A watershed moment

Sitting backstage in Vicar Street awaiting the arrival of Opeth’s keyboardist Per Wiberg, I hear the booming voice of lead man Mikael Åkerfeldt as he gives an interview in an adjoining room. I wonder how a voice that deep could deliver such hushed vocals. Then again, Åkerfeldt is a man of two voices, one soft and articulate, the other, well, metal. For those of you who haven’t listened to Opeth, they are very much one of the most enduring and consistently brilliant progressive metal bands of the last twenty years or so. Actually, fuck it, they are one of the most enduring and consistently brilliant bands of the last twenty years. Too often are acts that veer too close to the loud side of the musical spectrum relegated to “good – as metal bands go” status.

Formed in Sweden in 1990, the outfit has gone through a number of line-up changes and Åkerfeldt is the only remaining original member. Taking aspects from traditional death metal (meat grinder lyrics, double bass drum kicks), folk (acoustic interludes with hushed vocals), prog rock (King Crimson-y mellotron departures) and, most recently, jazz-funk (as evidenced on the frankly bizarre keyboard interlude of recent track “The Lotus Eaters”), Opeth are rarely predictable. In fact, there was talk of Åkerfeldt appearing on a Scott Walker tribute album recently. Swedish death metal vocalist does avant-pop? Stranger things have happened on an Opeth record.

When he arrives, a whole minute late, Per, a very amiable man indeed, apologises affably for the hold-up, explaining that he had just been off getting some food. A fair enough concession for a man who has been on tour almost consistently since late April. “I like touring; I don’t have a problem with it. I’d be the last to whine and moan about being on the road too much because to me it’s very easy: if you don’t like it, stop doing it. I’ve never understood how people would just sit there and moan about how boring or whatever it is. Of course, there’s an awful lot of waiting around, but there’s always things you can do, I mean, go for a walk or something,” he smiles.

Per has worked with the band since 2003 and has operated as a full member on their two most recent releases, 2005’s Ghost Reveries and this year’s Watershed. The Watershed sessions were described as being a lot happier than previous recording stints on the band’s blog and Per reflects, “I think we made that happen because we rehearsed a lot before we went into the studio, which gave us a lot more time in the studio to focus on details instead of trying to learn a song while in the studio, which is just a waste of money.” Indeed, Opeth are known to have gone into the studio a number of times having practiced new songs through only once or twice. Remarkable, judging by the quality of releases such as 2000’s Blackwater Park – the sessions for which were particularly traumatic.

Per is by no means a spring chicken, indeed, at this stage most of the band members are in their late thirties/early forties and with wives, kids and girlfriends, I asked the keyboardist what the future held for the band. “It’s really hard to say anything about, y’know, what we’re going to do in five years, but I think, especially since the album was released not too long ago, we’re going to take each few months at a time. We’ve got a lot of touring coming up and we’ll just see where it goes from there.”

With their track record, don’t be surprised if they continue to go on to bigger and more interesting things.