Off the back of their well-received The Last Will And Testament album Swedish prog rockers Opeth have spent most of the last year on the road playing to sell-out audiences.
Now for the first time in six years the band is about to head to Australia where they have promised that their set list will feature some of their heaviest and darkest music during shows that go well and truly over the two hour mark.
“It is always a pleasure to be able to come to Australia,” says Opeth guitarist Fredrik Akesson when we sit down to talk about the tour. “And this time we get to play two nights at the Sydney Opera House – we have never done that before.”
“Basically it has been overwhelming the support that Australians have given us over the years,” he says with pure excitement in his voice. “It has always been a joy because the audiences are always more intense then they are in other places in the world and it has just always been amazing to be able to play this weird music that we do from Sweden and see you guys enjoy it.”
Frederik and I share a laugh as we talk about how many times the Sydney Opera House has been destroyed in Hollywood made disaster movies when they need to blow up something Australian but despite the laughs it is also obvious that the importance of being able to play at such an iconic venue is not lost on the band.
“It is weird,” he admits. “I mean it is seated so it is not the optimal rock ‘n’ roll venue but it is such a beautiful and important venue – like you said it is iconic. I remember seeing a Gary Moore show that was done there on TV and it was something I always remembered. I laugh though because I showed it to my daughter the other day and said I was going to play there and she was like ‘oh okay.’”
From there we shift our discussion to the fact that the band’s current set lists have been a bit darker because of the introduction of tracks from The Last Will And Testament.
“We started playing some of the tracks from the album on our US tour,” he explains. “And I found playing them super exciting because I feel these new tracks are more action-packed – they are both restless and aggressive. I think that really suits being added to the old set-list. Everybody seemed to know that and it seemed to work really well live. We might even expand that a little as well and play about four or five new tracks while we are in Australia.”
“It gets harder and harder to work out a set-list,” he says as we talk about how many great tracks that Opeth now have in their back catalogue. “We’ve been doing a lot of anniversary shows recently and then we get to play tracks like Black Rose Immortal that eat up twenty minutes of set list at a time. This time will be different though so what we will do is we will check what our set-list was the last time we were in Australia and then we will try to play different songs to what we did that time.”
“Of course there are a couple of track that we always have to play – our Smoke On The Waters so to say,” he laughs. “But I think it is important to look in the rear mirror and see what we played last time and then we change that up and also play the new stuff as well.”
As we draw to a close with the interview Fredrik says that the band have been working on new music during the breaks this year and that he has been working on a guitar album as well but with all the excitement about next week’s tour he wanted to finish with a very special message to Opeth’s Australian fans.
“Thank you for all your dedication and support it is always a pleasure to come and play for you,” he says. “We can’t wait to get down there because we have just come off other tours and we feel that we are tighter and stronger than ever so hopefully that will encourage you to come and see us on tour – we hope to see you there.”
Opeth’s Australian tour kicks off in Sydney next Monday.
