Were you finally able to ask him bout the influence of Claudio Marciello in his guitar playing? Especially his guitar work on Almafuerte's 'Del Entorno' album. Greetings!
Fredrik's so effortlessly cool. He walked into a jam room at JP's Guitar Universe and proceeded to just start jamming metal classics with random people late into the night.
Any effort to be cool automatically diminishes the amount you are cool. So if you want to be cool, you can't try to be cool. So just accept that you aren't cool, and then you can be cool. It's actually pretty cool if you think about it.
Fredrik is a great guy !! I met him for the first time 25 years ago, when he played as guest at a John Norum's gig somewhere in the swedish woods. The next day we met up in Upplands Väsby and he invited me and a bunch of friends over to his house, played a couple of demos he was working on, then we went for a beer. I've been a fan ever since.
Fredrik is awesome, i had the pleasure of meeting him at a guitar con in germany this year. he took the time to listen to my fan rambling and gifted me a plectrum, great guy
I am very much happy. To see this interview. I can't fathom that Åkesson has been in the band for 18 years. I was late to the party around Ghost Reveries time and loved Lindgren's style, wondered if Åkesson really fits the band when he came in. It was more about the composition and the style of Opeth in that time than Åkesson I quickly learned. I was just turning 18 myself at that time. Now Åkesson has matched that age and proven me wrong. I loved his work on Ghost album as well, that's where I really saw his different faces than just being the new Opeth guitarist, saw more of who's Åkesson. Just recently a friend gave his thought about the new album and said it's good because it has growling. It annoys me so much how Damnation was deemed really good album but then the newer albums were bad because they didn't have growling. I can't understand it. Mikael's clean voice is fantastic and growling didn't fit that music. The new album isn't good because it has growling, it's good because the music kicks ass and growling happens to fit it. Please don't dumb down one of the most exciting metal bands into growling. What I love about the new album is how the individual songs were nice but not that awesome. But when the album was released, I play the album through and they become one and bring each other up and when the album ends I always think "wow that was a short time, what a short album" yet I look at the track list and see 7 minute songs. I've heard that it's not even rare to have the outlet voltage slightly high compared to what the products are designed for back when the grid wasn't as good and also some places in Europe having 230 V and some 240 V, and that 10 % making a difference. Exactly about that high frequency shizzle and harshness. Dave Friedman has talked about things like this and that Eddie's voltage choking in Tone-Talk podcast they do. In fact they should invite Åkesson as a guest. I'm sure he would love to hear about what Friedman knows about Eddie's tricks on the amp side and just nerd out gear and talk about Van Halen and other 80's players.
The outro solo on a story never told is insane. And the tone, THE TONE! The tone actually reminds me of Jason Becker and that era of lead guitar. Great stuff.
A person of fine taste and culture! I thought the same. Jason Becker is definitely what came to mind with how the tone and the way he was playing sounded like.
I absolutely love the new album, it gets better with each listen. But I hope that In Cauda Venenum (& its B-Sides) won't get overlooked in retrospective considering the popularity of The Last Will and Testament, especially when I look at the last tour's setlist (they didn't play one single song of that album). For me ICV is the pinnacle of their career so far (as much as I adore everything from Blackwater Park to Watershed). The songs are so well written, with many surprises which at the same time don't feel forced, the vocal melodies are magnificent, Akesson's solos are incredible and Axe's performance is one of the best drum performances on an album in the 2010s in my opinion.
Waltteri Väyrynen is phenomenal drummer. He can play anything. From extreme death metal to really mellow folk songs and jazz too. Excellent choice for Opeth.
I also play my tube amplifiers naked, I didn't want to come out and say it but I appreciate you guys being open about this. Thank you for normalizing it. Fantastic interview as always!
Admired him for years. I loved that last ghost album and only found out he played on it after about 20 plays. When I googled it. Blew my mind. I hope to god Tobias gets him again for the next album. His playing on that ghost album was so Melodic and beautiful. Classic rock sound. Every track was a killer too.
About the amp voltage thing, sounds like he is describing a variac - A device that you in plug an amp into so you can crank it up and get the tubes really cooking while also allowing you to reduce the volume to a much more usable level.
Saw Fredrik live the first time with Arch Enemy in 2006, and I was actually upset when Chris returned because Fredrik was awesome with them. So then I was really happy when when he joined Opeth :)
Älskar trevliga människor, träffade Mikael Åkerfeldt på en flygplats i Bukarest. Såg dom dagen innan på Rockstadt Festival i Transsylvanien, så sinnessjukt bra. Sett Opeth ett par gånger under åren. Bästa konserten var i Göteborg 2008 när The Ocean öppnade med sin post-metal sludge.
Saw them last month and it was absolutely epic. I hyped myself up a lot since I bought the tickets 5 months or so in advance and it was still better than I could've hoped for. 6 rows back right in front of Mendez and loved every second of it. Setlist was so fucking good, everyone in the band was locked in, plus Mikael's between song banter was as good as ever. Waltteri doing windmills while Mikael was screaming "the Grand Conjuration" was a little moment that was sick af. Plus I know I'd just get my hair tangled around the sticks if I tried that.
The amp may sound more distorted with lower voltage because this reduces what we call "headroom" in a tube, making the signal saturate earlier -- saturation, in this sense, means distortion. That's why you hear it more distorted, but notice that it also reduces the output power :)
Hello ! Tomorrow i will go to Honfleur in Normandy France. The last Opeth is so good. And it's cool because Fred really play on this record and it's fuckin good ! Cheers
My only problem is that while the new album is extremely good, the lack of "dwelling" on sections (like Frederik said) makes you constantly replay and crave for longer sections and thus I'm already in (years long) waiting mode for the next album. I just can't WAIT to see what this line-up featuring Walt is cooking up next. Growls or not, I think EVERY Opeth fan loves those long and dragged out sections. I can't really understand why they didn't at least give us ONE extended jam that builds the atmosphere a bit, because now it just feels like being sentenced to 2 - 3 years of waiting.
Such chill guy. It was interesting hearing him say it pissed him off that he couldn't rerecord the solos at the studio. I feel like his angry face and voice are probably the same as his normal, chill face and voice. lol
I think lowering amp voltage means upping the amperage for the same power. That means more amp component heat, so less longevity - but different sound since the quality of the electricity is different as it passes through the circuitry.
10:53 - after playing some local shows I was getting feeling that guys that are playing digital amps had great sound on soundcheck - after audience came guitars were always too quiet. Most of the bands that were using amps were other way around - the sound of guitars was audible or to loud. I guess you have to pick your poison xd
I WISH PARAGRAPH 5 OUTRO WAS DWELLED UPON MOOOOOORE. it is the best thing on the album and it stops right when it starts sorta deal. uugh i wish they fleshed that out for a minute. its soooo good with the vocals n all. only gripe with new album, but its a big one..because its so good! and sooo short:(
I'd love to see Fred's new prs...sounds very interesting...they should make s2 versions of their guitars, with the piezo system. I'd love that...I have a p22 and love it, would just love to have a p22 trem but it's too expensive for me...
Fred rips as a player and seems to be a cool guy. I do not see the new Opeth as a return to form like lots of people are saying though. It’s still got that “goofy” experimental feel they’ve been doing the last 15 years or so. There’s some cool stuff on those records and it’s not bad… just missing that old epic magic they used to have. Watershed and Ghost Reveries didn’t strike a major chord with me when they were released but have really grown on me over the years. Even Heritage was a fun departure, just can’t get down with anything that came later
Hey Ola if you are going to interview Martin Mendez call him “Bajero”, that's how we called him back in the 90s, and that means bass player but misspelled and the funny thing is that it gets confused with another word if you change the letter B for P (which I won't say what it means ✊🍆💦). 🤣🤣🤣
"[Amp sims] sound so sparkly..." I swear I'm doing something wrong, because most virtual amps I try -- IK and ML products in particular -- sound unusably dull and muffled, even with the treble all the way up and bass all the way down 😆
akerfeldt is awesome and a genius, but is it wrong to say i think fredrik is a better interview? i dunno you guys just seem to have a more effortless conversation.
Running low voltage on tube amp. That explains a lot, why I do not dig the guitar sound on the album. To be fair, those amps do not run that era of tubes, with material purity they got then thinking you use some vintage amp like great olds did and it was the same like then, no, get real. Any new replacemt tube will have different optimal running points and they are much worse than they were simply due to material purities, but randomly starwing them usually makes them sound even more bad, doing the oposite actually make some tubes run sonically better, like EL34, it opens up with higher voltage, just recheck operating point charts. Each amp can be tweaked at such degree with operating points there is no point comparing. While it is distortion and matter of taste, but it depends what kind of distortion, psychoacoustic theory still applies for anyone and that is the reason my ears say, something ain't right here.
I dont get why the growling is such a talking point, or a big deal. I think growling or not its fine, I found that because of the growling being a talking point I had a different expectation on how the music would sound, which sort of ruined the album for my first couple listens.
@@Radowitzki the way I interpreted it was that Mikael wanted to use the takes that Fredrik had made at his own home studio because more love and care had been put into them at that point than they would have been if re-recorded at the Rockfield Studios.
For some reason this was public for a while last week! Anyways here it is again
saw it indeed last week I think :) all the best Mr Englund! geetings
I thought that I had watched this before 😄 Lets watch again 🤘
I was thinking if I had watched this.
There is your like
Were you finally able to ask him bout the influence of Claudio Marciello in his guitar playing? Especially his guitar work on Almafuerte's 'Del Entorno' album. Greetings!
I watched it last week and couldn't comprehend why I couldn't leave a comment 😂😂
Fredrik's so effortlessly cool. He walked into a jam room at JP's Guitar Universe and proceeded to just start jamming metal classics with random people late into the night.
Any effort to be cool automatically diminishes the amount you are cool. So if you want to be cool, you can't try to be cool. So just accept that you aren't cool, and then you can be cool. It's actually pretty cool if you think about it.
@fadingdimension Yep, The Simpsons taught me that.
Fredrik is a great guy !! I met him for the first time 25 years ago, when he played as guest at a John Norum's gig somewhere in the swedish woods. The next day we met up in Upplands Väsby and he invited me and a bunch of friends over to his house, played a couple of demos he was working on, then we went for a beer. I've been a fan ever since.
Such an underrated guitar player. He rips and he knows how to dial in a hell of a guitar tone.
Fredrik is probably the most underrated guitarist in all of metal. He is such a fine musician.
❤
2024 Opeth tour was one of the best ever. Everything sounds great and the band was super happy.
Fredrik is awesome, i had the pleasure of meeting him at a guitar con in germany this year.
he took the time to listen to my fan rambling and gifted me a plectrum, great guy
I had the chance to meet Claudio Marciello once and then had a Barbecue with him and Iorio. What a day that was!
I am very much happy. To see this interview. I can't fathom that Åkesson has been in the band for 18 years. I was late to the party around Ghost Reveries time and loved Lindgren's style, wondered if Åkesson really fits the band when he came in. It was more about the composition and the style of Opeth in that time than Åkesson I quickly learned. I was just turning 18 myself at that time. Now Åkesson has matched that age and proven me wrong. I loved his work on Ghost album as well, that's where I really saw his different faces than just being the new Opeth guitarist, saw more of who's Åkesson.
Just recently a friend gave his thought about the new album and said it's good because it has growling. It annoys me so much how Damnation was deemed really good album but then the newer albums were bad because they didn't have growling. I can't understand it. Mikael's clean voice is fantastic and growling didn't fit that music. The new album isn't good because it has growling, it's good because the music kicks ass and growling happens to fit it. Please don't dumb down one of the most exciting metal bands into growling.
What I love about the new album is how the individual songs were nice but not that awesome. But when the album was released, I play the album through and they become one and bring each other up and when the album ends I always think "wow that was a short time, what a short album" yet I look at the track list and see 7 minute songs.
I've heard that it's not even rare to have the outlet voltage slightly high compared to what the products are designed for back when the grid wasn't as good and also some places in Europe having 230 V and some 240 V, and that 10 % making a difference. Exactly about that high frequency shizzle and harshness. Dave Friedman has talked about things like this and that Eddie's voltage choking in Tone-Talk podcast they do. In fact they should invite Åkesson as a guest. I'm sure he would love to hear about what Friedman knows about Eddie's tricks on the amp side and just nerd out gear and talk about Van Halen and other 80's players.
Fredrik is an amazing guitarist!
The outro solo on a story never told is insane. And the tone, THE TONE! The tone actually reminds me of Jason Becker and that era of lead guitar. Great stuff.
It's actually incredible mundane by Fred's lofty standards. Never really goes anywhere. Much like his Lovelorn solo that is massively overhyped.
@@Cheximus*restrained.. fixed for you 😉
A person of fine taste and culture! I thought the same. Jason Becker is definitely what came to mind with how the tone and the way he was playing sounded like.
"Drop a bag of potatoes" is my fav new way to describe crappy double bass
I absolutely love the new album, it gets better with each listen. But I hope that In Cauda Venenum (& its B-Sides) won't get overlooked in retrospective considering the popularity of The Last Will and Testament, especially when I look at the last tour's setlist (they didn't play one single song of that album). For me ICV is the pinnacle of their career so far (as much as I adore everything from Blackwater Park to Watershed). The songs are so well written, with many surprises which at the same time don't feel forced, the vocal melodies are magnificent, Akesson's solos are incredible and Axe's performance is one of the best drum performances on an album in the 2010s in my opinion.
Waltteri Väyrynen is phenomenal drummer. He can play anything. From extreme death metal to really mellow folk songs and jazz too. Excellent choice for Opeth.
I can't wait for an Åkesson solo album! Since I got onboard with Opeth he has become one of my favorite players. The new drummer is amazing as well.
I'd hoped for a part II since you had the first coffee with Fredrik, great to see him back and getting all gear nerdy and stuff!
The Last Will and Testament is the best album of the year.
A tier opeth album
Outro solo on a story never told is Devine.
Yes!!!!!!! He is working on a solo album, can’t wait 🎸
Great conversation! Fredrik and Mikael outdid themselves on Opeth's new album! 🔥🤘
I also play my tube amplifiers naked, I didn't want to come out and say it but I appreciate you guys being open about this. Thank you for normalizing it.
Fantastic interview as always!
Pleasant suprise and mad respect from Seattle to Both of you 🫡👽☕️
Waltteri was fantastic in Paradise Lost and I am happy to see him in Opeth.
Admired him for years. I loved that last ghost album and only found out he played on it after about 20 plays. When I googled it. Blew my mind. I hope to god Tobias gets him again for the next album. His playing on that ghost album was so Melodic and beautiful. Classic rock sound. Every track was a killer too.
I love his playing on the new album! listened to it everyday since it's been out
Jonas renkse on the show,…sometime maybe?😊
Yes! The Boss OD-1! I have one from 1979 that is unbeatable!
Ghost Reveries is one of my all time favourites! 🤘
Maaaaan what a cool/charming dude Fredrik is.
Fredrik is such a cool dude. Congrats on the new album it's incredible. The Opeth boys are about to have a big huge run with this one.
About the amp voltage thing, sounds like he is describing a variac - A device that you in plug an amp into so you can crank it up and get the tubes really cooking while also allowing you to reduce the volume to a much more usable level.
Hes using an AMPRX Brownbox
Saw Fredrik live the first time with Arch Enemy in 2006, and I was actually upset when Chris returned because Fredrik was awesome with them. So then I was really happy when when he joined Opeth :)
Unreal player, one of the best around!
Älskar trevliga människor, träffade Mikael Åkerfeldt på en flygplats i Bukarest. Såg dom dagen innan på Rockstadt Festival i Transsylvanien, så sinnessjukt bra. Sett Opeth ett par gånger under åren. Bästa konserten var i Göteborg 2008 när The Ocean öppnade med sin post-metal sludge.
Damn, this interview could easily have been twice as long. Great job, Ola!
Saw them last month and it was absolutely epic. I hyped myself up a lot since I bought the tickets 5 months or so in advance and it was still better than I could've hoped for. 6 rows back right in front of Mendez and loved every second of it. Setlist was so fucking good, everyone in the band was locked in, plus Mikael's between song banter was as good as ever. Waltteri doing windmills while Mikael was screaming "the Grand Conjuration" was a little moment that was sick af. Plus I know I'd just get my hair tangled around the sticks if I tried that.
The amp may sound more distorted with lower voltage because this reduces what we call "headroom" in a tube, making the signal saturate earlier -- saturation, in this sense, means distortion. That's why you hear it more distorted, but notice that it also reduces the output power :)
Your playing on this new album is excellent Fredrik. Well done
Great chat. Fredrik is sooooo freaking good. New Opeth is tops.
Love this guy, he’s so genuine and unassuming. Not to mention that I hate him coz he’s so freaking good on guitar!😇😂😂🤘🏻
Thanks for this awesomeness!
Excited for the album.
Hello !
Tomorrow i will go to Honfleur in Normandy France.
The last Opeth is so good.
And it's cool because Fred really play on this record and it's fuckin good !
Cheers
Awesome dude🤘
My only problem is that while the new album is extremely good, the lack of "dwelling" on sections (like Frederik said) makes you constantly replay and crave for longer sections and thus I'm already in (years long) waiting mode for the next album.
I just can't WAIT to see what this line-up featuring Walt is cooking up next. Growls or not, I think EVERY Opeth fan loves those long and dragged out sections.
I can't really understand why they didn't at least give us ONE extended jam that builds the atmosphere a bit, because now it just feels like being sentenced to 2 - 3 years of waiting.
The best.
Ohhh.. Fredrik having a solo on a Nick Johnston album, sounds intriguing!
Hit up Fredrik to get John Norum in for a coffee with Ola since they are buddies. His Total Control solo album is one of my favorite albums.
Such chill guy. It was interesting hearing him say it pissed him off that he couldn't rerecord the solos at the studio. I feel like his angry face and voice are probably the same as his normal, chill face and voice. lol
🖤🖤🖤
DejaVu.... Feels like i have seen this before..
I think lowering amp voltage means upping the amperage for the same power. That means more amp component heat, so less longevity - but different sound since the quality of the electricity is different as it passes through the circuitry.
YES ANOTHER ONE TODAY IS A GOOD DAY
10:53 - after playing some local shows I was getting feeling that guys that are playing digital amps had great sound on soundcheck - after audience came guitars were always too quiet. Most of the bands that were using amps were other way around - the sound of guitars was audible or to loud. I guess you have to pick your poison xd
If you lower the voltage going into your amp... you get more amps going into your amp. So your amp can amp while it amps.
When I learned that he played the solos on Impera from Ghost I was like "Oh, right, that explains the tasteful solos"
I WISH PARAGRAPH 5 OUTRO WAS DWELLED UPON MOOOOOORE. it is the best thing on the album and it stops right when it starts sorta deal. uugh i wish they fleshed that out for a minute. its soooo good with the vocals n all. only gripe with new album, but its a big one..because its so good! and sooo short:(
I'd love to see Fred's new prs...sounds very interesting...they should make s2 versions of their guitars, with the piezo system. I'd love that...I have a p22 and love it, would just love to have a p22 trem but it's too expensive for me...
There's an S2 Custom 24 Piezo now! I have an SE Hollowbody II Piezo too.
Fred rips as a player and seems to be a cool guy. I do not see the new Opeth as a return to form like lots of people are saying though. It’s still got that “goofy” experimental feel they’ve been doing the last 15 years or so. There’s some cool stuff on those records and it’s not bad… just missing that old epic magic they used to have. Watershed and Ghost Reveries didn’t strike a major chord with me when they were released but have really grown on me over the years. Even Heritage was a fun departure, just can’t get down with anything that came later
See you at the roundhouse!❤
Lovely to see these 2 fine swedish guy chatting in english... must be a silly feeling :D
Nice interview!!!!
What about inviting Teloch from Mayhem?
❤❤❤
HOLY SHIT YES
We didn’t want growls just for growls. We wanted growls because Mikael has the best growls in the game.
Hey Ola if you are going to interview Martin Mendez call him “Bajero”, that's how we called him back in the 90s, and that means bass player but misspelled and the funny thing is that it gets confused with another word if you change the letter B for P (which I won't say what it means ✊🍆💦). 🤣🤣🤣
Killer player. Low key great singer too?
I'm thinking which are my favorite songs from The Last Will and Testament. I think it's paragraphs 5738. Or maybe 4562. Or 1924. Hmmm
He played guitar on ghosts lastest album
nice
Archetype opeth is urgent!
Fredrik Thordendal next pls and ty
Wait is this the 2nd Fredrik interview??!!
Maestro Akesson 😈
Are you going to be uploading these to Spotify??
Didn't Ola already upload this not too long ago..???
Coffee with Dan Swanö!
08:02 "Eftertanke" doesn't really translate, as you might expect, to afterthought. More like thought, consideration IMO.
So I'm not having Dejavu 😂
"[Amp sims] sound so sparkly..." I swear I'm doing something wrong, because most virtual amps I try -- IK and ML products in particular -- sound unusably dull and muffled, even with the treble all the way up and bass all the way down 😆
Woo, i'm early
Didn't he work with Ghost?
Session yeah
Disappointed that the " 'prrftftft' åh fy fan"-intro has been gone for such a long time by now. Bring it back please.
ahh yes Fredrik, the impossible solo composer
Opeth tuning?
@jconner3891 typically they play in standard tuning, they've done open tunings in the past. But like 95% of the music is standard
@ thanks friend 💯❤️
@@jconner3891 no problem!
@@jconner3891 no problem!
Next time you should talk Swedish and add some subtitles.
akerfeldt is awesome and a genius, but is it wrong to say i think fredrik is a better interview? i dunno you guys just seem to have a more effortless conversation.
He cares more about gear, basically
@deadforever fair. the slash interview was a glaring example as well.
Like number 666
Running low voltage on tube amp. That explains a lot, why I do not dig the guitar sound on the album. To be fair, those amps do not run that era of tubes, with material purity they got then thinking you use some vintage amp like great olds did and it was the same like then, no, get real. Any new replacemt tube will have different optimal running points and they are much worse than they were simply due to material purities, but randomly starwing them usually makes them sound even more bad, doing the oposite actually make some tubes run sonically better, like EL34, it opens up with higher voltage, just recheck operating point charts. Each amp can be tweaked at such degree with operating points there is no point comparing. While it is distortion and matter of taste, but it depends what kind of distortion, psychoacoustic theory still applies for anyone and that is the reason my ears say, something ain't right here.
"you dont play amps for a while, and then you notice that response".
dont you mean TOUCH RESPONSE???
first
I dont get why the growling is such a talking point, or a big deal. I think growling or not its fine, I found that because of the growling being a talking point I had a different expectation on how the music would sound, which sort of ruined the album for my first couple listens.
New album is so bad!
You mean badass right?
No@@WodenTruthSpeaker
I'm sorry, didn't understand. Why couldn't he track the leads at Rockfield?
@@Radowitzki the way I interpreted it was that Mikael wanted to use the takes that Fredrik had made at his own home studio because more love and care had been put into them at that point than they would have been if re-recorded at the Rockfield Studios.
@@RBProductions1988 Oh, i see. Thought that it was a technical thingy. Thanks, man!
❤