Opeth Frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt Talks 'Sorceress,' Silliness & Pretention

In their 26 years together, the only thing as steady as Opeth's quality has been their growth. 2011's Heritage signaled the most tectonic shift, with Sweden's premier progressive death metal act suddenly vaporizing the bear-roar vocals and leaning all the way into their prog side. 2014's Pale Communion continued the adventure masterfully, and this Friday's Sorceress, Opeth's 12th studio album, is—spoiler alert—equally stellar.

Fuse spoke with 42-year-old vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt about why he's never written lyrics in Swedish, seriousness vs. fun in metal, and exactly how unamused his daughters are with his stardom.

Fuse: Congratulations on Sorceress. Have you felt the need to beckon fans along as your sound has changed, or are you not really fussed with it, just leave them to pick up the trail or leave it?
Mikael Åkerfeldt: I'm not really bothered. I mean, I love our fans, what can I say? We've been around for 26 years and I'm not sure how many fans have been there since the beginning. Overall we have respect for them, but it kind of ends when it comes to what we're gonna do on the creative side. We just do what we want to do, basically. It's been the same since the beginning, and I figure that's our style. We don't necessarily use this band to try to gain popularity or to be successful. That's nice, of course—it's easy for me to say that now that I'm fairly successful, but we've never done music for that reason. I don't really care what fans think, but I love it if they like it.