Opeth

Stockholm-based prog-metal maestros, OPETH are set to headline a string of shows in 2008.

First up is their headline slot on Metal Hammer's ‘Defenders of the Faith' tour, which sees them team up with Arch Enemy for a batch of ‘none more metal' shows in April. Expect further special guests to be added in the coming months. Dates are on sale as follows:

Wed 23rd April – Birmingham Academy (0870 771 2000)

Thu 24th April – Glasgow Barrowlands (0870 169 0100)

Fri 25th April – Manchester Academy (0870 771 2000)

Sat 26th April – London Brixton Academy (0870 771 2000)

The band are also set to headline the Bloodstock Open Air 2008 festival at Catton Park in Derbyshire on 17th August. The band will close the 3-day event on the Sunday.

Previously dubbed the ‘heavy metal Pink Floyd', OPETH's last studio album ‘Ghost Reveries' (2005) picked up ‘Album of the Year' gongs and top ratings almost across the board in the UK hard rock and metal press. The release was their first for Roadrunner Records and was preceded by feverish anticipation from both press and fanbase alike. With words like ‘masterpiece' and ‘benchmark' tossed around, OPETH delivered the best album of their heavily praised career to date. A similar scenario is expected in early Summer 2008, when their new album is set to hit the stores. This will be their first with new guitarist, Frederik Škesson, who replaced the departing Peter Lindgren, their axeman of 16 years. Speaking about the forthcoming album, frontman and leader Mikael Škerfeldt is determined to make jaws drop all over again; "I want the next album to be really ugly," he laughs. "I don't want it to be pretty. I want people to feel uncomfortable listening to it. I have one riff already that's really fucking disturbing!"

More recently, OPETH released a live album entitled ‘The Roundhouse Tapes' which was recorded at the London venue in November 2006, A DVD follows in early 2008.