Opeth unveil new single ‘§3’ from forthcoming album ‘The Last Will & Testament’

Swedish prog titans OPETH will be releasing their 14^th studio album, “The Last Will & Testament,” on October 11, 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music / Moderbolaget! Following the critical acclaim of their first single, the band is now revealing the second offering from the record, “§3,” which can be heard at HERE.

900k Spotify listeners, 500M cross-platform streams, 1M+ albums sold, multiple #1 albums, Swedish Grammy wins and numerous multiple world tours – OPETH are one of the most important bands in metal music. Their unique sound and compelling storytelling made them a genre leader and highly respected artists among musicians and audiences alike.  

OPETH’s frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt comments, “So put yourself in my position for a minute: Your band has this new album. You like it. In fact, you love it! It’s got this elaborate concept running through all 8 songs on there. You’ve written it over the timespan of say 6 months, effective time. You’ve invested a lot of passion into putting it together. You’ve recorded it together with your friends/colleagues. You’ve had a good time in the process. Now, said album is on the verge of being released and you’re expected to talk about it. Prepare your audience for its coming. Talk it up! You do want people to hear it, right? You love the album so it should be easy, right? At this point, all you have to do is put together a few words for the new ‘single’. But you’re confused with the use of the term “single”, as you connect it to the olden days where ‘singles’ often had the word ‘hit’ next to it. And you know that won’t happen! Still you want people to hear it. Your loving ‘fans’ might think it’s awesome. But you don’t want to come across as a salesman. On top of that you’re not a complete self-absorbed asshole who thinks you’ve got the Midas touch (well….). Also you have a bad case of that inborn Swedish modesty, sprinkled with some impostor syndrome. What do you say? ‘§3 is out now!’”

Listen To “§3” HERE

Pre-Order ‘The Last Will & Testament’ HERE

OPETH‘s fourteenth album was written by Åkerfeldt, with lyrics conferred with Klara Rönnqvist Fors (The Heard, ex-Crucified Barbara). “The Last Will & Testament” was co-produced by Åkerfeldt and Stefan Boman (Ghost, The Hellacopters), engineered by Boman, Joe Jones (Killing Joke, Robert Plant), and OPETH, with Boman, Åkerfeldt, and the rest of the band mixing at Atlantis and Hammerthorpe Studios in Stockholm. The strings on “The Last Will & Testament” were arranged by Åkerfeldt and Dave Stewart (Egg, Khan) and conducted by Stewart at Angel Studios in London. Not one to miss a beat, visual artist Travis Smith returns to the fold, crafting his 11^th cover, a haunting “photograph” reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s infamous “Overlook Hotel” photograph. Miles Showell (ABBA, Queen) also revisits mastering and vinyl lacquer cutting at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Åkerfeldt rolls out the red carpet for storied flutist and Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson. Not only do Anderson‘s signature notes fly on ‘§4’ and ‘§7’, he narrates on ‘§1,’ ‘§2,’ ‘§4,’ and ‘§7’. Joining Anderson, Europe‘s Joey Tempest lends a backing vocal hand on ‘§2,’ while Åkerfeldt‘s youngest daughter, Mirjam Åkerfeldt, is the disembodied voice in ‘§1’.

“The Last Will & Testament” is gripping from start to finish, jaw-dropping inside and out, representing some of OPETH‘s finest material to date. Just as OPETH welcomed many into its distressed arms over the years, the Swedes again deliver on the promise that great music always tells a compelling story – this time with growls we had not heard since the 2008 “Watershed”.

OPETH will celebrate the release of “The Last Will and Testament” with headlining tours in North America, the UK, and Europe! The full itinerary can be found below while tickets are now on sale HERE.

OPETH European Tour Dates 2025
with special guests GRAND MAGUS

9 Feb: Helsinki (FI) @ Ice Hall
11 Feb: Stockholm (SE) @ Cirkus
12 Feb: Oslo (NO) @ Sentrum Scene
14 Feb: Copenhagen (DK) @ DR Koncerthuset
15 Feb: Hamburg (DE) @ Docks
17 Feb: Cologne (DE) @ Palladium
18 Feb: Berlin (DE) @ Tempodrom
19 Feb: Munich (DE) @ Muffathalle
21 Feb: Paris (DR) @ L’Olympia
22 Feb: Amsterdam (NL) @ AFAS Live
23 Feb: Brussels (BE) @ Ancienne Belgique
25 Feb: Bristol (UK) @ Bristol Beacon
26 Feb: London (UK) @ Roundhouse
28 Feb: Birmingham (UK) @ Symphony Hall
1 Mar: Manchester (UK) @ Albert Hall
2 Mar: Glasgow (UK) @ Barrowland

More than three decades into their career, OPETH have trained their admirers to expect the unexpected. But even by their own standards, the Swedish progressive titans have conjured something extraordinary this time around. The band’s 14^th studio exploration, “The Last Will & Testament,” is the darkest and heaviest record they have made in decades, it is also the most fearlessly progressive. A concept album recounting the reading of one recently deceased man’s will to an audience of his surviving family members, it brims with haunting melodrama, shocking revelations and some of the wildest and most unpredictable music that songwriter/frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt has ever written. 

“I have become quite interested in family, and the idea that blood is not always thicker than water,” Åkerfeldt explains. “I became interested in how family members can turn on each other. I saw an interview with this guy whose family had all turned against him, over the inheritance, so I wrote a song about that on the last record. The idea stuck with me, and then along came the TV show Succession, and I loved that series. That was in the back of my head too. It felt like an interesting topic that you could twist and turn a little bit.”

The follow-up to 2019’s widely acclaimed “In Cauda Venenum,” “The Last Will & Testament” is set in the shadowy, sepia-stained 1920s. It slowly reveals its secrets like some classic thriller from the distant, cobwebbed past, with each successive song shining more light on the stated machinations of our dead (but definitely not harmless) protagonist. The emotional chaos of the story is perfectly matched by OPETH’s vivid but claustrophobic soundtrack, which artfully winds its way towards a crestfallen but sumptuous finale. Masters of their own idiosyncratic musical domain, OPETH have never sounded more unique.

“I knew I could go a bit overboard and wild with the music, a bit heavier and a bit more metal, maybe, because I felt it would fit the concept, which is dark and kind of complex. You might dabble with the occult in your youth and write songs about Satan, but this felt like I could make a story about real evil, and about human behavior. It felt like the music for this concept should be on the heavier side of things. It’s a pretty heavy topic.”

Proud adherents to a progressive ethos, OPETH have never repeated themselves, and “The Last Will & Testament” is every bit as revelatory and adventurous as its 13 predecessors. But one thing is undeniable: Mikael Åkerfeldt’s peerless death metal growls are back, for the first time since “Watershed” in 2008.

“I like to be unfashionable, in a way,” grins Åkerfeldt. “So, when it comes to bringing that kind of death metal vocal back, I wanted it to happen when people had stopped caring… and I guess that’s now! Maybe it’s a bit surprising, but we did some anniversary type shows, and we played lots of old songs, and I just thought that my death metal voice sounded good. There’s also been a little push because of our new drummer, Walt. He’s a death metal guy. Mendez (Opeth bassist) has been a bit of a horse whisperer, too, saying ‘Maybe you should do something heavier this time…’ In the end I just thought, yeah, let’s give it a try.”

“The Last Will & Testament” is destined to be a milestone in OPETH’s illustrious recorded history. The band’s first out-and-out concept record, it features guest cameos from Jethro Tull legend Ian Anderson and Joey Tempest, frontman with Swedish rock gods Europe. Only one of the album’s eight songs has a title: closing ballad ‘A Story Never Told.’ The rest are simply labelled as numbered chapters in this slowly unfolding saga of deceit, recrimination and betrayal. Enigmatic, unsettling and immersive, “The Last Will & Testament” is a turbulent, prog-metal tale like no other.

Lineup:
Mikael Åkerfeldt – Vocals, guitars
Fredrik Åkesson – Guitars, backing vocals
Martin Mendez – Bass guitar
Waltteri Väyrynen – Drums and percussion
Joakim Svalberg – Keyboards, backing vocals

Strings arrangement by Mikael Åkerfeldt and Dave Stewart

Artwork by Travis Smith with directions from Mikael Åkerfeldt