Opeth mainman is ticked off of illegal album downloads but dude, deal with it

January 31, 2008

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Mikael Åkerfeldt has got to get with the times as this is a new reality. So it sounds like he is pretty ticked at the fact it could be his fans doing this. Maybe they can’t afford album prices but they still show up at your shows. Like I said, deal with the new reality. We did so you need to aswell.

Metal Hammer: Your label, Roadrunner, has been criticized for the number of reissues it releases, including your last album, "Ghost Reveries". Do you think that’s fair?
Mikael: I think most labels do that today. The record industry is not doing that well; the companies are grasping at straws to try and make money, and perhaps that’s the way to do it. I don’t care how many reissues of our albums they put out — they could put out a thousand reissues and I couldn’t care less, as long as the quality is good. You don’t have to buy these things if you don’t want to. Personally, I don’t buy clothes and I don’t go out drinking, I just buy records — so I don’t have a problem with buying 20 different versions of my favorite album.
Metal Hammer: "Ghost Reveries" was leaked via the Internet before its release in 2005. Does illegal file sharing piss you off?
Mikael: It does piss me off. The main problem for me is that the magic gets lost. When you’re downloading, you don’t have the artwork, you don’t have anything but the tunes, and in bad quality. It bothers me, because the ideal situation for me would be to gather up 5,000 fans every day and give them the record and we could listen to it together, although that’s not possible. My music is sacred to me, and I don’t want it to be presented in any form other than the ones we have approved.

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