In a new interview with India’s Sinusoidal Music, OPETH mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt spoke about the possibility of a second album from STORM CORROSION, his collaboration with PORCUPINE TREE‘s Steven Wilson. Asked if STORM CORROSION is “going anywhere” 13 years after the release of the project’s self-titled debut, Mikael said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “No, it’s not really going anywhere. I mean, other than when we talk — or text rather. Usually when we’re texting, [Steven] usually sends me funny clips or something. So we’re not necessarily talking about any collaborations or music or anything like that in terms of us doing something. But we have talked a lot over the years about doing another STORM CORROSION, especially, because we’re both very happy with that record. But none of us, we don’t really know what to do, because we are not the type of people who would want to repeat ourselves. Even if I think that album is great, and there’s more to do with that sound, I think we wanna probably do something different. And I’m thinking maybe something that’s even more hard, more special, eclectic. I think it’s probably gonna happen at some point.”
The debut album from STORM CORROSION was reissued last September via Kscope on colored vinyl LP in a gatefold sleeve, CD and Blu-ray which features a new Dolby Atmos mix of the original album’s six tracks by Wilson, plus high-resolution stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD Surround Sound mixes and instrumental mixes of each track, a mini-documentary plus more. This 2024 edition of “Storm Corrosion” featured a bonus track, a live version of “Drag Ropes”, recorded when Mikael guested with Steven and his band at London’s Royal Albert Hall in September 2015, the only song they have performed live to date.
Issued in 2012, “Storm Corrosion” sold 9,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 47 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD also landed at No. 45 on the official U.K. chart.
In a 2019 question-and-answer session posted on the YouTube channel of Nuclear Blast Records, Åkerfeldt was asked about the possibility of a second album from STORM CORROSION. He said at the time: “I had dinner with Steve yesterday, and we talked a little bit about it. We always talk a little bit about it, if we’re gonna do another one. But yeah, I think we’ll try; at some point, we’ll try. I can almost say a hundred percent that we will try, without really knowing — but just judging from how we talk about this project. That was a fun thing for both of us and a new thing for both of us. But the problem, when you have one record, is that there’s a reference point. So it’s likely that if we do another record, maybe there’ll be another name for that project. And it’s likely it will sound completely different.
“We wanna make another record, [and] if we do that, it has to be on the same premise as how we did the first one,” he continued. “Nobody knows. There’s no record label that knows. We don’t even know if it’s gonna work out and we don’t know what we’re doing, basically. I mean, that was almost written in real time and recorded in real time. We just had a riff. ‘Okay, let’s record that riff, that part, and then piece it together.’ And then, in the end, it was, like, ‘My God, this is strange. But we love it. What is it?’
“We had some common inspirations and common artists and bands that we said, ‘Maybe around there, that’s where we meet up and do something,'” Mikael added. “And it ended up sounding like nothing I can compare it to, to be honest. For good and worse, for fans. It’s a weird record. And it sold a lot in the first couple of weeks, because Roadrunner picked that up. And I assume it sold a lot to fans of PORCUPINE TREE and Steven Wilson fans, who must have gone, ‘What the hell is this?’
“I love that album — love it. But, yeah, we’re gonna do something, I’m sure. But it’s probably gonna be different.”
Åkerfeldt and Wilson have been friends since the late ’90s, when Wilson co-produced OPETH‘s revered “Blackwater Park” album. Over the years, they’d often spoken of working on a project together, but it wasn’t until about a decade ago that they managed to make something happen, when Mikael flew over to visit Steven in the U.K. and they ended up in Wilson‘s home studio throwing ideas around. That visit was the nascence of a whole self-titled album, written and produced by the pair, and mixed by Wilson.
