Opeth rises from the ashes of excess
Greg Kot, Tribune music critic
Published February 13, 2004
What happens when one of the most extreme heavy-metal bands on earth
unplugs? In Opeth's case, it led to an album that nearly destroyed
the band, and then elevated it to new heights of popularity.
In the Swedish band's early days, "the idea was to embody total
death, to be the most evil band in the world," says guitarist Peter
Lindgren. "But soon after we formed the band, we started listening
to other music--progressive rock from the '60s and '70s--and these
other ideas started to influence us."
The twin paths of "total death" and prog-rock finally merged last
year with the release of "Damnation" (Koch), easily the quietest
death-metal album ever released. It was the second of two albums the
Swedish quartet recorded simultaneously. The first, "Deliverance,"
was a dark, loud, technically demanding collection of 10-minute-plus
suites, more typical of the band's previous work. Both albums were
recorded in a single seven-week session that nearly gutted the band.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Lindgren says of the two-
albums-in-one-session experiment. "We wanted to make a mellower
record that reflected our progressive-rock influences for a long
time. But doing it along with a harder album was our way of playing
it safe, a way of making sure no one could accuse us of `selling
out.' The record label didn't like the idea of doing two records,
because they didn't want both to count against our contract. So we
compromised by saying we'd do them both at the same time and count
them as one record in our contract. In retrospect, it was a really
stupid idea, and we'll never do it again."
The session pushed the band members to the brink, as they worked
round-the-clock to arrange, record and mix the two albums before the
recording budget expired. "I was literally in tears, because I
thought it was the end of the band," says singer-guitarist Mikael
Akerfeldt in a new concert DVD, "Lamentations: Live at Shepherd's
Bush Empire 2003."
But the risk paid off, because "Damnation" introduced the band to a
wider audience. The concert performance on "Lamentations" indicates
the band has improved upon the stress-laden studio album on the
road, with the rhythm section in particular finding new colors and
nuances in the arrangements. Freed from the confines of the typical
death-metal growl, Akerfeldt is revealed as one of metal's most
expressive singers. "It's a voice you could put alongside Jeff
Buckley or Thom Yorke," says Opeth's producer, Stephen Wilson, also
the guiding force behind the revered prog-rock band Porcupine Tree.
"We've always had mellower influences in our music, but they were
harder to detect in the past," Lindgren says. "We thought some of
our fans might wonder what we were doing, paying homage to Nick
Drake, Camel, King Crimson, Yes and some of our other influences.
But instead, the reaction has been really good. Now we're touring in
places like Oklahoma where we could never play in the past."
Opeth's rise has taken 13 years. As teenagers, Akerfeldt and
Lindgren joined the band in its infancy, then were entrusted with
its legacy when its founder left to become a danceclub deejay. The
young guitarists were part of a metal wave that swept Sweden in the
mid-'80s. In the annals of heavy, Sweden deserves its own library
wing, producing hundreds of credible bands over the last two decades
in a country of fewer than 9 million.
"Per capita we have more good heavy-metal bands than any other
country? You may be right," Lindgren says with a laugh. "When I grew
up, Sweden was a fairly rich, well-to-do country, and people could
afford to be in bands. There were plenty of places for bands to
play, to buy gear, to listen to music. We hung out in record stores
and listened to all the new albums. Metal was all we lived for."
The Swedish brand of death and black metal comes with a high
emphasis on musicianship and technique. Opeth was daunted by sharing
a rehearsal space with another great Swedish metal band, At the
Gates. "We heard them play and realized right away that we had to
practice more, because they were so tight and precise," Lindgren
says. "We spent a year practicing six days a week. Sometimes we'd
turn the lights off in the rehearsal room and play, to force us to
get better at playing our instruments."
The combination of leisure time, dedication and friendly competition
led to a surge of accomplished underground metal bands: In Flames,
Dark Tranquillity, Meshuggah, Soilwork, Entombed. Opeth may be the
most adventurous of the bunch. In addition to Akerfeldt and
Lindgren, who grew up in Stockholm, the band includes two natives of
Uruguay, drummer Martin Lopez and bassist Martin Mendez.
Next up, Ackerfeldt envisions a death-metal song cycle. "There are
lots of ideas, and only one thing is for sure," Lindgren says with a
chuckle. "It's definitely going to be one album."
Opeth
When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St.
Price: $16-$19; 312-923-2000
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Hear Greg Kot at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on "Sound Opinions" on WXRT-FM
93.1.
