Exclusive Video Interview: Drummer Martin Lopez (Ex-Opeth) Talks About Doing His Own Thing + New Soen Track, “Opal”

On February 3, prog-metal heavyweights Soen will release their righteous third album, Lykaia, on UDR Music! The record is already receiving rave reviews, as it should — this thing rocks.

Given that MetalSucks have been Soen fans since their inception, and the fact that Lykaia is so goddamn good, we naturally jumped at the chance to premiere a series of in-studio video interviews with the band. We’ll be debuting two of these interviews a week every Thursday for the next three weeks!

We begin today with a pair of interviews with drummer Martin Lopez, formerly of Opeth. In the first video, Martin discusses striking out on his own and following his personal vision; in the second, he discusses the conflict between art and commerce, as explored on the new Lykaia track, “Opal” (which is playing in the background, FYI).

Check out the interviews with Martin below. You can listen to a full song from Lykaia, “Sectarian,” here, and pre-order the album CD or vinyl or via Amazon MP3 or iTunes.

And don’t forget to check back in the coming weeks for video interviews with vocalist Joel Ekelöf and bassist Stefan Stenberg!