Tongue Twisters

When it came to the crunch, he simply couldn’t help himself. Nearly three decades and 12 studio albums into Opeth’s career, Mikael Åkerfeldt alighted at the end of the Sorceress tour cycle in the autumn of 2018 feeling more than ready for a lengthy break and some much needed rest and recuperation in the company of his family. With no urgent need to write new music, it was time to put his moccasins up and enjoy some downtime. Piecing together another elaborate, all-consuming Opeth album could wait until much further down the line. Christmas was coming. Chill out, Åkerfeldt, just for once.

“But yeah, I guess I couldn’t stop myself,” he grins, as Prog chats with the Opeth frontman in celebration of In Cauda Venenum, the band’s 13th musical observation and an album that seemingly took its creator by surprise.

“We came home in late November and I knew we had December off, with Christmas coming up, and I wanted to be with my kids and my girlfriend and not do anything. I wanted to get away from the band, which you do, especially if you’re so closely connected to it. But obviously my girlfriend and kids aren’t at home all the time. They’re at school or work or studying, so I’m at home just sitting. That was never a problem for me when I was younger, to spend time with my record collection and just Tongue Twisters sit around, but now I can’t do that anymore because I feel useless.”

There has always been something about Opeth’s music that makes it easy to forget the human being behind those extraordinary, otherworldly explorations. You might imagine that someone with Åkerfeldt’s talent would always feel assured of his place and purpose in the world, but he freely admits to have endured a brief but telling moment of self-doubt.

“I think that’s something to do with having gone through a divorce, actually, because I want to redeem myself,” he notes with a wry smile. “Not just to the people who were affected by that but also to . I feel I’m there now and I’m happy, but what’s changed is that I’m more restless than I was. So when the kids are at school or studying and my girlfriend’s at work, I’m a useless twat, sitting around and waiting pretty much. So I had to do …”