Mikael Åkerfeldt
Mikael was asked if the next disc is a continuation, in a sense, to Heritage, since it has no growled vocals.
“Yeah, to a certain extent. I mean, it’s the next album so I guess it’s closer to that album than say the first album. But I’d like to think there’s an upgraded sound, and by that I don’t mean a modern sound.
“We were looking at some of the late 70s and early 80s production, and that’s what we were going for sound-wise and it’s one of the reasons why we ended up recording at Rockfield Studios in Wales which is a legendary studio where many of our favorite bands recorded.
“So musically I guess you could say it’s similar to Heritage but I’d like to think it’s more hard rock and metal sounding. We also have something new that we didn’t have before in certain songs. I don’t really know what it is, which I like. I like to either recognize our sound or to hear something completely new, and I think we have both on the new album.”
Mikael said he hopes “everybody will like it, of course. I think it’s probably a bit easier to get into because it’s a bit more melodic. There’s definitely more attention to melodies and I wouldn’t say it’s an easy-listening album at all, but there’s more melody than ever before, not just ‘Heritage‘. I’m hoping that people who liked ‘Heritage‘ will like this one too and also fans who liked the old shit will hopefully like this one as well, and may be some new fans. You never know!”