What is Mikael Åkerfeldt's Net Worth?
Mikael Åkerfeldt is a Swedish musician who has a net worth of $6 million. Mikael Åkerfeldt is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the progressive metal band, Opeth. He is also former lead vocalist for the death metal band Bloodbath, guitarist for the short-lived band Steel and a member of Katatonia and Storm Corrosion.
Åkerfeldt has made a name for himself with his unique blend of progressive rock and metal, seamlessly weaving clean baritone and growled vocals into his music. He was ranked 42 on Guitar World's list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time and 11 on The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists on MetalSucks.
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Career
Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt was born 17 April 1974. He was a metalhead from a young age and attributes his love for metal to the albums "The Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden and "Lick It Up" by Kiss. The Stockholm native formed his first death metal band called Eruption in 1987 at just 13 years old. He was the band's vocalist up until 1989 when he decided to join Opeth as a keyboardist. Two years later he became Opeth's new bassist after the original guy left them while Isberg, another band member, took over guitar duties. Åkerfeldt played bass for three years then replaced Isberg as the vocalist when he too said goodbye to the band.
Åkerfeldt performed the death vocals on Katatonia's album "Brave Murder Day" and their EP "Sounds of Decay". In September 2009 he revealed that he was thinking about recording a singer-songwriter acoustic solo album. However, he never went through with it and later stated in 2014 that he changed his mind because he didn't see the need for a special solo project and felt it would be better to channel all his energy into Opeth's future projects. During an interview on STIM magazine, Åkerfeldt mentioned that a major highlight of his career was Opeth's performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
In 2020 Åkerfeldt got his first shot at film scoring. He was approached by director Jonas Åkerlund to compose the soundtrack for the swedish six-part Netflix series "Clark" that came out in May 2022.
(Photo by Mariano Regidor/Redferns)
Influences
Mikael Åkerfeldt's style is influenced by obscure 1970s rock and heavy metal albums which he fondly collects. He has made references to these albums a couple of times especially in Opeth album titles such as Blackwater Park, Still Life and My Arms, Your Hearse, as well as in songs like "Master's Apprentices" and "Goblin". He is also influenced extensively by jazz, Ritchie Blackmore, Magma and its founder Christian Vander and Hideki Ishima.
Additionally, he stated that he considers Black Sabbath's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" as the best and his favorite heavy metal album of all time and Judas Priest's "Sad Wings of Destiny" as his favorite metal album.
Personal life
Mikael Åkerfeldt tied the knot with his longtime girlfriend in 2003 and they have two daughters. Unfortunately their relationship eventually ended after spending several years together. He opened up about the breakup in a 2016 interview with The Quietus acknowledging that life had been full of ups and downs since their separation. Despite the challenges, this period of his life sparked his creativity inspiring him to create the album "Sorceress."
