MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT On How He Became OPETH’s Vocalist: “Nobody Else Wanted To Do It”

You know how nobody in the band actually wants to be the bassist, but someone ends up doing it because you need a bassist? That’s what happened with Opeth, except it was the vocalist position.

In an interview with Chaoszine, Opeth guitarist and vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt said he only became the band’s vocalist because they couldn’t find someone else, and later noted “I’m just like a bum who got lucky.” Which is definitely not true – self deprecating jokes aside, Åkerfeldt can absolutely sing.

“I don’t really see myself as a singer — or a guitar player for that matter. I see myself as a — I am a musician. I like to come to write music. I think that’s fun. The singer thing, it’s, like, nobody else wanted to do it. I guess it has to be me. And I don’t compare myself to my peers or my idols, especially my idols. I don’t go, like, ‘Hey, Ronnie Dio, what’s your trick? Mine’s this and that. I’m gonna teach you something.’ Those guys up there. I’m just like a bum who got lucky, if you know what I mean.

“With our own albums, I wanna listen to the record and not really hear that it’s me, so to speak. So I like to distance myself from the person singing on the record. And with death metal vocals, that’s quite easy, because, of course, I don’t sound like that when I’m talking to you now. And with the clean vocals, I’m just kind of trying to get as close to my idols as I can.

“But everybody’s given this particular voice. I don’t have any training. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing most of the time. The last album that we recorded, I think I tried to sing more clean vocals with a bit more grovelly type of thing.”

Opeth will hit the road throughout October with Tribulation, and in Europe come early 2025 with Grand Magus, in support of their new album The Last Will And Testament. Check out the full list of dates below and get your tickets here.

w/ Tribulation

10/11 Milwaukee, WI The Rave / Eagles Club
10/12 Cleveland, OH Agora Theater & Ballroom
10/14 Toronto, ON Queen Elizabeth Theatre
10/15 Montréal, QC L’Olympia
10/16 Worcester, MA Palladium
10/18 Brooklyn, NY Kings Theatre
10/19 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE
10/20 Washington, DC -– Warner Theatre
10/22 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle
10/23 New Orleans, LA Fillmore New Orleans
10/24 Austin, TX Emo’s Austin
10/25 Dallas, TX Majestic Theatre
10/27 Denver, CO Mission Ballroom
10/29 Phoenix, AZ The Van Buren
10/30 Los Angeles, CA YouTube Theater
10/31 San Francisco, CA The Warfield

w/ Grand Magus

2/9 Helsinki (FI) Ice Hall
2/11 Stockholm (SE) Cirkus
2/12 Oslo (NO) Sentrum Scene
2/14 Copenhagen (DK) DR Koncerthuset
2/15 Hamburg (DE) Docks
2/17 Cologne (DE) Palladium
2/18 Berlin (DE) Tempodrom
2/19 Munich (DE) Muffathalle
2/21 Paris (DR) L’Olympia
2/22 Amsterdam (NL) AFAS Live
2/23 Brussels (BE) Ancienne Belgique