Opeth front man Mikael Akerfeldt has issued the following
statement regarding the band's recent song for the "God of War 3"
soundtrack and the sound of Opeth's upcoming album:
"Lady Gaga called me up! That was a lie....sorry, that's like
fucking SPAM! Quite interesting to see how diverse the reactions
have been to our last song, ‘The throat of Winter’ that we recorded
to be included on a disc coming with the ‘God of War 3’ game.
Everything from ‘loving it’ to ‘hating it’ to juvenile ‘meh’
comments.
"I’m happy we’ve caused some reactions at least, rather raise a
taste-agenda than a shrug.
It’s quite clear to me that some have yet to understand what this
band is about. Some say the song doesn’t ‘fit’ the game, as if we’d
ever, in our career, been interested in fitting in. Sorry! I was
asked to write an Opeth song, and that’s what I did. Couldn’t care
less if we fit in or not.
"At this point I’m complete and utterly bored with new
streamlined music. Bored to tears by conventional metal
arrangements. I think the future album will be more or less devoid
of any fluid writing. It will be all over the place I guess,
because that’s what I and ultimately Opeth as a band find
interesting these days. I want it to be fucked up! I’ve written a
10 minute + piece so far and it’s miserable sounding (in a good
way, for me at least) and quite disturbing. Don’t know whether it
will make the final cut, but it’s certainly set the tone for what
type of music I want to write right now. I can’t foresee what you
as ‘fans’ will think of anything we put out anymore. I stopped
wondering after ‘Damnation’ got hate-bombed, so we’ll just have to
wait and see I guess.
"I certainly appreciate all your support during the years. Sorry
I can’t commit to pleasing you all, but as we all know it simply
doesn’t work like that. I’m happy, just wrote some lovely music
with a friend and it opened my eyes somewhat. This music might come
across as un-focused, but it’s really crystal clear.
"20th anniversay shows are round the corner. We’re rehearsing
and it’s quite fun (for a change), been revisiting some old
material and it sounds just ‘right’! Looks like all 6 shows will
sell out, which is nice…4 have sold out already. Appreciate that
you wanna come and see us. What was going to be a quiet celebration
in a pub escalated to 6 of the biggest shows we’ve ever done on our
own. I mean, it’s the fucking Royal Albert Hall among others.
Stupid!! OK, listening to a Mono copy of ‘The Beatles’ (White
album). Quite a different experience really! What an album! Stupid!
(X2)"