Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt nostalgic for the music of his youth

Mikael Akerfeldt
Mikael Akerfeldt (Image credit: Getty)

Opeth mainman Mikael Akerfeldt says he’s nostalgic for the music of his youth as much of the metal scene is currently “saturated.”

Akerfeldt is an avid collector of vinyl – and recently revealed he has a mental list of classic albums he’s on the lookout for.

And he reports that the direction of metal is gradually moving away from his tastes, and thinks that older music has more identity than current musical trends.

He tells Metal Wani: “I think the metal scene is saturated. Even if I think it’s true, I don’t think it’s suffering at all from it. It goes in waves, or in circles. All of sudden, a retro sound is popular again and everybody’s, like, ‘This is so fucking cool,’ because it sounds like Black Sabbath. Or the djent thing.

“I don’t know where it’s going to go, but I believe it’s probably going to go in the direction where I don’t necessarily want to listen to it.”

He continues: “I like the old. I’m always talking about old music. I am very nostalgic about it but I also think it was so much easier back in those days with the identities of bands – the bands that I grew up with. It was so easy to tell them apart. There was a lot of bands, but not as many as today.

“They didn’t sound the same at all and now the scene is bigger than ever, but the ideas are just one small little ball of sounds that a lot of people utilise.”

Earlier this week, Akerfeldt revealed he was in a rap band with Katatonia vocalist Jonas Renkse and told Metal Hammer he’s in a “metal gentleman’s club” with members of Entombed AD and Grand Magus.

Opeth are currently on the road in North America in support of their 12th album Sorceress.

Opeth tour dates 2016⁄2017

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
Feb 06: Sydney Opera House, Australia

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Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.