Per Wiberg has now officially joined Opeth as a permanent member of the band. As most of you know he's been touring with Opeth since their "Damnation" record. Spiritual beggars fans should not despair as he will continue playing and recording with them.

The band is currently hard at work in Fascination street studios. 9 titles have been recorded and at this moment Hammond organs and Mellotrons are being put down to tape. The recording is being supervised and engineered by Jens Bogren and produced by the band. Some song titles have been confirmed and will be posted here soon.

Several North American journalists will visit the studio in mid May for interviews and exclusive listening sessions.

We will soon confirm a handful of Scandinavian and European dates. The band will do a smaller trek round the key cities in Europe in September. This will be the first tour in support of the new album which is supposed to be released in late August/early September. More tour dates to come....

Have you forgotten...sorry for taking so much time...but:
We will soon confirm the winner of the drawing contest too. There have been hundreds of pictures sent in and we thank you for these. The winner will get the task of drawing the band picture for the next Opeth Cd.

Record label??? Opeth have decided which label to sign to and the contracts are being done as you read. We will announce it here shortly!

GW:What do you want to acheive as a guitarist, and how do you go about getting your sound?
MA:I mainly focus on writing songs, so my technique has become less important over the years. I like to be versatile both in my playing and songwriting, so for me the best way to progress is to listen to loads of different kinds of music and get influenced. I don't practice; I play guitar in order to come up with some cool licks. My setup is simple: I have a Boss GT6 that can hold all my sounds. I believe your sounds is in your fingers, which should react to the pulse of your heart and the hissing in your head. No machine can help you if your body's producing shit.

GW:What recorded performance represents your personal best?
MA:"Hope Leaves" [from Damnation] is a song I'm very proud of. It turned out better than the demo, which was phenomenal to start with. My best recorded solo is the clean one in "Windowpane" [from Damnation] or my part in "Harvest" [from Blackwater Park]. I like off-the-wall stuff.

GW:What song best represents your band?
MA: We're recording a new album right now, so probably any of those cuts. But older stuff like "Deliverance" [from Deliverance] or "The Drapery Falls" [from Blackwater Park] are typical Opeth-sounding songs.

GW: What guitarists on the tour or among your peers do you most admire, and why?
MA:The bands on this tour are new to me, apart from Clutch and Strapping Young Lad. I guess I've gotta say [SYL's] Devin Townsend, and I think Jeff Loomis of Nevermore deserves more credit as a guitar player. I'm into different types of players these days than the typical ones. I really like Andy Latimer, Jerry Donahue, Blackmore...and Yngwie, of course!

GW: What is the future of metal?
MA: Perhaps more pretty bands that aren't really metal? I've no idea, and I don't give a flying fuck about the future of metal, as I'm sure the next big thing is gonna suck as hard as what's big now. I'm a grumpy old-schooler that still cradles my old records and has little interest in the "metal" of today.

C'est ça un mellotron .