OPETH

Some minutes before the sound check, we had the\r\nhonor to speak with Peter Lindgren (Guitarist-Opeth).Peter was very\r\npositive and though he was very tired he spent some time talking with\r\nus about the news of the band and their tour.\r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Hello from Metalzone, how are you?
\r\nPeter: I’m fine. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Are you ready for your live in Thessaloniki?
\r\nPeter: Yeah,\r\nwell we just came in today and you know flying gets you tired but as\r\nsoon as they get the staff on the stage we will be fine. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: You\r\nhave a new album witch have good reviews from magazines, webzines and\r\nalso a very warm response from your fans. How do you feel about it?
\r\nPeter: We\r\nare very happy with it and it’s hard to tell probably but it’s a least\r\none of my better albums, maybe it’s the best, you never know. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: When\r\na new album comes, most of the people like to compare it with the\r\noldest albums. What is your opinion about the new and the old albums?
\r\nPeter: For\r\nmy self I’m proud of the old albums but there old you know and we do\r\nsongs from our old albums sometimes and they’re fun to play. You can\r\ntell that we learnt something a long the way during these years. If\r\npeople like it its fine but they’re old albums still, I would say that\r\nwhat we do nowadays is better than what we used to do then but I’m\r\nproud of those albums. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Let’s\r\ngo to the promoting of your album. You just returned to Europe from USA\r\ntour with Devil Driver and Dark Tranquility, how did it go?
\r\nPeter: It\r\nwas fine. It was the second tour that we were headlining in the US for\r\nthis album and we did some cities that we didn’t do in the first place.\r\nWe thought that it would be a ‘B market’ tour in a way but it wasn’t.\r\nIt was in big places and most of them sold out. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: How were the other two bands?
\r\nPeter: We\r\nknow them both bands and they’re great guys. I think the set up with us\r\nand those two bands it’s a little different not everybody sounds the\r\nsame you know, some people hate Devil Driver and some Devil Driver fans\r\nhate us but that’s fine. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: I’ll\r\nname you three gigs. NYC’s town hall, Chicago’s House and Wiltern\r\nTheater. They were three ‘different’ lives, can you tell us about it?
\r\nPeter: Well\r\nthe idea was to do, since those cities we played on the first tour and\r\nsince they are the biggest cities in the US we wanted to do something\r\ndifferent as well. So we decided to do something like a special event\r\nshows. We did a chronological show, so we did songs from all the albums\r\nand we started with ‘Under the Wiping Moon’ that’s an old song but that\r\nwas cool the set was two hours and forty five minutes (2:45) without a\r\nbreak so it was like a marathon it was fun but I don’t think we’re\r\ngoing to do it again. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: You don’t think we can see something like this in Europe?
\r\nPeter: I\r\ndon’t think so, I mean that the set was too long, some of us had to eat\r\nbananas between the songs and it was really exhausting. I don’t think\r\nwe’re going to do it but you never now. We’re never going to do a tour\r\nlike that it was exhausting enough to do only three shows. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Who came with the idea?
\r\nPeter: We\r\nwere working on a for those we wanted to do something special so we\r\ncame up with the concept of doing something like a chronological show\r\nand also we knew that there is not going to be any opening act so we\r\ndecided to make it a longer show, so that’s just the basic of that. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: More\r\ntouring. Today and tomorrow you have Greece, next day Turkey and then\r\nIsrael (Tel-Aviv) to an already sold out concert. And this is the first\r\ntime you go to Israel right? How do you feel about it? Going there for\r\nthe first time and it’s already sold out.
\r\nPeter: I\r\nthink it’s great, I mean we’ve been on our way many times but we never\r\nmanaged to go there. I’m looking forward to it a lot. The bad thing is\r\nthat we’re just going to be there like twenty seven hours so we’re not\r\ngoing to be able to see anything, I like to do a show but also be a\r\ntourist. So this is going to be great I think. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: And\r\nthen April you have Australia, New Zealand, summer lots of Europe\r\nfestivals and then I see you go on a tour to S. America. No rest for\r\nthe wicked?
\r\nPeter: There’s no rest at all,\r\nthe schedule is crazy, but we decided to do heavy touring for maybe\r\neighteen months and then have a break first and then write a new album.\r\nI think that better than touring and having longer breaks and then the\r\ntour is going to drive on forever so we just do a lot. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: You spend a lot of time for the band. Is this the key to success, giving all you got?
\r\nPeter: Well\r\nfor us it is I don’t think it’s for everyone, I mean some bands have\r\ninstant success, but the kind of music we play is difficult for many\r\npeople to listen to. So I think you need to be a band for a long time,\r\nto tour a lot in order to get all these fans that we have now, it’s\r\ntaken us a lot time. For us it’s the only way I think, we have ten\r\nminute songs, we can’t have a hit in the radio or whatever so this is\r\nthe only way for us \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Don’t you ever feel that you need to just go home and re-charge your batteries?
\r\nPeter: Yeah,\r\nwe do that sometimes too, these are those breaks I was talking about\r\nthat you feel well to come but it’s still a year to go. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Are there any plans after all this touring?
\r\nPeter: The\r\nnext thing to do is another album but we’re going to have a break\r\nfirst, just take some time of ourselves basically, I think that’s the\r\nschedule make an album then tour then have a break.
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\r\nMetalzone: Are there any news we should know about the band?
\r\nPeter: No… I don’t know you have to specify the question. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: ‘News’, any news from the band, anything!
\r\nPeter: Nope. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Any news we shouldn’t know?
\r\nPeter: I\r\nguess your referring to Lopez. I don’t know if you ask me a question\r\nI’ll give you an answer. He’s fine I don’t think he’s not here with us\r\ntoday you know. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: You ‘broke up normally’ I think…
\r\nPeter: We\r\nsent him home from a tour in summer last year because he was unfit to\r\nplay. We have decided that we were putting all the pressure in him we\r\nwanted him to make his decision, he suffered all these touring, so will\r\nsee. He’s doing fine though. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: How about the guy you play with now?
\r\nPeter: He’s\r\nMartin Axenrot, he used to play with me. He plays with Witchery, and\r\nother bands and he’s now touring with us for half a year and he’s doing\r\ngreat. Without him we wouldn’t be able to be here. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Is there any case that he will be a member of your band?
\r\nPeter: It\r\ndepends, Lopez is still in the band so if he decides that he’s not\r\ngoing to able to do all this touring we do then we have to consider\r\ngetting a new drummer and I guess he is the first choice (Martin\r\nAxenrot). It’s up to Lopez because touring is obviously takes a lot\r\nfrom your time. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: I admire you for doing that; lot of people can’t handle it.
\r\nPeter: I\r\ndon’t think that Lopez has a problem with it, it was just stress full\r\nand there’s a lot of traveling. We can’t have a drummer that we only\r\nhave him in the studio you know, so we’ll see. It’s really his\r\ndecision. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Do you know any Greek bands?
\r\nPeter: Yeah…\r\nerm.. I lost the name. It slipped my mind. My mind is gone now. I do\r\nbut I lost the name. What is the most famous metal band from Greece? \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Rotting Christ??
\r\nPeter: Yeah. And I know Gus too the guitar player, he used to play for … I don’t know I’m so tired I haven’t slept at all. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: You have been in Greece before right?
\r\nPeter: Yeah. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: What do you think of the fans here in Greece? You have a lot of admirer’s here in Greece.
\r\nPeter: Yeah\r\ngood fans and all the shows that we’ve done were great shows people are\r\ncrazy you know the want us to play for ever so that’s a cool think.\r\nGreat shows. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: And the last words from you peter.
\r\nPeter: We\r\nare happy that we’re back to Greece the shows is soon and it’s going to\r\nbe fun. It was a good show last time we played in Thessaloniki. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Thank you very much.
\r\nPeter: Thank you.\r\n

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