Opeth has been around for 35 years at this point. They've got 14 albums under their belt alongside a slew of bonus tracks, non-album singles, and all that. Which means that Opeth mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt has got to have an opinion on what their worst song is, right? Of course he does.
In an interview with Revolver, Åkerfeldt names the Deliverance closer "By the Pain I See in Others" as his least favorite Opeth song. Åkerfeldt notes that he was burning himself out to write new material in the studio, and "By the Pain I See in Others" was the last thing he wrote amid some stress-related health issues.
"Probably a song called 'By the Pain I See in Others,' which is an obscure song on the Deliverance record," said Åkerfeldt. "I didn't have a single song when we went in to record that album, so everything was written in the studio.
"Basically, I was writing music at night, and we would record it during the day. By the end, of course I was fucked. I was so tired. I got sick after the recording, just completely burnt out. My shit turned gray. I had to go to the doctor and get blood tests. I think that might've been the last song I put together for that record, and you can tell.
"It's such a tired song. It's not good. We played it live a couple of times, and it was surprisingly fun to play live. But it's not fun to listen to, I think."
Alternatively, Åkerfeldt discussed Opeth's most underrated record of all time. Åkerfeldt named Opeth's 2011 record Heritage as their most underrated, which isn't surprise – that was the first Opeth record not to have any growls and of course fans were pissed off.
"I don't know how our albums are rated in the grand scheme of things, but I still probably think Heritage is underrated. We got so much flak for it, so I figure it's hated. I know a lot of people now love that record, but it wasn't popular at the time.
"To me, it's special because I don't think we could write another record even remotely similar to it if we tried. I remember talking to Erik [Danielsson] from Watain — he doesn't like Opeth, but he likes that album. A lot of black-metal people like that record for some reason. But many of our fans didn't understand it or just thought it sucked. So, I think it's underrated. But many of our records are a bit overrated."
