In the often rigid world of metal, where many bands pride themselves on never changing course, Opeth stands apart. With each new album, the Swedish group has challenged expectations, sometimes dividing fans but always following their own creative instincts. Frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt summed up this mindset plainly in a recent interview with Brazil‘s Monsters Of Rock TV:
“I don’t really pay too much attention to our roots, to be honest. They are there regardless of whether I want it or not, so I don’t really have to think about that kinds of things. I think that some of our fans would probably disagree and say that we have abandoned our roots, and to some extent, I suppose that’s true, but the kind of core of our sound from the beginning wasn’t to attach ourselves to a specific sound, or — how do you say? — a specific direction. It was always — the idea was always [to keep] evolving.”
From the earliest days of the band, Åkerfeldt recalls wanting the freedom to explore, without restrictions or expectations.
“I remember from early on that we talked amongst ourselves in the early incarnation of the band that it would be great if we could be one of those bands who could do anything we want,” he explained. “Even when we did the first album, I was 19 years old, but I had already started dabbling in death metal music. I was heavily into progressive rock. I was into singer-songwriter music. I had bought myself a couple of jazz records, a couple of fusion records, some classical music, all sorts of stuff. And I felt early on it would be impossible for me to carry on being in a band if I couldn’t allow myself to write music without boundaries.”
That attitude set the tone for Opeth’s career—a journey marked by reinvention and creative risk. Åkerfeldt makes it clear: no one, not even fans, dictates where the band goes musically.
“And who’s gonna set boundaries for us? I mean, nobody’s in that position. And in the early days, we didn’t even have fans. From the very beginning, we were thinking we could do whatever we wanted. There were no references. It was just us trying to put together music that we liked. And pretty early on, we started shifting. I mean, the first album is similar to the second, but then we made a shift, and then after that we made another shift, and then later on we made another shift. And it always evolved. And I always liked that.”
For Åkerfeldt, staying the same was never the point. Growth was.
“For me, I don’t believe in staying true to the roots, because those roots don’t really exist in the same way in our band as they do in maybe some other bands. I don’t know. Our roots have always been to evolve.”
That commitment to evolution hasn’t gone unnoticed. This March, Opeth won the “Best Hard Rock/Metal” category at the Swedish Grammys awards, a recognition that signals the band’s relevance well into its third decade.
While some listeners might yearn for their earlier sound, Opeth has always pushed boundaries. This approach when you think about it, might be the most genuine way to stay true to their beginnings.
