guitarist Kim Pettersson and bassist Johan DeFarfalla joined the group. After the show, DeFarfalla left to spend time with his girlfriend and did not return until 1994. Pettersson stuck with the band for another show before leaving in late 1991. DaFarfall was replaced by Peter Lindgren, playing the bass. However, once Pettersson left, Lindgren returned to the guitar, his original instrument. Isberg left the band in early 1992 due to creative differences and boredom. Since Mikael had previous experience as a vocalist from fronting Eruption, he became the new vocalist and immediately began writing material with Peter Lindgren. They rehearsed as a 3-piece for more than a year but eventually found a new bass player, Stefan Guteklint, who was dismissed by the band before they signed their record contract with Candlelight Records.

Impressed by their originality, Candlelight Records released their debut full-length Orchid in 1995. It featured a rhythm section of bassist Johan DeFarfalla and drummer Anders Nordin. Dan Swanö, of Edge of Sanity fame, produced the band’s ambitious second album Morningrise in 1996. After this Opeth embarked on a brief tour with Morbid Angel. Century Media took notice and not only licensed Opeth’s first two albums for the United States, but also planned on releasing their next album on both sides of the Atlantic.

The next album would introduce a change in style as well as line-up. With the recruitment of bassist Martin Mendez to replace DeFarfalla and drummer Martin Lopez (ex-Amon Amarth) replacing Nordin, Opeth’s third album, entitled My Arms, Your Hearse, was released in 1998 to glowing reviews, establishing the band as a leading force in progressive metal with death roots. The album is conceptually based on a character who dies and returns to Earth as a ghost.

1999’s Still Life displayed even more of the band’s progressive rock influences, and the following year the band played its first U.S. concert at the Milwaukee Metalfest. This was the first album on which Martin Mendez contributed. Like My Arms, Your Hearse before it, Still Life is also a concept album, revolving around a man who is banished from his village for dissenting religious beliefs. The album then then regals the tale of his courtship of the character Melinda.

Their next album, Blackwater Park, was released in early 2001 and was titled after an obscure psychedelic progressive rock band from the ’70s. Blackwater Park is considered to be Opeth’s magnum opus and the defining document of their career. The album created a huge buzz among progressive metal fans, who had begun to lump the band in with other experimental metal bands like Tiamat. It was the first of three albums that Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame would produce. Wilson also contributed backing vocals and guitar.

Instead of waiting until the buzz died down, the band released Deliverance (also known as D1) in the fall of 2002, which was intended to be a double album, Damnation (or D2) comprising the other half. Deliverance presented the typical death metal aspect of Opeth while Damnation presented a new side of Opeth: the album that was almost completely devoid of any heavy metal trappings and focused instead on acoustic instruments and traditional songwriting. Steven Wilson again contributed by co-authoring one song, Death Whispered a Lullaby, and by providing backing vocals and playing mellotron, piano, electric piano, keyboards, and guitar.

Opeth then released a DVD, “Lamentations”, filmed in England during the Damnation Tour, in fall of ‘03. It featured the Damnation album in its entirety along with some highlights from the previous two albums. Now signed to the major label Roadrunner Records, Opeth’s next album Ghost Reveries arrived in 2005 and proved to be a return to form for the band. Shortly before the recordings of this album, Per Wiberg (Spiritual Beggars) officially joined the band to play keyboards, as he did on the tour that supported Damnation. He can also be seen on the “Lamentations” DVD. More lineup changes followed in May of 2006, when long time drummer Martin Lopez left the band due to complications from a rare disease he has. After a short delay, he was replaced by Martin Axe Axenrot, former drummer of Bloodbath.

On May 17th, 2007, an open letter from Peter Lindgren was posted on the official Opeth website where he wrote that he had decided to leave the band. He said that he had lost some of the enthusiasm and inspiration needed to participate in a band that has grown to become a world-wide industry. It was especially the massive amount of touring, and being away from home for long periods of time that caused this decision. “I have come to a point where I realise I won’t be able to give the band 100%, and from both sides this will not be good enough for what Opeth stands for.” On the same day Fredrik Åkesson (ex-Arch Enemy, Krux) was announced as the new guitar-player and full-time member of Opeth.

In Fall 2007, Opeth released their first live album, The Roundhouse Tapes, recorded in the famous Roundhouse concert hall in Great Britain.

The progressive rock/metal band Dream Theater announced in November of 2007 that Opeth would be joining them on the Progressive Nation 2008 tour. Joining these two bands were Between the Buried and Me and 3.

Opeth’s ninth studio album, entitled Watershed was released on June 3, 2008. It was well received by most fans and critics. The first single from the album, Porcelain Heart, was released on April 19th, 2008. The track The Lotus Eater is also available on RoadRunner Record’s website for free.

 

There are few bands that can or will match Sweden’s Opeth. Since forming in the tiny Stockholm suburb of Bandhagen in 1990, the Swedes have eclipsed convention, defiantly crushed the odds, and, most importantly, crafted 12 stunningly beautiful, intrinsically intense albums to become one of the best bands on the planet; whether that be live or on record. Ask any Opeth fan. Enquire with any band that’s shared the proverbial pine with the Swedes. Or, get a label representative to talk Opeth. They’ll all tell you the same thing: Opeth are peerless. And they’re only getting better.

Opeth’s new album, Sorceress, their first for Nuclear Blast via the band’s imprint label Moderbolaget Records, is proof chief architect Mikael Åkerfeldt has a near-endless well of greatness inside. From the album’s opener “Persephone” to “The Wilde Flowers” and “Strange Brew” to the album’s counterpart title tracks “Sorceress” and “Sorceress II”, Opeth’s twelfth full-length is an unparalleled adventure, where visions cleverly and secretly change, colours mute as if weathered by time, and sounds challenge profoundly. Sorceress is, by definition, moored in Åkerfeldt’s impressive record collection—his one true vice—but, as always, there’s more invention than appropriation at play.

“This time around I didn’t think about what I wanted to do,” Åkerfeldt reveals. “I was forced to write. But once I started, it was easy. This record, like the last record, didn’t take long to write. Like five or six months. The thoughts behind this record developed as I was writing. The only thing I was thinking about with this record was to write that songs didn’t musically connect. I made sure if I had a song that was new sounding for this record, I’d make the next song completely different. I think the songs are very different from one another. It’s very diverse.”

Certainly, every Opeth record has had diversity. In 1995, Orchid reset the rules of death metal. Six years later, Blackwater Park hit the high note for musicality in a genre generally devoid of it. Damnation, in 2003, was the work of a band determined to upend the norm. Five years after that, Watershed closed Opeth’s chapter on death metal by visiting its darkest corners and holding its native brutality aloft. And in 2014, Pale Communion officially bridged the progressive music gap by twisting the intrepid sounds of ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s into contemporary brilliance. So, really, what’s so different about Sorceress?

“My music taste got a little wider,” grins Åkerfeldt. “I started listening to jazz. I bought a lot of Coltrane records. I never really thought Coltrane would be for me because I like ‘dinner jazz.’ I like comfortable, soft, nice, and lovely jazz. Like Miles Davis’ ‘50s stuff. Porgy and Bess, for example. I guess Dave Brubeck fits in there, too. So, that’s the only new influx of musical inspiration for me. Other than that, I’ve been buying the same type of records I always have. Prog, symphonic rock, singer/songwriter, metal, hard rock… But there wasn’t anything that set me off like The Zombies or Scott Walker. Nothing got me going this time.”

Actually, that’s not entirely true. Åkerfeldt’s always mining for progressive gold. Good, rare music is particularly good at getting his motor running. He found double-gold in one-off Italian outfit Il Paese dei Balocchi and Bobak, Jons, Malone’s ultra-obscure Motherlight album. To wit, get Åkerfeldt talking about either and he’s all too pleased to discuss the finer points of Il Paese dei Balocchi’s string-based darkness or how he fan-boyed Malone via email to get the famed British orchestrator and one-time Iron Maiden producer to contribute to Sorceress.

“I absolutely love Il Paese dei Balocchi,” Åkerfeldt professes. “They did one album. It’s insanely good. It has everything I love about progressive rock in it. This album is so orchestrated and epic. It’s got lots of string sections. It’s very moody, dark, and sad. It’s a mystery they didn’t do any more. As for Will Malone, he did the strings and stuff for the Sabbath records—Sabotage and Never Say Die! But now he does strings for pop artists like Joss Stone, The Verve, Depeche Mode. I looked him up, mostly because he was the house engineer for Morgan Studios in the ‘60s. He was also in a few bands. Like Orange Bicycle and played on the Motherlight album. He also had a solo record, which is also amazing and superbly rare. It’s orchestral. The bulk of it is strings. It’s kind of like Nick Drake.”

Åkerfeldt’s quick to point out, however, his newfound progressive music loves didn’t directly inspire him to write Sorceress. The majority of the album was penned in Opeth’s rehearsal space, where, nestled comfortably in a corner, a computer, a keyboard, and a microphone sit ready for the next Opeth epic. It isn’t plush, but it’s exactly the type of environment the frontman needs to focus his creative self into song.

“When I’m in a writing mode, I have tunnel vision,” says Åkerfeldt. “I have a really good work ethic. I go down to the studio everyday early in the morning and I work. I absolutely love it. It’s so much fun. It’s much easier now, too. I write complete demos. I sequence the songs in the order I want them to be on the record. I do mixing. I do overdubs. Once I’m done, I give copies to the guys so they can listen to the album. They practice to it on their own. When it’s time to go into the studio, everybody does their own thing. It obviously works.”

For Sorceress, Opeth returned to Rockfield Studios in Wales, where the Swedes had tracked Pale Communion in 2014 with Tom Dalgety. The experience was so positive and historical—the countryside studio was also home to pivotal Budgie, Queen, Rush, Judas Priest, and Mike Oldfield recordings—there really was no other option for Opeth and crew. Rockfield Studios or bust! The studio, with Dalgety yet again in tow, provided the necessary isolation, the right bucolic atmosphere, the best gear, and three square meals a day for Sorceress to come out the other end spitting fire. All in 12 bittersweet days, too.

“There was a time when I came out of our recordings a wreck,” Åkerfeldt bemoans. “But now I come out with a wish. I wish it wouldn’t have gone so quickly. There’s emptiness after I leave the studio. I love writing and recording in the studio. It’s lovely at Rockfield. It’s in the sticks. It’s got horses and cows. There’s lots of sheep in Wales. But the studio is just a studio. It’s so beautiful there. So quiet. It’s a residential studio as well, so we live there while we’re recording. We have chefs for us, too. So, we can just be there, playing, recording, and hanging out.”

If life is like a Peter Max poster, the lyrics to Sorceress aren’t. There’s color, but they’ve been treated, corrupted, and befouled. That is to say, they’re much darker. Some of bleak lyrical tones stem from Åkerfeldt’s personal life—and are thusly contorted beyond recognition—while others touch grimly on topics like love and what happens to people on the other side of it. In fact, some of the lyrical ideas are similar to what was happening on Blackwater Park.

“I made sure to write good lyrics,” Åkerfeldt laughs. “This sounds very old-fashioned black metal to say, but the lyrics are misanthropic. It’s not a concept record, so there’s no theme running through the record. Most of the record deals with love. The negative aspects of love. The jealously, the bitterness, the paranoia, and the mind games of love. So, it’s a love record. Love songs. Love can be like a disease or a spell.”

Luckily, for Åkerfeldt and crew—bassist Martín Méndez, drummer Martin Axenrot, guitarist Fredrik Åkesson, and keyboardist Joakim Svalberg—the lineup doesn’t have to deal with Sorceress’ main theme. They’ve been together since Heritage was completed, and according to Åkerfeldt he’s not been in a better band situation before. Not since Orchid. Not since Still Life. Not since Ghost Reveries.

“It’s the best band situation I’ve ever had. Fans will look at our eras and have their favorite lineup, but this is the best. Even the happiest days of the first and second lineups aren’t comparable to what I have now. We never fight. It’s like a good work team. We know each other professionally and personally. As much as we’re a band, we’re also friends. We hang out when we’re not doing Opeth.”

A core team is a good thing, when Opeth’s credibility is in full view of fans and critics. Åkerfeldt’s very aware of what the masses have had to say about Opeth since Watershed. While some disliked the musical shift on Heritage, most have applauded it. They’ve come to expect something new from Opeth. True to form, Sorceress will give long-time fans and weary critics reason to re-think Opeth and what it takes to be musically fearless.

“I hope they’ll like the record,” posits Åkerfeldt. “I can only talk from my perspective and taste here, but we offer diversity that’s not really present in the scene today. Whatever genre. We’ve always been a special band. We’ve gotten a lot of shit for being different. We still do. Our time will come, I think. It comes down to perseverance. It comes down to not giving up or giving in to public opinion. Music is about doing your own thing or going your own way.”

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