Opeth gets massive 12 page spread in the new issue of Close-Up Magazine
- Thread starter Vivören
- Start date
ToMnEt
Darkness Warrior
Close-up Magazine is really a good mag !
I have another article in swedish (Fuzz Magazine) Opeth is on cover, 3 pages on the magazine
And another in Rockhard (Opeth is on cover again) but it's in german, anyone here could translate in english if I scan it too ?
I have another article in swedish (Fuzz Magazine) Opeth is on cover, 3 pages on the magazine
And another in Rockhard (Opeth is on cover again) but it's in german, anyone here could translate in english if I scan it too ?
Nimrodil
New Metal Member
I can give the Fuzz article a try if a/you are not in a hurry, and b/you have patience with my (not so good) english.
Also think there was one page interview in the latest issue of "Sweden rock magazine" I can translate.
Kalabalik
Member
I could give both a try, but you would have to wait a few months, because right now all my attention will go to finishing my MA thesis... If someone else has not translated them by then, I promise I'll get to it right away. I'd love the scans though 
Ninfix
Gamer of life
Ninfix
Gamer of life
De selger på noen Narvesen butikker, sjekk www.narvesen.no for utsalgssteder
Oh, yeah!
Close-up Magazine for me! Lucky norwegians grew up with pippi langstrømpe.
ToMnEt
Darkness Warrior
yep I found mine in the narvesen in BergenDe selger på noen Narvesen butikker, sjekk www.narvesen.no for utsalgssteder
ufomagnet
Metal photographer
Vivören;7370556 said:
He's good, but I think that Martin is better as he gets more personal with the people he interviews. Lars Martinsson, Daniel Josefsson, Christoffer are all good, but Martin and Marcus tend to write the most interesting interviews IMO. Could also be that they write about bands that I like...
Klämrisk
A fucking swede
I'll have a go in translating the Sweden Rock Magazine interwiev. It's only one page with Q and A, but I'll do it anyway.
---------------------------
SRM Q&A
with Opeths singer and guitarist Mikeal Åkerfeldt
Are you satisfied with "Watershed"?
Yes, I don't want it to sound like I'm boasting, but I think it's fucking awesome! I have lived with these songs in a year and a half know, and this was something that started a (pirr?) in the body. And after all years of shit that has happened lately, I'm extra satisfied this time. We mastered the album nine times before wewere satisfied, only such a thing!
What shit are you thinking of?
Well, to begin with there have been two guys who've left the band, and even f it didn't came as a chock, it's still (jobbigt?). But from the day Fredrik Åkesson joined and we became a stabile line-up again it all feels good again. So even though the album is dark, I only have good memories of the recording process.
Do you think it's special to switch guitarist?
Yea sure, we have always been a guitar-based band and Peter Lindgren has been with us since the first album, so I can very well understand if the fans has hard to accept a new face in the band. But the songs are the same, and technically we're stronger than ever. But I canunderstand if fans turns their backs on us now when Peter and Martin Lopez aren't in the band anymore. The illusion and the image of a bandis very important for the fans.
In my opinion the musical inputs are better than ever...
Of course, it isn't compatible. There are more solos on this album and as a guitarteam "Kulle" and me completes each other very good. And he also has the old school lead-guitarists blood running through his veins.
Does it feel special that you are going on tour with Arch Enemy, thinking of Fredriks background in the band?
No, not at all, he got fired. He heard it live when Michael Amott told a Brazilian radiostation that his brother would He loved being in Arch Enemy and the world tours and stuff like that. But he bought Opeth-records. Llove Arch Enemy, but of course we'll crush 'em when we play with them, ha ha!
What were your ambitions with the album in the demo-state?
Do you know an album named "The Drift" with Scott Walker? I don't know what to call the music, but the album is incredably dark and I became so inspired that I wanted to do a metal-version of it. But it became so unlistenable so I gave up the idea in the end. Then a relaxed a little, and then also all the inspiration came.
It's not so often that you have had guest singers on your albums...
No, we have many guests on this albumm but it's Nathalie Lorichs who has had the most attention since she sings, and atop of that, sings on the first track on the album. She's together with our drummer Martin Axenrot, and I heard her on an unfinished demo that they've made. And it was so fucking good that I asked her if she wanted to sing on the album.
What do you have to say about the songs on the album?
Every song has deserved and recieved the same effort when it comes to thewriting, the lyrics-authoring and the time in the studio. Right now I have three favourites and those are "The Lotus Eater", because it's so twisted, and I also like the powerballad "Burden" and "Hessian Peel". Of course I like all the songs, and we have another song called "Derelict Herds" which I love but didn't fit on the album. A quite psychedelic song which will be on the special edition.
You are a quite serious band, how would you describe the lyrics on the album?
The lyrics are really, really dark. I wrote all texts in one night, something that I've never done befor. And for once I had a clear vision about what I wanted to write about, so it went fast and it went good. I don't want to sound important, but the lyrics are personal to me in a way that makes me not want to talk about them. So the lyrics won't even be fully written on the album. We have coded them.
Coded?
Yes, we made a fun thing of it when I decided that I didn't want to talk about them, so we could better make them a little mystical.
What provoked you in the lyrics-writing?
Much that has happened in the band of course, but mostly one thing that happened in the studio that made me write lyrics for three sons, so three of the songs are connected in a way. And of course that I have become a daddy since last time. That has changed my wiew in lot of things. Not political, but I am much more vounerable now. I can't stand seeing all this pain anymore. It'salmost like I want to become a death metal-Bono, ha ha! And I wrote all the lyrics while eating a McDonalds-menu.
You wrote on your website a couple of years ago that you'll never be a band that compromisses. How do you see at them who wants a more simplistic Opeth?
I don't think we have those fans. Morelikely the opposite, that our fans wants us to be more complicated. Only the thing that we've made a video and shortened a song for that format has upset a few fans. And it's actually against my principles as well, but I have changed my opinion there. I want people to hear the album, in the same wat as a filmmaker makes a trailer for a movie.
If You now should come up with something else musically without compromising, wouldn't that be the natural wat towards a solo album?
I have thought about that, but I've never felt like I've needed to do a solo album since we can do everything we feel for in Opeth. But if I would, I would like to do something like a little more advance singer-songwriter with a lot of finger-pick-play on acoustic guitars. I would like o write an album like that and try how it would work to record an album at home.
Or to record an album with Camels Andy Latimer...
Yea, that would be mean. He's my idol, you know. Sort of my guru. People often asks about my goals and one of them would definetly be to make him record a solo on one of our albums.
I was in Barcelona a time agoand in a small record strore I found twelve different motives on Opeth-shirts. How would you describe your popularity internationally?
It grows steadily larger, since we tour alot.And I have this feeling that this album will make it even better for us. I notice it when Im in the city, since it's impossible without meeting someone who recognises me. When I was in a newspaper store in Bryssel a time ago there came a guy to me and said "Has someone said to you that you look like Mikael Åkerfeldt?". I replied saying that it happens every time, and that's because I am Mikeal Åkerfeldt. He answered with a laughter and looked in his newspaper again. Then he just walked away without believing me the slightest.
And even though you have never worked hard to profile yourselves as individuals...
No, we're wotking on profiling us as musicsians. And that's the point, to grow larger as a band and doing this in a bigger area. It sounds wierd when you say that you have two kids at home, but I guess that that's what all bands want. And every album goes better and better, and the tours and playing-places grows bigger and bigger. Everything has it's time.
Interwiew by Dennis Karlsson
Translated to English from Swedish by Klämrisk
--------------------------
My next post will contain a translation of the album review.
---------------------------
SRM Q&A
with Opeths singer and guitarist Mikeal Åkerfeldt
Are you satisfied with "Watershed"?
Yes, I don't want it to sound like I'm boasting, but I think it's fucking awesome! I have lived with these songs in a year and a half know, and this was something that started a (pirr?) in the body. And after all years of shit that has happened lately, I'm extra satisfied this time. We mastered the album nine times before wewere satisfied, only such a thing!
What shit are you thinking of?
Well, to begin with there have been two guys who've left the band, and even f it didn't came as a chock, it's still (jobbigt?). But from the day Fredrik Åkesson joined and we became a stabile line-up again it all feels good again. So even though the album is dark, I only have good memories of the recording process.
Do you think it's special to switch guitarist?
Yea sure, we have always been a guitar-based band and Peter Lindgren has been with us since the first album, so I can very well understand if the fans has hard to accept a new face in the band. But the songs are the same, and technically we're stronger than ever. But I canunderstand if fans turns their backs on us now when Peter and Martin Lopez aren't in the band anymore. The illusion and the image of a bandis very important for the fans.
In my opinion the musical inputs are better than ever...
Of course, it isn't compatible. There are more solos on this album and as a guitarteam "Kulle" and me completes each other very good. And he also has the old school lead-guitarists blood running through his veins.
Does it feel special that you are going on tour with Arch Enemy, thinking of Fredriks background in the band?
No, not at all, he got fired. He heard it live when Michael Amott told a Brazilian radiostation that his brother would He loved being in Arch Enemy and the world tours and stuff like that. But he bought Opeth-records. Llove Arch Enemy, but of course we'll crush 'em when we play with them, ha ha!
What were your ambitions with the album in the demo-state?
Do you know an album named "The Drift" with Scott Walker? I don't know what to call the music, but the album is incredably dark and I became so inspired that I wanted to do a metal-version of it. But it became so unlistenable so I gave up the idea in the end. Then a relaxed a little, and then also all the inspiration came.
It's not so often that you have had guest singers on your albums...
No, we have many guests on this albumm but it's Nathalie Lorichs who has had the most attention since she sings, and atop of that, sings on the first track on the album. She's together with our drummer Martin Axenrot, and I heard her on an unfinished demo that they've made. And it was so fucking good that I asked her if she wanted to sing on the album.
What do you have to say about the songs on the album?
Every song has deserved and recieved the same effort when it comes to thewriting, the lyrics-authoring and the time in the studio. Right now I have three favourites and those are "The Lotus Eater", because it's so twisted, and I also like the powerballad "Burden" and "Hessian Peel". Of course I like all the songs, and we have another song called "Derelict Herds" which I love but didn't fit on the album. A quite psychedelic song which will be on the special edition.
You are a quite serious band, how would you describe the lyrics on the album?
The lyrics are really, really dark. I wrote all texts in one night, something that I've never done befor. And for once I had a clear vision about what I wanted to write about, so it went fast and it went good. I don't want to sound important, but the lyrics are personal to me in a way that makes me not want to talk about them. So the lyrics won't even be fully written on the album. We have coded them.
Coded?
Yes, we made a fun thing of it when I decided that I didn't want to talk about them, so we could better make them a little mystical.
What provoked you in the lyrics-writing?
Much that has happened in the band of course, but mostly one thing that happened in the studio that made me write lyrics for three sons, so three of the songs are connected in a way. And of course that I have become a daddy since last time. That has changed my wiew in lot of things. Not political, but I am much more vounerable now. I can't stand seeing all this pain anymore. It'salmost like I want to become a death metal-Bono, ha ha! And I wrote all the lyrics while eating a McDonalds-menu.
You wrote on your website a couple of years ago that you'll never be a band that compromisses. How do you see at them who wants a more simplistic Opeth?
I don't think we have those fans. Morelikely the opposite, that our fans wants us to be more complicated. Only the thing that we've made a video and shortened a song for that format has upset a few fans. And it's actually against my principles as well, but I have changed my opinion there. I want people to hear the album, in the same wat as a filmmaker makes a trailer for a movie.
If You now should come up with something else musically without compromising, wouldn't that be the natural wat towards a solo album?
I have thought about that, but I've never felt like I've needed to do a solo album since we can do everything we feel for in Opeth. But if I would, I would like to do something like a little more advance singer-songwriter with a lot of finger-pick-play on acoustic guitars. I would like o write an album like that and try how it would work to record an album at home.
Or to record an album with Camels Andy Latimer...
Yea, that would be mean. He's my idol, you know. Sort of my guru. People often asks about my goals and one of them would definetly be to make him record a solo on one of our albums.
I was in Barcelona a time agoand in a small record strore I found twelve different motives on Opeth-shirts. How would you describe your popularity internationally?
It grows steadily larger, since we tour alot.And I have this feeling that this album will make it even better for us. I notice it when Im in the city, since it's impossible without meeting someone who recognises me. When I was in a newspaper store in Bryssel a time ago there came a guy to me and said "Has someone said to you that you look like Mikael Åkerfeldt?". I replied saying that it happens every time, and that's because I am Mikeal Åkerfeldt. He answered with a laughter and looked in his newspaper again. Then he just walked away without believing me the slightest.
And even though you have never worked hard to profile yourselves as individuals...
No, we're wotking on profiling us as musicsians. And that's the point, to grow larger as a band and doing this in a bigger area. It sounds wierd when you say that you have two kids at home, but I guess that that's what all bands want. And every album goes better and better, and the tours and playing-places grows bigger and bigger. Everything has it's time.
Interwiew by Dennis Karlsson
Translated to English from Swedish by Klämrisk
--------------------------
My next post will contain a translation of the album review.
Stilgar
Berzerker
Good interview. Nice translation. I took the liberty of translating the two words that were left to translate:
pirr = tingling
jobbigt = hard/tough
pirr = tingling
jobbigt = hard/tough
ToMnEt
Darkness Warrior
Kalabalik
Member
Klämrisk
A fucking swede
Glad ya liked it
Here comes the SedenRock Watershed rewiew:
---------------------------------
Translation of the SwedenRock rewiew of Watershed.
Written by Dennis Karlsson
Translated to English from Swedish by Klämrisk
Opeth - "Watershed"
Last year the world was granted seven new wonders. It's time for the commité which
chose those to take a look at an eight; Opeth's new album. After the last album,
"Ghost Reveries", my expectations were monumental, and such expectations does
rarely (infrias?).
But Opeth isn't for nothing the world's heaviest symphony-rock band and the world's
most diverse death metal band. And all influenses between is the strenght in a band
which never stops surprising. Like in the opening, acoustic "Coil", which with
it's vocal interaction between Mikael Åkerfeldt and the guesting Nathalie Lorichs
gives me goosebumps. The melodic, rock-hard "Heir Apparent" shows that the band's
heaviness is intact. The heavy "The Lotus Eater" is another standout on the album -
like the album's "ballad", the majestic symphonical "Burden". One of Opeth's best
tracks ever, if you ask me. Fans that have been worried can relax: the melodic
"Porcelain Heart" shows that the guitarist Fredrik Åkesson is the perfect
replacement for Peter Lindgren. The brilliant "Hessian Peel" reminds of Swedish
folk music. And the closing "Hex Omega" is another masterpiece, on album where
Åkerfeldt doesn't growl in the same extent as before. In spite of that,
"Watershed" is perhaps the darkest album by Opeth so far. A lot of darkness,
but still so paralysingly beautiful.
A magical masterpiece, and a lexicon that in it's perfection wants to forever
define metal with one word; Opeth.
10/10
Here comes the SedenRock Watershed rewiew:
---------------------------------
Translation of the SwedenRock rewiew of Watershed.
Written by Dennis Karlsson
Translated to English from Swedish by Klämrisk
Opeth - "Watershed"
Last year the world was granted seven new wonders. It's time for the commité which
chose those to take a look at an eight; Opeth's new album. After the last album,
"Ghost Reveries", my expectations were monumental, and such expectations does
rarely (infrias?).
But Opeth isn't for nothing the world's heaviest symphony-rock band and the world's
most diverse death metal band. And all influenses between is the strenght in a band
which never stops surprising. Like in the opening, acoustic "Coil", which with
it's vocal interaction between Mikael Åkerfeldt and the guesting Nathalie Lorichs
gives me goosebumps. The melodic, rock-hard "Heir Apparent" shows that the band's
heaviness is intact. The heavy "The Lotus Eater" is another standout on the album -
like the album's "ballad", the majestic symphonical "Burden". One of Opeth's best
tracks ever, if you ask me. Fans that have been worried can relax: the melodic
"Porcelain Heart" shows that the guitarist Fredrik Åkesson is the perfect
replacement for Peter Lindgren. The brilliant "Hessian Peel" reminds of Swedish
folk music. And the closing "Hex Omega" is another masterpiece, on album where
Åkerfeldt doesn't growl in the same extent as before. In spite of that,
"Watershed" is perhaps the darkest album by Opeth so far. A lot of darkness,
but still so paralysingly beautiful.
A magical masterpiece, and a lexicon that in it's perfection wants to forever
define metal with one word; Opeth.
10/10
Iki-ilkkuja
Member
Great... by the way, isn't symphony rock the same as progressive rock? I thought I read somewhere that prog/g means something else in Sweden.
Progg and prog are two different things.
Symphonic rock can be progressive and progressive rock can be symphonic, but they are alas not the same thing.
Symphonic rock can be progressive and progressive rock can be symphonic, but they are alas not the same thing.
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