Sorceress

Album: Sorceress (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt told Metal Hammer the story of this song:

    "I started this song with the little fusion-esque introduction, two riffs and there's no guitar. I wondered 'What happens now?' I tuned down, so I had two A strings, effectively, and I was just fooling around and I came up with the opening heavy riff. It's a trick, really. I hope someone will hear the start of the song and think 'Oh, not another fusion song!' and then the riff comes in…it's really heavy.

    It's a catchy song but it doesn't have a chorus. It's very heavy, almost stupid meat and potatoes. I think it sounds like you're about to be beaten up [laughs]. The song ends with a melodic part which was very influenced by Abba. And then it ends with the biggest chord ever!"
  • This is the title track of Opeth's twelfth studio album. In fact there are two title tracks on the record viewing the subject from different sides, this being Sorceress 1. Åkerfeldt explained to The Independent:

    "Sorceress 1 is quite a negative lyric whilst Sorceress 2 is quite a positive but sad type of lyric and I connected it with the title because falling in love is like having a f--king spell cast on you! You don't think rationally sometimes, you go crazy and you have these weird thoughts and start to panic. A lot of it relates back to my private life and that's what came out when I wrote the lyrics."

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