These days Opeth are a highly-regarded prog band, with leader Mikael Åkerfeldt proudly boasting that his influences were always Genesis, Jethro Tull, Wishbone Ash and suchlike. But in their early days the Swedes played death metal – although they never looked the part.
Their development hinged on their key connection with the extreme Norwegian black metal scene, which, Åkerfeldt tells Loudwire, might not have been made if clearer photos of his band had been available.
“That whole Norwegian scene obviously came with that tale of weeding out other bands because they weren’t grim, necro enough – which I always thought was silly,” he says.
“We were accepted in the scene because there were no pictures of us – it was just silhouette pictures. At the time we had the fucking bell-bottoms and we were like the enemy. We looked the the hippies that they wanted to kill!“
Namechecking heavy bands including Bathory and Celtic Frost, Åkerfeldt continues: “When I met them – when I met Emperor early on, when they did their first or second album, they were just like me. Maybe they had a little bit of wanting to keep some mystery around them. But it was important; and some great music came out of that scene.
“I was never too much involved in the black metal scene because I was into Deep Purple, Scorpions and prog later on. I was never into being cool. I was only in it for the music, really.”
In 2012 he told Prog: “If they had the flares and beards and the record was from 1971 or 1972, that was what I wanted. I found a record by Yes and thought it looked cool, and then Genesis and King Crimson and so on – records that looked odd and I could afford. That was where it all started.
“I’d buy some records and go back to the guitar store, which was run by this guy who was around 60 and another guy the same age. They’d see what I picked up and be like, ‘That’s a really cool record! I saw them in ’72!’ They gave me loads of recommendations – like, ‘Have you heard Camel? You’d love them!’ So I’d pick up Camel records on my next lunch break. I became a fan of that type of music and it really helped my own band to progress.”
It was recently confirmed that Åkerfeldt has reunited with Steven Wilson for a second Storm Corrosion album.
