“I was a wreck, physically and mentally. I wanted to cancel shows, split up the band, all these kind of things”: Aiming to make a “super-heavy record,” Opeth embraced the Mellotron and made Damnation instead

Opeth.

After years spent wandering the dark caves of the extreme-metal underworld, with 2003’s Damnation album – awash with that most un-metal instrument the Mellotron – Opeth emerged into the light with leader and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt now flying the flag of a card-carrying progressive rock fan. Ahead of the album’s 20th-anniversary reissue, Prog spoke to him about a record he says was “a normal prog-rock record, but for Opeth was completely new and unique.”

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