MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT Discusses His Colourful Track Titles & The Time He Unintentionally Wrote A Poop Lyric

Opeth mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt is broadly celebrated not just for his musical prowes, but additionally for his richly expressive and infrequently enigmatic lyrics. Identified for weaving uncommon and evocative language into his songwriting, Åkerfeldt approaches lyrics as an artwork kind in itself.

In a latest interview with Sinusoidal Music, Åkerfeldt opened up about his enduring love of phrases and his drive to make Opeth‘s titles and lyrics as visually and sonically hanging because the music itself.

“Effectively, I type of stopped that course of now with the final album as a result of [they’re all named paragraph numbers]. I imply, to me, it is similar to… the aesthetics whenever you have a look at a music title, they’ve all the time been vital to me. I’ve all the time been drawn to these perhaps not-so-common phrases. I am like a little bit of an Anglophile in that sense.

“I bought a lot inspiration from movie, albums, and different bands. Simply decide up an Iron Maiden report, as an illustration. Or simply the title ‘Iron Maiden‘ — like, what’s that? That is superior. Little did I do know it is a torture gadget. I simply type of checked out lovely phrases and checked out the that means.”

Åkerfeldt additionally mirrored on a lyrical misfire in Opeth‘s “The Night time And The Silent Water Lyrics” that reads “Lonely cesspools / Relics of the moon-dogged lake / Whisper, ‘All of your phrases are misgiven.” saying it isn’t fairly what he meant.

“Through the years, I’ve made just a few errors the place I assumed a phrase meant one thing, and it meant one thing utterly totally different. I bear in mind I wrote some lyric that was purported to be lovely lyric — I am unable to bear in mind which music—however the lyric was like: ‘lonely cesspools.’

“And the label on the time was like, ‘Lonely? Like, lonely cess… like, lonely holes of shit?’ I used to be like, ‘No, is that what—?’ You already know, it was type of… I do not know. It was simply not what I needed to jot down, so to talk.

“However yeah, I similar to to experiment with language. And there are not any guidelines. Not even grammar. I do not actually concentrate. Like, I would like it to be right, however I permit myself to fuck with the grammar — to make it look or sound bizarre. You already know, freedom. Inventive freedom.”