{"id":310842,"date":"2026-02-22T03:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/310842\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T03:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:09:11","slug":"mikael-akerfeldt-is-recording-a-non-opeth-project-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/310842\/","title":{"rendered":"MIKAEL \u00c5KERFELDT Is Recording A Non-OPETH Project In May"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a candid new interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/blabbermouth.net\/features\/mikael-akerfeldt-battles-dislike-of-touring-as-opeth-remains-at-height-of-bands-popularity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Blabbermouth<\/a>, Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt, the legendary vocalist and guitarist of Opeth, 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, \u00c5kerfeldt 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 Mikael, not band Mikael.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Away from the rigors of touring, \u00c5kerfeldt 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 Opeth is not planning a &#8220;farewell&#8221; tour, emphasizing a quieter approach if changes come: &#8220;Opeth 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>\u00c5kerfeldt 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<p>\t\tWant More Metal? Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a candid new interview with Blabbermouth, Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt, the legendary vocalist and guitarist of Opeth, shared insights&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,5817],"class_list":{"0":"post-310842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-opeth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}