The Latest Breaking News from Mikael Åkerfeldt

“I’m a Nirvana fan, but it was just a regular guitar to me”: Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt left unimpressed by Kurt Cobain’s “haunted” Martin acoustic

Åkerfeldt got a chance to play the late Nirvana frontman’s 1953 D-18, aka Grandpa, in a recent visit to the Martin Museum

MusicRadar · Feb 11, 2025

“It didn’t feel that good. There was nothing special about it, other than it had belonged to Kurt Cobain.” Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt wasn’t impressed when he got to play the Nirvana frontman’s guitar

The Opeth mainman admits he wasn’t that wowed when he recently got his hands on Kurt Cobain’s “haunted” guitar

Metal Hammer · Feb 10, 2025

“Someone told us that guitar was haunted – people who had it had accidents. I’m a Nirvana fan, but it was just a regular guitar to me”: Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt said the Martin museum felt like the “Holy Land,” but one guitar he played there left him cold

Åkerfeldt was decidedly more moved when handed a 19th century Martin, a guitar so pristine he was scared to play it

Guitar World · Feb 3, 2025

“We did ask him… he replied, ‘You can’t afford me!’” Steven Wilson didn’t work on Opeth’s new album, but Ian Anderson did – while fans are still processing the return of growl vocals after 16 years

Mikael Åkerfeldt and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson regret that people focus so much on one element of their sound, when there’s so much more to The Last Will And Testament

Louder · Dec 26, 2024

The 10 best prog metal albums of 2024

Leprous, Opeth, Slift and others have presented some truly forward-thinking excellence this year

Metal Hammer · Dec 6, 2024

“I only asked for the spoken-word part, then an email comes in – ‘Do you need some flute?’ I wasn’t going to say no!” How Opeth’s The Last Will And Testament wound up featuring Ian Anderson, Joey Tempest and growled vocals

Mikael Åkerfeldt insists his band’s new concept album, featuring Jethro Tull and Europe men, is no return to their death metal past – and won’t keep prog fans away

Louder · Nov 22, 2024

“Mikael Åkerfeldt’s growls sound suitably deep… he hasn’t lost any power. And there’s much more than menace to his performance”: Opeth’s The Last Will And Testament

Family drama, a pair of prog legends and even the bloke who sang The Final Countdown… Swedish prog metal kings have made a concept album like no other

Louder · Nov 22, 2024

"A tremendous album, up there with their turn-of-the-millennium high-water marks": Opeth return to extremity on the inventive The Last Will And Testament

Succession meets Edgar Allan Poe on prog metal kingpins Opeth's fascinating fourteenth album

Louder · Nov 21, 2024

“I wouldn’t normally be caught dead with a Tele because I think they’re ugly, but that’s the only guitar I used”: Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt and Fredrik Åkesson on their love of “stupid riffs,” and “recapturing that old death metal magic”

Opeth may have returned in a way to their sonic roots on their new album, The Last Will And Testament, but – with appearances from a Neal Schon signature model and a “not very metal” trick picked up from Eddie Van Halen – there are still plenty of quirks to…

Guitar World · Nov 21, 2024

"This is Opeth’s best since the career-making heights of Blackwater Park and Ghost Reveries." The Last Will And Testament is Opeth at their most groundbreakingly brilliant

Opeth go Miss Marple via Edgar Allen Poe on the prog-death-jazz metal odyssey that is The Last Will And Testament

Metal Hammer · Nov 19, 2024