It's been over a year since Opeth released their no-death-metal-only-prog opus Heritage. The band has toured the globe, so what's left?
Apparently, more touring, and most likely in North America.
Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt spoke to RoadrunnerRecords.com about the future plans of the band, and Mikael revealed that the band is working on a new North American tour
Your tour ends December 9; what are your plans for 2013? Will you be returning to the US, or will you be writing again?
Yeah, we’re probably returning. We still have a few details to work out, but we were supposed to be in the US in the fall and we didn’t do it, so we’re gonna be in the US in the spring, I think. But it’s not completely settled yet, so I’m not sure—I can’t say 100 percent that we’re gonna be there. But 90 percent sure, we’re going on a North American tour, which will be the last lengthy tour that we do for this record. We’re also doing a few shows down in Australia and Japan and perhaps South America and some summer festivals as well, but generally it’s gonna wind down after May of next year.
I always welcome seeing Opeth live. On their initial run supporting Heritage, the band chose a more "mellow" set, leaving behind any songs that had growls in them. Fans were worried this would be a permanent change, but elsewhere in the interview, Mikael gives me hope we'll hear some of the band's heavier material:
To some extent, I suppose, we aim to please when we play live, but it depends on what we’re doing. Like on the first couple of legs of this tour, we were really consistent in playing a lot of new material and songs that fit together with the new songs. So that, obviously, ended up with us not playing many of the more brutal songs, or heavier songs. But it depends. We’re a bit stubborn. We don’t really go out there and just play the hits, you know; we want to feel that it’s relevant, and whenever you tour, you’re touring for a new record, you’re promoting a record, so we try to focus a little bit on that record when we tour. But today [Wednesday, November 21] is show number 149 for the Heritage tour, and it’s not a brand new record anymore. So we’re mixing it up a lot more on this tour. We’re playing really heavy songs, and songs from Heritage of course, and some softer songs. And on top of that, obviously, we have the so-called “mellow” set that we’re doing.
Calm down Opeth fans! He was just not growling because it didn't fit in with the new songs. This gets me even more excited to see the band in 2013.
