Mikael and Bloodbath

and we wonder why Opeth looses metal credibility ... just take a look at their forum ...

i bet you guys participate just as much during opeth gigs when Mike says the next song is EVIL or it's about SATAN ... or do you start crying then, and slapping your hands at the people who shout satan?

next time i'm going to an opeth gig, i'll be aware of all the slapping hands and purses coming my way.
 
Well, there's a difference between a few offhand remarks thrown around during a gig (and we all know how serious Mike is onstage) and penning several song's worth of lyrics. If someone is really ambivalent about a certain faith, why attack it so vociferously?

Personally, I'm of the opinion that the lyrics are simply reflecting the early Morbid Angel standard of being as blasphemous as possible. I mean, the music is clearly heavily inspired by Morbid Angel's music, so why not the lyrics as well?
 
So a) Lyrics about hatred and ripping people to pieces are fine.
b) Same artist has to take your feelings into account when he attacks religion.

Death metal is anti-christian music! We're going to sing about killing and hatred, but insulting the ideology permeating our society that we're handcrafted by a god who we must love and fear and obey on pain of HELL is off limits?
 
"I wrote some lyrics to some of them but other than that I had no input whatsoever. Anyways, I recorded the vocals during a day and a half and it sounds great! Went for the David Vincent approach and I'm quite happy! The lyrics are so evil it's insane! Not only mine, but Jonas and Anders wrote some pretty retarded stuff too! "

If he calls Jonas/Anders lyrics "retarded", as a compliment, it's quite obvious they're somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Bloodbath has always been a tribute project of sorts. It's been about paying homage to the death metal legacy, thus the lyrics meet the criteria for said genre. Gore, blasphemy etc. It's part of the gig.

It's not like "Cancer of the Soul" was particularly less anti-christian (yes, I know it's not his track). Or "Mouth Of Empty Praise" and so on. There's always been an element of blasphemy there.

I doubt it has anything to do with him changing his opinion.