![]() ![]() This part of me was pushed down for many years. “The first album I bought with my own money was Iron Maiden’s The Number Of The Beast,” says the singer. “I didn’t have any allowance,” he says, “so the only time you got a record was Christmas, birthdays and, maybe, one other occasion a year.”īoth musicians discovered rock when they were around eight years old. Later, over coffee in the Italian café next door, Åkerfeldt blames his obsession on a vinyl-deprived childhood. The English translation is The Eternal Journey, which sounds like a very Opeth sort of song title.)Īfter much deliberation, the pair finally spend Classic Rock’s allowance on £25-apiece mint copies of 70s Italian prog rockers PFM’s Photos Of Ghosts and Uriah Heep’s Demons And Wizards. (Opeth covered Roxette’s Den Ständiga Resan on their 2008 album Watershed. “We did one of their songs,” he declares. Sticking with the Swedish theme, the singer fishes out an LP by native 80s pop group Roxette. Åkesson strolls over with a copy of Swedish prog pioneer Bo Hansson’s Music Inspired By The Lord Of The Rings. Clearly, the Hatchet’s discount-store Lynyrd Skynyrd-style boogie wasn’t to his taste. “Because of their striking sleeves, shops put them in the metal section, and I expected something that sounded like Manowar.” “Yes, the Molly Hatchet mistake,” he sighs. Nowadays, of course, I love bluesy Whitesnake.” “I loved the cover” – a naked woman and a snake – “but it wasn’t heavy enough for me at the time. “It happened to me with Whitesnake’s Lovehunter,” Åkesson admits. An impulse purchase based on a great cover can sometimes spell disappointment. “I don’t know what this sounds like, but it has a snake on the cover,” he says, “and that’s got to be good.” Åkerfeldt has picked up the 1970 debut by Arrival (“I have no idea who they are”), and is strangely drawn to a 1973 LP by a band called Spiteri. Unusually, in an age when you can hear any music if you Google hard enough, these two guys relish buying albums without having a clue what they sound like. “There’s another rare version, with the song Sweet Leaf spelled Sweet Life on the sleeve,” he says. It’s not here, so instead he pays with his own money for Sabbath’s Master Of Reality with a band poster inside. On that list is a mis-pressing of Black Sabbath’s debut album that plays side one of Manfred Mann Chapter Three’s first album instead. In contrast, Åkerfeldt has a mental list of items he’s looking for. His drink and drugs period… Good cover, though.” Later we find him examining the origami-style folding sleeve for Alice Cooper’s From The Inside: “What year is this? 1978. He pulls out Rory Gallagher’s mid-80s LP Defender – “Malcolm Young said ‘You gotta listen to Rory Gallagher’” – then puts it back. Of the two, Åkesson takes a more scattershot approach to record hunting. And you suspect this transformation was engendered by their lead singer crate-digging in record shops like this. Opeth started out as a grunting death metal band in 1990 before morphing into witchy hard rockers with prog tendencies. Åkesson and Åkerfeldt are 44 and 42 respectively and children of the 80s metal boom. ![]() Åkerfeldt then nods or shakes his head and delivers his verdict. When Åkesson finds an LP he doesn’t know, he waves it at the singer. Within seconds he’s examining a copy of British folk rockers Magna Carta’s Seasons LP on his beloved Vertigo label. Åkerfeldt, meanwhile, sources obscure prog rock like a pig snuffling for truffles. ![]() Åkesson heads straight for the hard rock and metal bins, beginning his (ultimately fruitless) search for Mahogany Rush but finding Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop along the way. And he’s not wrong.įlashback’s subterranean bunker used to be a retro clothes emporium. “They’ll be wanting the basement,” he told us earlier. Flashback’s racks bulge with everything from grime and dubstep to New Zealand indie from old ska 45s to UFO’s Let It Rain single in a dog‑eared picture sleeve.īurgess is an Opeth fan and knows their lead singer collects 70s rock and anything on the Vertigo label. “What’s so funny about having ten copies of some albums?” (Image credit: Marie Korner)įlashback owner Mark Burgess opened his shop on Islington’s Essex Road in 1997, followed by branches in Shoreditch and Crouch End. ![]()
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