Opeth have stepped in front of the lens for a rare official performance music video for their song “§1.”
The clip was produced and directed by Ash Pears and arrives amidst the band’s ongoing European tour (get tickets here). Featuring clean up-close shots of the Swedish vets running through the lengthy track — the first to feature death growls from Mikael Åkerfeldt in 16 years — the video should give concertgoers a visceral look at the band in full flight.
Regarding the decision to film a live-style clip for “§1,” Åkerfeldt offered up a press statement revealing the band was inundated with requests to produce a more generic lyric video or visualizers for the song, but opted for the “old-fashioned” way of simply rocking out for the cameras.
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Said Åkerfeldt:
“So here’s a video (of sorts) for your ‘enjoyment.’ We had requests left, right & centre to do one of them measly ‘lyric videos’ or ‘visualizers’ for ‘content.’ Now, right there are three words I despise! I’ve made it clear in our circle of trust that we shouldn’t use the word ‘content’ even if that’s exactly what we’re working on. We’re not some goddamn influencers, now are we? So can we please settle on the old-fashioned word ‘video’ without meddling with modern online lingo? And a video is what it really is. A performance video, no less. We figured it’s a bit more happening to look at (should you decide to do so) than a lyric video. ‘§1’ is the opener on The Last Will and Testament. A good song. I like it! The video looks good. As good as it can look when involving 5 middle-aged, slightly hungover geezers miming along to something. We shot it in some industrial area in Birmingham (UK) on the latest Euro tour. Everyone (well, the band and crew) were quite eager to get out of there as we had dinner planned at a fancy curry house locally. Much thanks to Ash Pears and ASH TV, who were really professional (ie: quick!) and made the whole experience rather easy on us. Hope you dig it, people!”
As he mentioned, “§1” hails from Opeth’s latest album The Last Will and Testament, one of our top metal albums of 2024. You can stream the video for the track below.
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