Fans were extremely hopeful that Bloodbath’s surprise appearance during the final night of Opeth and Katatonia’s Fall tour was a sign of more to come. While the Swedish death metal group (also featuring Katatonia’s Anders Nyström, Per Eriksson and Jonas Renkse) may still be alive, singer Mikael Akerfeldt has confirmed that they will once again continue on without him.
During an interview with Loudwire, the Opeth frontman revealed that he is no longer a member of Bloodbath, saying:
“I’m not in Bloodbath. They have a new singer, which I can’t say who it is. Bloodbath for me was never a serious project, it was just something I did for fun. We did a few songs on the last North American tour, we did two songs at the very last show because we were touring with Katatonia, so the whole Bloodbath band was there. It’s still fun you know? But I think that some of the other guys in Bloodbath want to take it to the next level, which I don’t really want to do because I’m so busy anyways.
It doesn’t really have to do with anything with my screaming vocals, it’s just that it’s not a progressive project for me. It’s just paying tribute to death metal and I’ve done it for such a long time. And when it stops being fun, I don’t really want to participate. We do things so rarely it’s always been fun. The shows we’ve done have been fun, but I don’t feel the need to do it.”
It’s unclear if Opeth’s busy schedule will affect drummer Martin Axenrot status in Bloodbath as well. As sad as this may be for many Bloodbath fans, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise since Akerfeldt has not only been extremely busy with Opeth but also with Storm Corrosion (which will be released on May 7 instead of its original April 23 release date). This also makes the second time Akerfeldt has left the group, first leaving in 2005 only to return in 2008.
On the plus side, Akerfeldt also let it slip that Bloodbath have already found a new singer. This could mean that new music from the group (and first since 2008’s The Fathomless Mastery) could come out in the near future. Although, Katatonia have been in the studio working on a new album. So it may a little longer of a wait till Bloodbath become active again.
