Opeth's Martin Mendez says Sorceress was 'most fun' to record

Martin Mendez, 2014
Martin Mendez, 2014

Opeth bassist Martin Mendez says their 12th album Sorceress was the “most fun” and “interesting” to record.

The band are set to launch the follow-up to 2014’s Pale Communion on September 30. Frontman Mikael Akerfeldt recently said it was inspired by “the negative aspects of love.” He also revealed the band had recorded it in 12 days after he’d spent six months writing it.

In an official trailer video for the album, Mendez says: “This has been personally the most interesting recording with Opeth ever – the most fun, most quick for my part. I recorded bass together with the drums in three days. It’s been great.

He adds: “Usually the process is kind of similar as on the last few records. Mikael recorded the demos at home, then we get the demos, and we next get together for about two weeks and rehearse on the demos. That’s pretty much the process – then we record everything.”

The band issued a promo last month which offered a glimpse into their studio sessions for the album.

Opeth begin a North American tour on September 29, followed by European dates in November and an appearance at London’s Wembley Arena on November 19. Sorceress can be pre-ordered on Opeth’s webstore.

Sorceress

Sorceress

Opeth: Sorceress tracklist

  1. Persephone
  2. Sorceress
  3. The Wilde Flowers
  4. Will O The Wisp
  5. Chrysalis
  6. Sorceress 2
  7. The Seventh Sojourn
  8. Strange Brew
  9. A Fleeting Glance
  10. Era
  11. Persephone (Slight Return)

Opeth tour dates 2016

Aug 19: Hasselt Pukkelpop Festival, Belgium
Sep 24: San Bernardino Ozzfest meets Knotfest, CA
Sep 29: Pittsburgh Stage AE, PA
Sep 30: Filmore Silver Spring, MD
Oct 01: New York Radio City Music Hall, NY
Oct 02: Boston House of Blues, MA
Oct 04 Montreal Metropolis, Canada
Oct 05: Toronto Massey Hall, Canada
Oct 07: Filmore Detroit, MI
Oct 08: East End Good Year Theater, OH
Oct 09: Chicago Riviera Theater, IL
Oct 10: Minneapolis First Ave, MN
Oct 12: Oklahoma City Diamond Ballrom, OK
Oct 13: Houston Warehouse Live, TX
Oct 14: Austin Emos, TX
Oct 15 Dallas Gas Monkey Live, TX
Oct 18: Las Vegas Brooklyn Bowl, NV
Oct 19: Tempe Marquee Theater, AZ
Oct 21: Sacramento Ace Of Spades, CA
Oct 22: San Francisco Warfirled, CA
Oct 24: Portland Roseland Theater, CA
Oct 25: Seattle Moore Theater, WA
Oct 26: Vancouver Orpheum, Canada
Nov 05: Stockholm Annexet, Sweden
Nov 06: Oslo Konserthus, Norway
Nov 07: Copenhagen DR Koncerthuset, Denmark
Nov 08: Hamburg Docks, Germany
Nov 10: Vienna Arena, Austria
Nov 11: Stuttgart LKA Longhorn, Germany
Nov 12: Munich Theaterfabrik, Germany
Nov 13: Zurich Volkshaus, Switzerland
Nov 14: Milan Alcatraz, Italy
Nov 16: Cologne E-Werk, Germany
Nov 18: Tilburg 013, Netherlands
Nov 19: London SSE Wembley Arena, UK
Nov 21: Paris Le Trianon, France
Nov 23: Luxembourg Den Atelier, Luxembourg
Nov 24: Berlin Astra Kulturhaus, Germany

Opeth: Book Of Opeth

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.