In his recent interview with Sinusoidal Music, Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt talks about his experience with festivals, the ever-evolving soundscape of metal music, working on the Netflix series ‘Clark,’ and future collaborations.
In an exclusive interview with Sinusoidal Music at the Graspop Metal Meet 2025 on Friday, 20th June, Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt talked about possible collaborations with Steven Wilson for their Storm Corrosion Project. The meeting took place from 19th to 22nd June in Dessel, Belgium.
Although no plans for a collab right now, Åkerfeldt feels something even more ‘eclectic’ will ‘happen at some point’.
The Graspop Metal Meet 2025 took place from 19th to 22nd June 2025.
This year, the festival saw numerous metal acts, including Iron Maiden, Slipknot, Korn, Dream Theater, and many more!
Åkerfeldt talks about the Storm Corrosion Project
Åkerfeldt and Wilson have been good friends for a long time. Besides, Wilson is playing in India this November. So our question for Åkerfeldt was if the two were working on anything and if their Storm Corrosion Project is headed anywhere.
“No, it’s not really going anywhere, I mean, other than when we talk or text, rather…usually when we’re texting, its bout very random stuff, he usually sends me funny clips or something,” was Åkerfeldt’s initial reply.
Åkerfeldt added that they were not really thinking of collaborations, as in doing something together. But Wilson and Mikael have talked a lot over the years about doing something together with the Storm Corrosion Project, as he says. They have both been happy with the Storm Corrosion record.
“But none of us really know what to do because we are not the type of people who would want to repeat ourselves,” adds Åkerfeldt. “Even if I think that album is great and there’s more to do with that sound, I think we wanna probably do something different. I’m thinking we can do something that’s even more hard, like more special, more eclectic. But I think it’s probably gonna happen at some point.”
Storm Corossion Project released their only album titled after the Project’s name itself back in 2012 via Roadrunner Records.
Steven Wilson and Opeth: Tour Updates!
Steven Wilson will be playing in India as part of “The Overview Tour 2025”. The tour starts with San Francisco, CA on 9th September. The India leg includes stops in Mumbai (November 2nd), Delhi NCR (November 5th), Kolkata (November 7th), and Bengaluru (November 9th). Check out the tour dates here!
As for Mikael Åkerfeldt and his band Opeth, the band is currently touring Europe in support of their upcoming album, “The Last Will and Testament”. The tour includes dates in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Check out the full list of dates here!
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Opeth’s last album dropped last year in November, their fourteenth studio album so far. Back in 2011, for the ‘Heritage’ album, Åkerfeldt had embraced fully clean vocals with the progressive rock sound. But the latest album brings back their old school death growls again, much to the delight of fans.
Graspop Metal Meet
Originally started in 1996 as a local rock festival, the Graspop Metal Meeting is a Belgian heavy metal festival held in Dessel every year. The festival draws a massive number of metal fans from all over the world every year, the headcount reaching 2,00,00 since 2019, despite the limited festival ground capacity.
This year, the festival saw numerous metal acts, including Iron Maiden, Slipknot, Korn, Dream Theater, and many more! Click here for our Graspop Metal Meet 2025 review!
Opeth’s last album, “The Last Will and Testament,” was released last year in October. The band has been on tour for the album since early February this year. In the latest interview with Sinusoidal Music at the 2025 Graspop Metal Festival, Åkerfeldt revealed his experiences with work beyond his band, Opeth.
Knowing Opeth’s fanbase consists mostly of fans who loved their death metal signature growls, for their 2011 album “Heritage“, the band decided to take a wild turn, not their first time. Their decisive shift towards a more progressive rock and jazz fusion sound demonstrated that the band’s capabilities extended beyond the hardcore death metal sound. Although this is not the first time the band has explored a cleaner sound. The clean vocals rock sound can be noted first in Damnation (2003) and after that in a few other albums as well.
Apart from their own works, Mikael Åkerfeldt also discussed the newer subgenres of metal, with bands like Slipknot thriving and making their way into the scene, thanks to festivals like Graspop drawing fans every year. We also learn about his completely new experience with working on a Netflix series as well as a film!
Although he is not deep into the newer sounds of metal, like Nu metal, Åkerfeldt says it is encouraging to see the support for bands like Slipknot, thanks to festivals like Graspop!
Well, good news for fans. He says there is a film he just scored the music for!
In conversation with the Opeth frontman
You have played at Graspop a lot of times. What do you like about Graspop?
Well, not particularly anything about Graspop, but yeah it’s a good festival. The festivals are kind of same, the same metal crowd, the kind of hospitality backstage. We were in a tent called the Marquee, they also look the same everywhere. We don’t go feeling like it was shit. It’s a good festival. But they are very similar to be honest, *laughs*. It’s very rare that we play a festival where we feel like, “You know this is different.” So in that respect, it is great. But I don’t have any particular stories about Graspop, saying it’s the best festival you know. It’s a good festival, *laughs*.
So you’ve been a metal musician for a large part of your life. What shift have you seen in the metal genre in the past few years? I think there has been a lot of blend in genres with hip-hop blending in…..
Wow, good question.. I mean there has been so much since we started 30-35 years ago with this band. Throughout the years we have seen the rise and so to speak fall, of..uh..classic grunge(?), Nu metal… I wouldn’t say fall because they are still here, umm..prog metal..which is the subgenre I followed more closely I guess because we were a part of, you know, in the beginning of that thing. I just met with Blood Incantation out here and we were record shopping in the US with them. They are also doing something different I think.
Umm, but, at the end of the day, I think, maybe it’s business as usual. You know I am a bit too old to… or I am so busy with other forms of music, that when it comes to my own enjoyment, like the music I listen to, in the privacy of my own home, I don’t necessarily seek out the newer metal bands, as it, say with old LPs or stuff like that. So I am uh…in a way, probably the wrong guy to ask, but that’s…. like I have seen many kind of trends – Black Metal in Scandevenia in the early 90s, uh..those kind of things, trends come and go, and, you know most of them have lingered.
So if we are talking say, Nu metal, not my favorite genre, but those bands that kind of spearheaded that genre are still huge. Like Slipknot headlining tonight, are they Nu metal? I don’t know but (Nu metal)ish? Korn, Limp Bizkit, those bands are still huge, but I guess there’s been many casualties that you don’t even remember, you know what I mean. But at least it’s kind of thriving and it’s doing well and these festivals, you know, are like uh… they, new festivals popping up… festivals like Graspop are still drawing a big crowd year after year, which is a sign, it’s good for sure!
Recently, you wrote music for a Netflix series – ‘Clark’. So how do you approach composing for films, now that the visuals have been developed outside your frame of mind?
Well, that was uh, I since done another thing that you will hear about soon, uh, because that’s kind of music written to order, so to speak, somebody kind of employs you to write something, for scenes, you know. That took some kind of adjusting. Because I sit around writing pieces of music that I think are great music, if you know what I mean. But, uh, I deliver the so-called stems to them so that they can basically take… split a song in 20 pieces and just extract the bass guitar or something.
“Get Over Your Pride. This Is Not Your Music. It’s Their Music” – Mikael Åkerfeldt on composing music for Clark
And that took some getting used to for me. Because I delivered a good song, but they only used the right cymbal, if you know what I mean. So you have to get over your pride. This is not your music. It’s their music.
Uh, but I learned a lot doing Clark, you know, like lots of, kind of phrases that I never heard before, like (when) the producers (were) like, “Can you write some risers, some fillers?” I’m like, “What’s that?” *Laughs*
But that’s just kind of noise happening, I didn’t know what’s that. Like, I learned so much doing that, it was super fun. And once I get over that sort of pride thing, you know, easy but I could see how I… how it could feel, um, if that was the only thing I did – to try and write good music that somebody’s going to tear apart – would probably feel weird, if that’s the only thing I did. Luckily, I have the band and stuff like that. But I would love to do more.
Learn more about Netflix’s latest series ‘Clark’!
Are you working on anything new? Films or anything more?
Not right now. I just finished one.
It’s a film. *Awkwardly smiles* I can’t say (the name), but it’s no big deal.
Åkerfeldt went on to talk about his to songs from the album, Indian musicians he listens to and his experiences in India, and the Indian music he’s currently into.
The Opeth legend loves Indian food and rare Indian records and might be returning to India soon!
Graspop Festival 2025 was as intense as ever. Somewhere between Dream Theater’s roaring set and the chaos of Slipknot, we found a quiet moment with Mikael Åkerfeldt, the thoughtful, slightly shy frontman of Opeth, who seemed quite interested in talking about old records and musical experimentation.
What is Mikael Åkerfeldt’s favourite track to play live?
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It’s James Anderson, the son of frontman Ian Anderson
“I Was So Shy”, the Unlikely Birth of Clean Vocals in a Death Metal World
We sat down for a candid chat with the Opeth legend, and right off the bat, Mikael brought up something you might not expect from someone who helped define progressive death metal: self-doubt.
“I was so shy,” he admitted, reflecting on his early years. “I don’t know a lot of people who like the sound of their own voice and I’m one of them. ” But even with that discomfort, clean vocals were always part of Opeth’s DNA. He recalled how, even before the first album, he and David Isberg had been toying with melodic lines. “And there was this part where he was kind of “singing’ with a clean voice and he was kind of tracking in the middle of the lines, singing it. And so I figured that’s not a bad idea.”
“There was always the purpose when we formed this band to not get shackled by rules. We started earlier incorporating all the things than just the “regular metal” guitars and fast drumming and all that. Just experimenting and the clean vocals is part of that,” he said with a shrug.
Dio, Don Henley &… Joni Mitchell?
When talk turned to influences, Mikael lit up a bit. “My favourite singers are those who were born to sing,” he said, naming giants like Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale, and Paul Rodgers. But also, more surprising names came up—Peter Criss from KISS, the soft power of Don Henley, even Joni Mitchell. “I like the sound of a voice where there’s no question about the kind of vocal quality. So those types of people.”
When the Flute Came Calling – Teaming Up with Ian Anderson
Then, as if to prove just how wide his musical curiosity runs, the Opeth frontman casually dropped one of the cooler stories of the year: he finally collaborated with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull—a musical idol he’d been trying to reach for years. The connection came through Ian’s son, James, who manages him. Fast forward a few months, and there he was, sending over tracks, eventually chatting directly with Anderson himself. “Now if I ring him, he’ll pick up,” Mikael smiled.
Opeth’s latest album is just starting to hit live sets, and while they’ve only played a few songs so far, one has clearly stuck with Mikael: “Paragraph 7.” “It’s a weird one,” he grinned. “You can feel the crowd thinking ‘what the hell is this?’ But once we get it right, it feels amazing. It’s very dynamic, once we get it right it’s a good feeling”
Read – Katatonia and Opeth share anniversary for ground breaking albums in Swedish metal’s history
Vinyl & Indian Rock Rarities
Before we wrapped up, the conversation took a surprising turn—to Indian psychedelic rock.
Turns out Mikael’s a crate-digger, and a serious one. He’s been obsessed with tracking down original pressings of rare Indian records—like Black Scorpio by The Savages, a 1973 garage-psych gem that took him years to hunt down. “It’s incredible,” he said, eyes lighting up. “Super record. It’s great. It’s from ’73. Super hard to find but incredibly good like garage-y rock, almost hard rock or psychedelic.”
Another mysterious favorite? Atomic Forest—a ’70s Indian psych band whose records are so rare they’ve become almost mythical. “t’s gonna make me take out a second mortgage to be able to afford it. It’s impossible to find. Because I only look for original copies and it is very difficult to find.”
Is India Getting Another Opeth Gig?
As for Opeth returning to India?
“We were meant to come back this year but it’s looking like next year maybe. But you have to take in any kind of consideration like can we afford it? Where are we playing? What’s the state of the world? those type of boring things. But we have been there four times, maybe? 3-4 times but its great, it’s one of my favourite countries to play. Actually I’m the one who’s gonna push for it for next year. Buy that Savages album,” he beamed.
Mikael Åkerfeldt is still chasing the strange, the soulful, and the unexpected. Just the way we like it.
