In New England the air has started to get a little cooler.

Splashes of yellow and red consume the

trees, brilliant infernos of color reminding us of winter’s impending chill. For the past several years
the shedding leaves have also foretold the metal community of Opeth’s inevitable return to the
Palladium in Worcester Massachusetts. And what a perfect season for the bleak yet inviting music
of Sweden’s extreme progressive masters. The days grow gradually shorter as memories surface.

I can still remember making my way down I-290 to that very venue many years ago. It was a point
in my life when metal was still a genre I was acquiring a taste for. My friends had been blasting
Vital Remains’ Dechristianize and Morbid Angel’s Covenant the whole way to the show and all
I heard was a wall of satanic sound. It was perhaps my first real metal show. Moonspell opened
that evening. Fernando Ribeiro looked triumphant as he fiercely brandished a skull scepter and
belched forth guttural growls. I was hooked. As Opeth took the stage playing what I now know as
“April Ethereal,” I knew that I had become a metal head.

Fast forward to 2008 and Opeth have risen from their initial obscurity to one of metal’s most
popular acts despite the voluntary departures of two beloved members, drummer Martin Lopez
and guitarist Peter Lindgren. The band however, has remained together, recruiting a powerful new
lineup including the addition of a keyboard player/backing vocalist, Per Wiberg, drummer Martin
Axenrot, and guitarist, Fredrik Åkesson.

I am sitting down with Åkesson in the Palladium’s smoky dressing room. High on Fire’s Matt Pike
is gleefully throwing back shots of Jack Daniel’s before sound check with a toothy smile. He
seems quite confident in a plan he has devised after observing Opeth to combine all of his band’s
cables on stage into one “giant snake cable.” He exchanges a few more words with us and then
he is off to implement his experiment. Fredrik, referred to as “Fred” by the band’s tour manager is
visibly calm as he casually reclines on a leather sofa. There was a time when he was an outside
admirer of Opeth’s music as well.

“Actually, back in 93’ or 94’ I was rehearsing at this rehearsal place in Stockholm,” recalls
Åkesson. “And the bass player in Opeth at the time, Johan DeFarfalla the one who played on the
early stuff like the first CD [Orchid] was there as well. I remember he played me all the shit on the
old record but I didn’t pay much attention to it back then. But I started listening to Opeth when
Still Life came out basically. That was 98’, 99’ or something… I really liked the atmosphere of the
songs. It was quite different from other bands. I got really hooked on Opeth when I listened to the
Blackwater Park record… I think it’s the mixture between the dynamics of the songs to be very
dark and aggressive, death metallish and sometimes it’s a bit more forest-like, more moody. I
kinda like that mixture and also the fact that you never really know what’s going to happen in the
song.”

When long-standing guitarist Peter Lindgren announced his voluntary departure from Opeth in the
spring of 2007, the online metal community began clamoring for explanations and speculating on
possible replacements. Opeth founder and mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt’s solution to this dilemma
seemed to be as simple as turning to a friend.

“Yeah, actually me and Mike [Åkerfeldt] had been talking about jamming for many years,” recalls
Åkesson. “He saw me playing in a pub where I was playing some King Diamond covers, Judas
Priest covers and he came up to me and said he liked my playing and he asked me to give him
some lessons. And I was like, whoa, you’re embarrassing me dude!

“We’ve known each other for 5-6 years or something like that but not like super friends. We would
meet at festivals and he met me at that gig. He knew a bit about the bands I played in previously.
But then we talked about this jamming over the years but it never really happened. And then we
were on the same tour in 2006. I was playing with Arch Enemy at the time on Gigantour here in
America. So it was at that time that I would actually hang out more on the Opeth bus than I would
on the Arch Enemy bus. So I guess we bonded a bit that tour. Then in January last year Mikael
[Åkerfeldt] asked me over to his house to do some jamming and I didn’t realize but he was sort of
secretly auditioning me because he kept asking me, hey could you play this Opeth riff? And I
guess I pulled it off. Then I showed him some more technical stuff because he wanted to improve
his playing.”

Åkesson seems genuinely pleased to have been recruited and is not shy about expressing his
enthusiasm and devotion to Åkerfeldt’s musical vision.

“It was perfect timing because I had been fired from Arch Enemy, or asked to leave, because
Chris Amott wanted to come back to the band and they’re brothers and all that. So, for a couple of
months there I was like well, I need to do my own band now I guess. Then Mikael called me up
and I was like, yeah, hells yeah [sic]! This is a band I can see myself playing with for a long time.
It’s always been my goal to focus on one band and with this band I feel like I could grow old in this
band. It doesn’t matter who calls tomorrow or what kind of money they offer really, we get along
really good in this band really and we have a laugh, which is important if you are going to tour as
much as we do.”

Over the past year Åkesson has played nearly one hundred gigs with Opeth. In 2007 he made his
live debut playing at the Ilosaarirock festival in Joensuu, Finland in front of 16,000 people.

“Yeah it was a cool way to start,” recalls Åkesson. “Although I didn’t have any fuckups really so I
was happy about that. I was lucky enough to have months before the gig to learn the songs. So I
couldn’t really complain about not having enough time.”

In addition to his touring duties Åkesson also joined the band as they were in the process of
writing their latest album, Watershed. He is not only featured on the album but had some creative
input in it as well.

“Well, just one song basically that me and Mike co-wrote, Porcelain Heart,” says Åkesson. “I came
up with that first riff and the calm part and he liked it. I recorded a bunch of other riffs that didn’t
end up on the album, faster, technical stuff. He really liked this heavier doomier, [Black] Sabbath-
esque riff. That was the theme for the song I guess. Apart from that I did guitar solos and stuff like
that but Mikael as always wrote most of it.”

Anyone who is familiar with the ongoing Opeth diary found on their official website or the first
video the band put together composed of studio footage for the song, “Harvest” may get the
impression that Mike runs a tight ship during recordings. Perhaps Åkesson can let us know if there
is any truth to this.

“Yeah, he was really cool actually,” he states. “We rehearsed the songs a lot before we entered
the studio. I think everybody knew their parts really well. When I did my guitar parts he wasn’t
even in the room. He was somewhere else. That made me feel quite comfortable recording,
knowing that he relied on my ability… It was quite relaxed, it went smoothly. There were two
studios in the same location and that saved us a lot of time.”

This evening Opeth decides to pay their new album homage by opening with, “Heir Apparent.”
There isn’t a still body in the room as they pound through this violent return to their death metal
roots. As per usual the band is in top form, playing like some terrible natural destructive force. The
momentum persists as “The Grand Conjuration” is resurrected from 2005’s Ghost Reveries. The
performance seems to have scarcely begun although these two songs combined clock in at nearly
20-minutes.

Åkerfeldt, or Mr. Åkerfeldt as he has been dubbed by fans, engages the crowd with his usual dry,
seemingly cannabis influenced, jabs. Approval is heard in the form of a collective cheer as he
announces a track from Still Life, “Serenity Painted Death.” Åkesson is right on point even during
this older song. His formerly kempt curly long hair is now at the mercy of gravity as he thrashes
his neck about in a whirlwind. He plays with the skill of a seasoned guitarist and he certainly is
one, beginning his diverse career in his late teens.
“Well, I started out playing when I was 19,” Åkesson recalls before the show. “I got a gig in a band
called Talas in which the singer and the bass player used to be on the early records with Yngwie
Malmsteem. So I thought it was going to be some sort of basic metal stuff but they were a bit too
commercial for me so I didn’t feel comfortable in that band. I got to play a lot of solos and stuff.
They were good musicians so in a way it was good for me because I was quite young at that time.
But after that I played with Tiamat for a while. They started out as a death metal band but they
were more gothic rock which wasn’t really my cup of tea either. And then I played in a doom metal
band called Krux, I still play with them. We have done two CDs and one live DVD but it’s more of
a hobby band. It has the ex-drummer from Entombed, Peter Stjärnvind and Jörgen Sandström
from Grave is in the band, who also used to be in Entombed. The band was started by Leif
Edling, the main guy from Candlemass so it’s like epic doom metal. And of course the other band
I’ve been involved with has been Arch Enemy but I was mainly touring. I never did any writing
with them. So in a way I was basically playing Chris’ [Amott] parts and in the end looking back now
it’s quite different from being in Opeth because now I’m actually on the record whereas before I
had no real input in the sound of the band or anything. So this time I feel much more involved.”

Mike approaches the front of the stage and begins conversing with the audience. He takes some
time to introduce the band to the crowd. When it comes time to introduce Åkesson a glimmer of
mischief appears in his eyes. He begins to speak of a stage move he has seen Åkesson perform
and kindly requests him to show the audience. Fred chuckles as if questioning the seriousness of
Åkerfeldt’s request. It is apparently no joke. After a visible sigh, Åkesson lowers his guitar into a
shotgun position facing the crowd and proceeds to slide/skid sideways in a quick motion while
rapidly hammering a short burst of notes. The crowd cheers and Åkerfeldt nearly doubles over
with laughter.

Opeth continues to pick a diverse range of tracks from their lengthy discography including the
melancholy “Hope Leaves” and “Night and the Silent Water,” the aptly titled “Bleak,” Watershed’s
“The Lotus Eater”, “Deliverance,” and the essential “Demon of the Fall.” After nearly an hour and a
half the band make their way off the stage briefly before making an encore.

“Why do we even leave the stage?” Åkerfeldt jokes before launching into the final song for the
evening, “The Drapery Falls.”

Despite an impressively strong chant from the crowd the lights turn on to reveal the sweaty and
winded moshers as the roadies begin disassembling the stage. The show is the fourth on Opeth’s
most recent American tour. It will extend through October before the band once again makes the
trek overseas.

“It’s a bit of a schizophrenic life,” relates Åkesson before the show. “It’s hard to adapt when you
get back home after a tour. You’re like, where are my signs? Where am I supposed to go?
[Laughter] You’re acting a bit like a retard in a way. It takes a week before you get into a normal
life cycle back home. My wife is always like, you’re doing nothing! Get your fucking ass going!”

Even in a band like Opeth where the gigs are aplenty and record sales are good (by metal
standards) one wonders what drives these men to continue touring, leaving their families and
loved ones behind for many days. Åkesson’s reply is simple and direct, revealing fortunes not
made of gold.

“There is a lot of sacrifice doing what we do,” he says. “But this is what I always wanted to do you
know. It’s what I’ve been fighting for my whole life. Playing the gigs every night really pays off,
that’s what makes it worth doing.

“There’s nothing else I can do really [laughter]. Otherwise I would be a bum or something. This
has been my dream since I was 12 years old. I knew this is what I wanted to do. I always said to
myself, music is my first priority. That’s something I explained to my wife when I first met her and
she still hasn’t left me.”