Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt: The Backbone Of Opeth

Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt is a Swedish musician who achieved fame as the lead vocalist/lead guitarist and songwriter of progressive death metal band Opeth as well as the lead vocalist of death metal band Bloodbath. He is known for his progressive rock-influenced songwriting style and his frequent use of both clean and growled vocals.


A native of Stockholm, Mikael Åkerfeldt was the vocalist for Eruption, a death metal band which he formed in 1988. After Eruption came to an end in 1990, he joined Opeth, ostensibly as a bassist. When vocalist David Isberg insisted Åkerfeldt join the band, all other members left. Isberg assumed guitar duties, and when he left Opeth two years later, Åkerfeldt replaced him as the vocalist.


Åkerfeldt is a collector of obscure 1970s rock and heavy metal albums. He also tends to show his influence from these obscure bands, making reference to them in titles of Opeth songs, such as "Blackwater Park", "Still Life" and "Master's Apprentices". He's also influenced by both jazz and Ritchie Blackmore. On 15 August 2003, Mikael Åkerfeldt married his longtime girlfriend, Anna Sandberg. On 13 September 2004, Anna gave birth to a daughter whom they named Melinda, after the character in the concept album, Still Life. The couple had their second daughter, Mirjam Ebba Maria Åkerfeldt, on 28 October 2007.
Åkerfeldt is known to be good friends with Steven Wilson, the frontman of one of his favourite bands, Porcupine Tree, Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater , and Jonas Renkse of Katatonia and he is also presumed to be the basis for the character Toki Wartooth from the popular cartoon Metalocalypse, as divulged in an interview with ultimate-guitar.com.


Mikael Åkerfeldt revealed in September 2009 that he is contemplating recording a singer-songwriter acoustic solo album.
"I've always been wanting to do a thing like that. I've got a bunch of lovely acoustic guitars back I wanna use more. Even though Opeth could probably do an album like that, I wanna do it on my own, and in that sense, I wanna record it on my own — in my house, basically. I think I can do it well. I think I can do a good album like that.
"I'd like to maybe simplify it even more , and have it just chords playing, and maybe some finger-picking stuff, so I could be able to perform it if I would wanna do that. So I don't want it to be lots of tracks, like overdubbing guitars with lots of melodies; I want it to be fairly simplistic so if I wanted to, I could play it live on my own... on a stool."


Discography with Opeth:
1995: Orchid
1996: Morningrise
1998: My Arms, Your Hearse
1999: Still Life
2001: Blackwater Park
2002: Deliverance
2003: Damnation
2003: Lamentations (live DVD)
2005: Ghost Reveries
2007: The Roundhouse Tapes (live album/DVD)
2008: Watershed


Discography with Katatonia
1996: Brave Murder Day
1997: Sounds of Decay (EP)


Discography with Bloodbath
2000: Breeding Death (EP)
2002: Resurrection Through Carnage
2008: Unblessing the Purity (EP)
2008: The Wacken Carnage (live album)
2008: The Fathomless Mastery