Opeth share backstage Wembley Arena video

A picture of Opeth
Opeth

Opeth have shared a behind-the-scenes promo for their biggest ever UK headline show at London’s SSE Wembley Arena.

The video shows the Swedish band sound-checking, meeting fans backstage and receiving plaques from venue bosses to mark their milestone performance last month.

Frontman Mikael Akerfeldt recently reported that the crowd’s reaction to their new album Sorceress has been overwhelmingly positive on tour. He’d previously admitted that Opeth deal with a lot of criticism for moving away from the extreme, heavy-metal sound of their earlier years.

Last month he said: “If we would have never changed, and kept all the ingredients from the first album intact and were still doing that 20-odd years later, I’m not sure if people would be any happier.

“That’s not even an issue, because that’s not going to happen. Because the essence of Opeth isn’t death-metal vocals. The essence of Opeth is change.”

But Akerfeldt said last week that “The new songs go down really well,” adding: “It’s one of the first times I can remember that people on this tour are yelling out for songs the new record.

“Normally when you play live, they’re yelling out for songs you did 15 years ago. It’s nice. They’ve actually listened to the record and liked it.”

Opeth will tour Australia and New Zealand in February 2017, followed by a spring tour with Gojira.

Opeth tour dates 2017

Feb 02: Auckland Power Station, New Zealand
Feb 04: Fortitude Valley Tivoli, New Zealand
Feb 06: Sydney Opera House, Australia
Feb 07-08: Melbourne 170 Russell, Australia
Feb 10:Torrensville Thebarton Theatre, Australia
Feb 11: Northbridge Metro City, Australia
May 06: Philadelphia Electric Factory, PA
May 07: Sayreville Starland Ballroom, NJ
May 09: Chicago Vic Theatre, IL
May 11: Morrison Red Rocks Amphitheatre, CO
May 12: Kansas City Arvest Bank Theatre, MO
May 13: Indianapolis old National Centre, IN
Jun 09: Download Festival, UK
Jun 18: Clisson Hellfest, France
Jun 22: Madrid Magic Box, Spain

Mikael Akerfeldt: The essence of Opeth is change

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.