OPETH: Fredrik Åkesson's Last Will & Testament
Published on 27 March 2025
Do you like your guitar music to be complex, atmospheric and unpredictable? Do you like molten heaviness and arch melodicism to co-exist? Do you love bands who create their own universes, full of imagery, storylines and very distinctive vibes?
If so, then you must love Opeth.
Opeth, the Swedish five piece who span the musical landscape from expansive Prog to full-on Death metal, are back. Their latest record, Last Will and Testament, is a widescreen, panoramic story of a wealthy and troubled family, filled with dark secrets. This is like prime time ‘event’ TV mixed with next-level rocking, and you have to hear it to believe it. It’s by turns haunted, harsh and heavenly: everything a great metal record requires!
Perhaps you’ve already had a good long sit-down with this album, and if you have, then you’ll be even more interested in today’s interview!
I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy a long professional relationship with Opeth. Back in The Sorceress days, we chatted on video from the dressing room at the Glasgow Barrowlands (if you haven’t seen that one, click through to the Full Opeth Interview here!). A few years later, I met up with Fredrick again to discuss In Cauda Venenum backstage at SWG3.
This time, it was back to the famous Barrowlands, with today’s interview finding Fredrtick and I settled in the front of the Opeth tour bus, overlooking the amassing crowds in front of the venue.
We chat about recording in Rockfield, about practice regimes, and a whole bunch more. As ever, Fredrik was a delight to talk to, and I hope you enjoy this little slice of life on the road with Opeth.
