{"id":1786486,"date":"2026-02-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1786486"},"modified":"2026-02-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:00:00","slug":"mikael-akerfeldt-is-recording-a-non-opeth-project-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1786486","title":{"rendered":"MIKAEL \u00c5KERFELDT Is Recording A Non-OPETH Project In May"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-p.smehost.net\/sites\/7f9737f2506941499994d771a29ad47a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Opeth_6730-copy-2.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"zox-post-body left zoxrel zox100\">\n<div id=\"9719\"><\/div>\n<p>In a candid new interview with <em>Blabbermouth<\/em>, <strong>Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt<\/strong>, the legendary vocalist and guitarist of <strong>Opeth<\/strong>, shared insights on his current life, creative ambitions, and the band&#8217;s future.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about a potential new album cycle, <strong>\u00c5kerfeldt<\/strong> said: &#8220;I cannot say much, but I have a project that I&#8217;m doing in May. Hopefully, it will materialize, but I am doing something in May. That&#8217;s going to be fun. Then, I might have some project as well, like, for me, not for the band. I&#8217;m a bit burned out, as you can probably tell. I would really need a break from the band and be regular <strong>Mikael<\/strong>, not band <strong>Mikael<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Away from the rigors of touring, <strong>\u00c5kerfeldt<\/strong> is embracing domestic life: &#8220;Yes, and my records. I&#8217;m a really good househusband. I wish I could be paid for it. I&#8217;ll get up at six in the morning and cook breakfast for everyone. Sometimes my daughters show up, and sometimes they don&#8217;t, but I&#8217;m up. [Laughs]&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He also reassured fans that <strong>Opeth<\/strong> is not planning a &#8220;farewell&#8221; tour, emphasizing a quieter approach if changes come: &#8220;<strong>Opeth<\/strong> is not going to split up. If we do, we&#8217;re going to disappear. It&#8217;s not going to be a big hurrah, &#8216;final tour.&#8217; That&#8217;s not going to happen. We&#8217;re going to disappear. Honestly, I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ll ever stop playing. We love each other, and we love playing together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00c5kerfeldt<\/strong> hinted at a shift in focus for the band, favoring creative output over relentless touring: &#8220;There&#8217;s probably going to be less touring. If we do less touring, it will mean more music and more frequent releases. That&#8217;s what I really want to do. Maybe, if I feel like, &#8216;Oh, I think we should do a tour,&#8217; and see if there are people out there who like us, we can do that. First and foremost, I want to spend more time with the creative side of things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fans can take comfort knowing that while Opeth may scale back live appearances, the band&#8217;s musical evolution and \u00c5kerfeldt&#8217;s creative ambitions remain very much alive.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zox-post-body left zoxrel zox100\"><strong>Want More Metal? Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Enter your information below to get a daily update with all of our headlines and receive The Orchard Metal newsletter.<\/p>\n<div id=\"main-newsletter-form\">\n<fieldset>\n<p><button id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" class=\"submit\" name=\"subscribe\" type=\"submit\">Subscribe<\/button><\/p>\n<\/fieldset>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/news\/mikael-akerfeldt-is-recording-a-non-opeth-project-in-may&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-p.smehost.net\/sites\/7f9737f2506941499994d771a29ad47a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Opeth_6730-copy-2.jpg&#8221;] In a candid new interview with Blabbermouth, Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt, the legendary vocalist and guitarist of Opeth, shared insights on his current life, creative ambitions, and the band&#8217;s future. When asked about a potential new album cycle, \u00c5kerfeldt said: &#8220;I cannot say much, but I have a project that I&#8217;m doing in May. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,55],"class_list":["post-1786486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-metalinjection-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1786486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1786486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1786486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1786486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}