OPETH

DOUG MITCHELL THUNDERBIRD SPORTS CENTRE, Vancouver, BC

• General tickets go on sale Friday, September 26 @ 10AM local!
• Local Presale go on sale Tuesday, September 23 @ 9AM – Thursday, September 25 @ 10PM local!

Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Time: Doors – 7:00 PM; Event – 8:00PM
Tickets: Ticketmaster

About Opeth – The Last Will and Testament

More than three decades into their career, Opeth have trained their admirers to expect the
unexpected. But even by their own standards, the Swedish progressive titans have conjured
something extraordinary this time around. The band’s 14th studio exploration, The Last Will
& Testament, is the darkest and heaviest record they have made in decades, it is also the
most fearlessly progressive. A concept album recounting the reading of one recently
deceased man’s will to an audience of his surviving family members, it brims with haunting
melodrama, shocking revelations and some of the wildest and most unpredictable music
that songwriter/frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt has ever written.

“I have become quite interested in family, and the idea that blood is not always thicker than
water,” Åkerfeldt explains. “I became interested in how family members can turn on each
other. I saw an interview with this guy whose family had all turned against him, over the
inheritance, so I wrote a song about that on the last record. The idea stuck with me, and
then along came the TV show Succession, and I loved that series. That was in the back of my
head too. It felt like an interesting topic that you could twist and turn a little bit.”

The follow-up to 2019’s widely acclaimed In Cauda Venenum; The Last Will & Testament is
set in the shadowy, sepia-stained 1920s. It slowly reveals its secrets like some classic thriller
from the distant, cobwebbed past, with each successive song shining more light on the
stated machinations of our dead (but definitely not harmless) protagonist. The emotional
chaos of the story is perfectly matched by Opeth’s vivid but claustrophobic soundtrack,
which artfully winds its way towards a crestfallen but sumptuous finale. Masters of their own
idiosyncratic musical domain, Opeth have never sounded more unique.

“I knew I could go a bit overboard and wild with the music, a bit heavier and a bit more
metal, maybe, because I felt it would fit the concept, which is dark and kind of complex. You
might dabble with the occult in your youth and write songs about Satan, but this felt like I
could make a story about real evil, and about human behaviour. It felt like the music for this
concept should be on the heavier side of things. It’s a pretty heavy topic.”

Proud adherents to a progressive ethos, Opeth have never repeated themselves, and The
Last Will & Testament is every bit as revelatory and adventurous as its 13 predecessors. But
one thing is undeniable: Mikael Akerfeldt’s peerless death metal growls are back, for the first
time since Watershed in 2008.

“I like to be unfashionable, in a way,” grins Åkerfeldt. “So, when it comes to bringing that
kind of death metal vocal back, I wanted it to happen when people had stopped caring… and
I guess that’s now! Maybe it’s a bit surprising, but we did some anniversary type shows, and
we played lots of old songs, and I just thought that my death metal voice sounded good.
There’s also been a little push because of our new drummer, Walt. He’s a death metal guy.
Mendez (Opeth bassist) has been a bit of a horse whisperer, too, saying ‘Maybe you should
do something heavier this time…’ In the end I just thought, yeah, let’s give it a try.”

The Last Will & Testament is destined to be a milestone in Opeth’s illustrious recorded
history. The band’s first out-and-out concept record, it features guest cameos from Jethro
Tull legend Ian Anderson and Joey Tempest, frontman with Swedish rock gods Europe. Only
one of the album’s eight songs has a title: closing ballad A Story Never Told. The rest are
simply labelled as numbered chapters in this slowly unfolding saga of deceit, recrimination
and betrayal. Enigmatic, unsettling and immersive, The Last Will & Testament is a turbulent,
prog metal tale like no other.

To add to an overwhelming sense that The Last Will & Testament is a landmark record for
Opeth, its guest stars are of impeccable and legendary quality. Ian Anderson has been
making imaginative and influential music for nearly 60 years, both with Jethro Tull and as a
solo artist, and remains one of progressive rock’s most revered figures. He joins Opeth here
for the first time, performing as the voice of the album’s chief protagonist and contributing
some glorious flurries of flute.

“With Ian, it’s about his voice and just how he is. I decided we should have spoken word, and
if that was going to happen, the voice should be Ian’s. He’s like a distinguished gentleman.
Everything he says has authority. So, it was just perfect. No one else would have been as
good. I felt maybe it was a bit too cliched to ask him to play a flute solo too, but instead, he
asked me, ‘Do you need a flute solo?’ and so obviously I said, ‘Yes! Yes, we do!’”
Another legend of the rock world to grace the new Opeth album with his presence and
talent is Joey Tempest, singer with Europe.

“On the record, Joey does this call and response with Ian, which was another dream come
true for me,” Åkerfeldt says. “I love Europe and I love Joey. We’ve become buddies over the
years. So that was a big thing for me. He also knows Ian and had met him a few times. He’s a
fan of Tull, so it was cool to have them on the same track. You don’t want to have guests that
just for the glitter and glamour. You want someone that’s going to add something to the
record, and those two guys were perfect.”

Making his recorded debut alongside Opeth’s long-established line-up of Mikael Åkerfeldt,
guitarist Fredrik Åkesson, bassist Martin Mendez and keyboard maestro Joakim Svalberg on
The Last Will & Testament is new drummer Waltteri Väyrynen, who joined the band in 2022.
Åkerfeldt is eager to commend his new comrade’s immense drumming abilities, while
observing that recording drums for the new album was a virtually stress-free process.
“I knew Walt was a great drummer, but I didn’t know how good he was. We’re not crappy
musicians in this band. We can play. But we sat there at Rockfield Studios, and he just was
doing these insane, technical songs in one take. We were almost recording it in real time!
[Laughs] He’s amazing.”

After three decades of dazzling the world, Opeth have made their most daring creative leap
yet. The Last Will & Testament is a progressive and dramatic triumph, and yet more proof
that expecting the unexpected is the only way forward for fans of Sweden’s finest.
“It’s a restless record for me,” concludes Åkerfeldt. “It’s an explosion of ideas, which I like.
It’s a bit shorter and snappier. But I definitely didn’t want to rehash anything. The only thing
that has come back is some of those death metal screams, but the mindset is still much
more forward looking. In typical Opeth fashion, it’s not a direct record that you understand
and that you love or hate right away. It takes time and if you put that time into it, you might
like it… or hate it! It feels like it was written on a whim. Which it was, in a way! I hear things
on this album and think, where did that come from?”

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