How Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt Learned to Scream

hey guys Michael from opeth here you're watching loud wire [Applause] [Music] when did you decide that you wanted to start singing in a metal style and to start singing gutturals like what influenced you to do that Wow napalm death you know oh my god I was sitting you know for me I'm born in 74 so it makes me for 45 years old and I grew up with a new way British heavy metal that kind of stuff and it was like a evolution of sword she wanted heavier faster yeah more extreme and of course you had the speed and thrash metal scene and along comes the early the black metal scene and then the death knell scene and at that point when I got into death metal I was 14 15 years old yeah and I was just learning you know a few licks on the guitar and I think I could do that I could do you know you suffer by napalm death to second song you know just there you didn't necessarily have to be on the right fret you know just make noise you know that's how it started and I always want it to be a really good lead guitar play like Yngwie Malmsteen style that's that was my really yeah that's what I want but I never you know I never practice I never got there yes and nobody else in the band at the time when I started with my first band eruption nobody wanted to be the singer and I was like well I guess I I'll be the singer at that and then because I couldn't really sing like Celine Dion you know I tried to do the the screams instead we did misfits covers with that set all the misfits songs and do you do a good Danzig no too juvenile of a voice like okay a bit too young yeah I didn't have the whoa-ho look at that but we did that you know that type of stuff and then I found my own voice I didn't know if I did it the right way I didn't know if I had a technique until we recorded the first album because that's the only time I got feedback from somebody who knew what it's supposed to sound like in a studio and that was Don Swan who did that first album yes and he said wow that's the most insane death metal vocals I've heard no you don't say I didn't know you're a big fan of David Vincent's yeah voice was he a big influence on how you developed your guttural yeah are there only influence among humans well not human chuckle dinner I was like the kind of piggy sounds of Chris Rafferty oh yeah autopsy a life like that stuff quarts ambassador he was big for me but Vincent was the best because you could hear what he was what he was saying basically yeah I met him the other day you know he he was wearing but I love Dave you know is I met him a couple of times and I can't remember if I was said to him that he's number one yeah he is the best I think that's fact almost it's not like a matter of taste you can't dispute that like yeah he's the king king of death it's pretty awesome he is yeah so do you remember back when you started to develop it were you the kind of person to like hide yourself in a room and kind of tried to get like no no no I just I mean I based my technique on not hearing what I'm doing I think because you're in the we didn't use their plugs in those days no no we had an old 70s PA that we got from a Swedish like legendary Swedish punk band called epigram that we had another in our rehearsal space I mean we didn't really have a rehearsal space we just borrowed you know a place and carried everything to to be able to rehearse so the technique is based on trying to cut through the noise yeah and a lot of it based on not hearing what the I'm sorry now you can say yeah if not not know it like hearing what you're doing so I didn't know what what my technique was but I learned after a while that it wasn't there was a sense of economy to how I don't kind of ruin my voice yeah in that sense so I have that techniques not so high in volume you know it's it sure it's pretty low in volume but it sounds like beast you know if I get it right but it wasn't until we started recording then I could see that it actually sounds good with a good sound - wow that's awesome you didn't even really know what it sounded like while you were doing it no so you were pleasantly surprised when you heard it back yeah I liked it and also I'll still do that with the clean vocals - I want to sound like someone else basically I don't want to hear me in the mix I want to listen to a band that I'm not involved in so I can listen that's a fam if you know what I mean yeah yeah and so that with the screaming vocals that was much easier of course because you know I don't sound like that and with the clean vocals I try to you know reach those types of levels of the people that I admire and those are all great singers and I'm not racing I'm just trying to sound like someone else we're trying to sound like anyone in particular on this new record well I ended up finding a voice that I think sounds good because it's I'm singing really over my abilities you know a singing higher than I can and that in style is you know you get that frustrated sound which I like in my voice if you know what I mean but my idols are there the the good good stuff you know like Ronnie Dio Paul Rodgers those types of it has the Blues in you know blues background but then I also like to sing a song righteous tonight like Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell and Coverdell of Cora David Coverdale yeah those types of gifts though I'm not very big on the power metal like that sure no I don't know that sounds a bit silly to me so I want that type of I guess a man's voice yeah and especially if they have that blue sea routes oh yeah I really like that awesome Michael thank you so much for talking to me today Cheers encounter venom is our new record that's right September 27th pick it up Cheers [Music]

Channel: Loudwire

Views: 356,924

Keywords: opeth, mikael akerfeldt, loudwire, interview, gutturals, death metal, death metal vocals, napalm death, morbid angel, chuck schuldiner, in cauda venenum, new album, brutal death metal, learned to scream, how to scream

Id: 2UHy_XbSDtI

Length: 7min 3sec (423 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 11 2019