In an interview with Guitar World, Opeth guitarist Fredrik Akesson talked about the experience of working on Ghost‘s album, mentioning that he played many guitar layers.
Ghost released the fifth studio album, ‘Impera,’ on March 11, 2022. The first single from the album ‘Hunter’s Moon’ came out in 2021. The band released other singles, ‘Call Me Little Sunshine’ and ‘Twenties’ in 2022.
In a previous interview, Ghost’s Tobias Forge revealed that the album’s theme was the empires’ rise and fall, which inspired him after a book he bought in the past. The band also hit the road for a North America tour called ‘Emperatour’ with Volbeat in January 2022.
Opeth’s Fredrik Akesson played for some of the guitar parts in ‘Impera.’ Later on, he completed all guitar trackings on the album. The guitarist revealed during a recent interview that the album had many Brian May-style guitar parts.
Akesson stated that he recorded plenty of guitar layers that he had never done before, which he enjoyed. As Opeth’s guitarist mentioned, he used the same pedal Yngwie Malmsteen used during the recording in his initial works.
Fredrik Akesson shared his experience of working on Ghost’s album:
“There are a lot of Brian May-style parts on this album, with four-piece harmonies dubbed three times each plus octaves. I’d never recorded so many layers of guitars. It was fun!
For most of the solos, I borrowed an old DOD Preamp 250, made in the 70s. It’s the same pedal Yngwie Malmsteen used with his Plexis back in the day on his early albums. It sounded great, such a warm and saturated lead tone!”
As Fredrik Akesson explained, he had many guitar layers to work on during the recording of Ghost’s most recent album, ‘Impera,’ which was a new experience for him. The guitarist enjoyed doing something he had never done before and was satisfied with the result.
