MARTIN LOPEZ Rules Out Return To OPETH Or AMON AMARTH: Those Are 'Other People's Bands'

Metal Wani editor in chief Owais “Vitek” Nabi recently conducted an interview with former OPETH/AMON AMARTH and current SOEN drummer Martin Lopez. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

Asked if he would ever consider rejoining either OPETH or AMON AMARTH on a full-time basis if the opportunity presented itself, Lopez said: “No, no. Not full-time. My only band right now is SOEN, and that’s the only full time that I can handle. Both OPETH and AMON AMARTH, it’s other people’s bands — people that I really like and people that I respect, but it’s other people’s bands. SOEN is my band. It’s my band and Joel‘s [Ekelöf, vocals] band and it’s Stefan [Stenberg, bass] and Marcus [Jidell, guitar] and Lars‘s [Åhlund, keyboards] band, but it’s my band — our band — and I feel like a part of it in a way that I never felt a part of other bands. Which is completely understandable, and it’s something that I knew from the beginning. So, finally, I’m doing my thing, and this is exactly where I want to be. I feel better than ever doing this and having SOEN.”

He continued: “Of course, playing one old track [with either OPETH or AMON AMARTH] for fun is something that I could even enjoy, but no full-time. I’m not into full-time, not even with SOEN. I don’t wanna have schedules and tours and, ‘You have to do this…’ ‘This year and next year, you’re gonna…’ I don’t wanna have that. I hate that. I’ve done that, and I hate it. I just wanna play music whenever I want, how I want, and the only way to do that is just with my band, because we are the same level.”

The 38-year-old Lopez was born in Sweden and later moved to Uruguay, then back to Sweden. He joined OPETH in 1998, after leaving the viking metal band AMON AMARTH, with whom he recorded the album “Once Sent From The Golden Hall”. As a member of OPETH, he played on the albums “My Arms, Your Hearse”, “Still Life”, “Blackwater Park”, “Deliverance”, “Damnation” and “Ghost Reveries”.