OPETH drummer Waltteri Väyrynen has shared the original 2022 “The Devil’s Orchard” audition video which eventually landed him the gig with the Swedish progressive metal outfit. The 31-year-old Finnish musician, who had previously played with PARADISE LOST, BLOODBATH and BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT, replaced OPETH’s stand-in drummer Sami Karppinen who had been the temporary replacement for Martin “Axe” Axenrot for several months after the fall of 2021.
In a message accompanying the release of his “The Devil’s Orchard” video on YouTube, Waltteri wrote: “I realized I never posted publicly this video that eventually got me the gig in OPETH. Was really fun to revisit this after a few years now.
“The performance is far from perfect but it’s interesting for me to see the differences and nuances compared to how I actually play this song live nowadays, not to mention thinking about all the stuff that’s happened and we have done as a band ever since recording this!
“I’m playing along to the album track here without a click so the timing is bit slightly off here and there. Anyways, hope you enjoy it!”
In a November 2024 interview with Rock Antenne’s David Loebe at Guitar Summit 2024, OPETH guitarist Fredrik Åkesson stated about the September 2022 addition of Väyrynen to the group’s ranks: “Yeah, we had a guy that helped us out in between, a guy called Sami, who actually was Axe’s drum tech. So he did the two American tours we signed up for, and also the festival summer season. And then we had Waltteri in mind because we saw him play the track ‘The Devil’s Orchard’, which is… He’s more of, I would say, an extreme metal drummer, but in OPETH, you need to have a bigger spectra, you need to know the prog, the more calm stuff and tasteful stuff, and he played that track, which is not a death metal track, but he just nailed everything; he really had the entire spectra as a drummer — all the different elements that are required within OPETH, because we kind of switch in between ’70s prog rock, hard rock, metal, death metal, progressive metal, blah, blah, blah, etc. Some slightly jazzy stuff as well. But we did three tours with Waltteri before we recorded the [upcoming OPETH] album [‘The Last Will And Testament’] with him. So he just nailed everything directly. When we went into the studio, the first track we recorded was one that we released so far, ‘Paragraph Three’, and he just nailed it on the first take. So, [we went], ‘That’s it.’ But he was, of course, as I would be, ‘No. Another one.'”
Axenrot officially joined OPETH nearly two decades ago as the replacement for Martin Lopez, who left the band in May 2006 after being plagued by illness and anxiety attacks, which forced him to miss several of OPETH’s tours.
OPETH’s latest album, “The Last Will And Testament”, came out in November 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget. The LP was written by guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt, with lyrics conferred with Klara Rönnqvist Fors (THE HEARD, ex-CRUCIFIED BARBARA). “The Last Will And Testament” was co-produced by Åkerfeldt and Stefan Boman (GHOST, THE HELLACOPTERS),engineered by Boman, Joe Jones (KILLING JOKE, ROBERT PLANT) and OPETH, with Boman, Åkerfeldt and the rest of OPETH mixing at Atlantis and Hammerthorpe Studios in Stockholm. The strings on “The Last Will And Testament” were arranged by Åkerfeldt and returning prog friend Dave Stewart (EGG, KHAN) and conducted by Stewart at Angel Studios in London. Not one to miss a beat, visual artist Travis Smith returns to the fold, crafting his 11th cover, a haunting “photograph” reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s infamous “Overlook Hotel” photograph. Miles Showell (ABBA, QUEEN) also revisits mastering and vinyl lacquer cutting at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Åkerfeldt rolls out the red carpet for storied flautist and JETHRO TULL mainman Ian Anderson. Not only do Anderson’s signature notes fly on “§4” and “§7”, he narrates on “§1”, “§2”, “§4”, and “§7”. Joining Anderson, EUROPE’s Joey Tempest lends a backing vocal hand on “§2”, while Åkerfeldt’s youngest daughter, Mirjam Åkerfeldt, is the disembodied voice in “§1”.