The Prog’s Bollocks

Ten years in, Swedish prog metallers Opeth were tired of toiling in obscurity. Then Blackwater Park put them on the map and changed extreme metal forever

RICH HOBSON

PRESS PRESS When Mikael Åkerfeldt joined Opeth in 1990, his head was filled with dreams. Though he gorged on a diet of death metal and “hopelessly obscure” prog records, he spent his formative years starry eyed as heavy metal conquered the world one stadium at a time. But 10 years later, Opeth weren’t conquering stadiums – they weren’t even winning over pubs. “Our first headline show was at the White Horse in High Wycombe – it was like Bad News, an old guy and his dog showed up!” Mikael says. It was 2001 and Opeth were working on album number five, their previous albums having achieved a positive critical reception and earning them a cult reputation for boundary-pushing extreme metal. As nice as that was, it didn’t compete with Mikael’s…

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Metal Hammer UK (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2021

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