To say old Opeth's die-hard fans got uber-excited when their ears landed on the album's first would be to state the obvious. The Last Will and Testament marks a vocal shift towards their death metal roots, with the band revisiting the heavier style which was completely absent for 16 years.
While Opeth is stepping back into death metal territory in the vocal department, it's not as if they've entirely distanced themselves from their heavier beginnings — older, more intense tracks are still a staple of their live shows. And recently, in a conversation with Metal Hammer, Mikael Åkerfeldt and Fredrik Åkesson, reminisced about their introduction to the death metal genre and shared their thoughts on the greatest band in its history.
Mikael reflected on his gradual progression into the genre, noting, “I was pretty late with death metal. I wanted to graduate from thrash and speed metal, really – it's almost an evolution, getting heavier and heavier. I heard Sepultura's Schizophrenia and Morbid Visions, but… as much as I love those records, it's a bit too sloppy!"
His true gateway came with Bathory's The Return…, a record that struck him deeply: "Ironically, it was probably Bathory's second album that really helped me get into it. I didn't get it when it first came out, it must've been like '87 or something when I picked it up. It scared the shit out of me! I thought it was really scary, evil record and there was this spooky song on there called 'Possessed' where he's screaming, 'I'm possessed' and I thought that was… 'Oh my god!'"
“There's also a Swedish death metal band called Mefisto who were associated with Bathory in those days. One of Fredrik's friends actually played guitar on that, a guy called Omar Ahmed who was brilliant. I heard their demo The Puzzle a few years after it came out in '86 and thought it was amazing – incredible musicianship, sounded really evil, and just great songs," Mikael remembered.
Fredrik's path to death metal was more gradual, starting with classic metal acts before diving into heavier sounds. “I also started listening to death metal pretty late – I was way more into the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and bands like Ozzy Osbourne, Dio – all of that. I went more extreme when a buddy of mine picked up the first Metallica album. We were like 'What the hell is this?!' and started checking out heavier and heavier records."
“We met a guy who lived up the street who was super into Venom and even had inverted crucifixes in his flowerbeds!" Fredrik added. “The first album I brought though was Death's Individual Thought Patterns. I got that because King Diamond's Andy LaRocque played guitar on it and I'm a total guitar nerd."
Both musicians also described their early experiences attending local shows, with Mikael recalling his first time seeing Merciless and Entombed: "I went to see the band Merciless, just before they put out their second record Realm of the Dark. They were playing a youth club with this band called Beyond, but that's the first thing that comes to mind. I must've seen Entombed for the first time around then too. I was blown away by the camaraderie between fans and bands – there were hardly any people there, but everyone was so devoted to the music."
Fredrik also reminisced about his early death-metal-related experiences: "Like Mikael, I went to shows. Christofer Johnsson of Therion played our local youth club with his band – then called Blitzkrieg. This must have been like 86, 87. That was probably the first death metal show I went to."
When it came to naming the best death metal band of all time, Mikael was certain: “Ultimately, the best death metal band of all time is Morbid Angel. Alters Of Madness had everything I wanted from that music – the musicianship, but also an intensity that I was after… plus the best death metal vocals I'd ever heard. David Vincent is better than Chuck Schuldiner, and Chuck is fucking awesome! David Vincent is the king of death metal and I shape my own vocals after him."
Fredrik agreed, adding his appreciation for their work on Domination: I've gotta agree with Mikael though, Morbid Angel were the greatest. I also loved Domination though, and 'Where The Slime Lives'"
“We toured with Morbid Angel on Domination. We thought we were going to blow them off-stage with our folky, rock, metal Morningrise album. Needless to say, it didn't happen," Åkerfeldt recalled.
When Fredrik pointed out that Entombed must be considered as well, Mikael agreed: “Yeah, absolutely. I guess we should also mention that Bathory are black metal too and not strictly death metal. If that's the case then we should also talk about Celtic Frost and Hellhammer. I remember getting Hellhammer's Apocalyptic Raid EP; I remember walking into a department store in Stockholm and seeing that record, knowing I immediately had to have it. It was too expensive and I didn't have the money – it was like £7 or something, so I changed the price tag to £1!"
