The Wake

This summer I had the opportunity to take a time out of a day working at Sherwin-Williams and talk to Opeth co-founder, guitarist Peter Lindgren. For those shamefully unaware of Opeth (and if you are unaware of them, you should be ashamed!), Opeth has been one of the biggest forces in metal in recent years. They have combined the brutality of death metal with soft, melancholic parts, to create something that could only be Opeth. However, on the bands most recent album Damnation, they explore more fully the soft progressive elements of their music, leaving out all death metal. We began by talking about the band’s latest effort Damnation.

In the past Opeth, has written albums with average song lengths of around eight minutes, while on Damnation they tend to clock in around five minutes. Is there any particular reason why you chose to do this?
Basically, just because the songs were written in the classical song structure. If they were fifteen minutes they would be really boring. It’s like, verse-chorus, verse-chorus. Classic. Actually they ended up longer than we thought. Some songs were seven minutes, so we figured that they were too long because nothing happens. For Damnation we needed songs that are more simple, that’s why we cut them short.

I understand Damnation and Deliverance (the band’s 2002 effort) were initially supposed to be released together?
Well, the idea was to have two separate CDs, but release them at the same time. But the record label opposed that. They thought it would be confusing for the fans. They wanted to promote them differently, put them out with six months between them. I think that is a good idea actually, like back in the seventies when bands released albums every half year. The fans get one album, and then they don’t have to wait so long for the next one. We were all glad that we were able to tour for Deliverance first, and then start with Damnation.

There is a strong 1970s rock feel that I pick up on Damnation; how deliberate is this?
Yes, it’s intentional, definitely. This album is actually a tribute to all our influences that are a bit harder to put into our music regularly when we have the heavy stuff. We wanted it to sound like it was recorded in the seventies, too — really simple actually. We tried to keep everything as simple as possible. The drum kit was basically a jazz kit. We wanted for people to have the impression that we actually put it out twenty-five years ago, maybe even thirty years.

Since Orchid in 1995, Opeth has been hard to define, but has always been metal. Do you consider Damnation metal?
(laughs) Well, it’s not a metal album. We are a metal band, but we put out an album that is probably not metal. It’s more like singer-songwriter; Pink Floyd, kind of mixed in — rock, I guess. We are a metal band, but this album I wouldn’t consider metal.

As a band, have you been thinking of what’s next creatively?
Yes and no. We are going to be touring for this year and we are not even starting writing new material until next year. Recording is going to take place after that. So we’ll not even start recording within a year almost. We’re not going to do a new Damnation album, which people are asking us if we’re going to do, but we’re not. We’re not going to abandon double kick drums and everything. We’ve been touring so much we need to have a break from the band and then we seem to have time to continue. We’re probably going to have that, but now we feel a little bit tired with everything, so we have to have a break before we even consider the next move. But it’s not going to be another Damnation; we’re going to record one album, that’s for sure, at least.

In the metal community, Opeth is considered one of the top bands. I personally consider your Blackwater Park album one of the top ten metal albums of all time. Do you believe you deserve these accolades?
I do, yes, actually (laughs). Well, especially when you consider, nowadays I don’t think there are too many really great metal bands. There used to be a lot. I don’t know if we’re top ten, but I think we are a really good band. Especially when you consider what’s out there, considering what’s on the Billboard Top Ten. There are a lot of shitty bands that sell a lot of records today, that don’t deserve it. So, we deserve what we have coming (laughs).

What do you hope to accomplish in the end with Opeth?
When I look back at our career, I want to be satisfied with what we have done. I don’t want us to look back and say, “Oh we gave it away there and we sold out at that point.” I think if we can look back and are proud of everything we have done, like record-wise, for example; all of the material that we have done has got class. Then I think we could be happy. I think so far we are really proud of everything that we have done so far. All the albums are good in their way. So if we still continue to improve all the time, I think we can be proud of ourselves. If I look back and say, “Shit, we should have quit twenty years earlier than we did,” then I won’t be proud, but we are going to try to quit when we are around the top.

Peter, as a guitarist, who have been your prime influences?
When I started playing, Kirk Hammet [Metallica] was my idol. Now, when I learned a bit more about guitars, I figured out that maybe he wasn’t the greatest guitar player. I still like him though. One of my idols, actually, is Eddie Van Halen. He’s one of the greatest guitar players of all time.

How do you think being Swedish has influenced the creative output of Opeth?
Sweden, especially during wintertime, is really dark. You never see the sun. SO that might have an influence on us, because we really like depressed and melancholic music. It might have something to do with that we live up north and it’s cold during winter. If you go down south, they like dance and talk and everything; we’re more quiet. So I guess that has an influence on us. Then I guess darkness and cold have something to do with our melancholy. I’m not saying that we’re depressed; I’m just saying that the music that we like is always melancholic.