Going back home from the tour was really boring actually, although the Christmas seasons were close. We had during this tour felt that Johan didn´t really fit in the band on the personal level, so we decided to boot him too. At the time of this dismissal, Anders had gone to Brazil on vacation, so the decision to kick out Johan was only mine and Peter´s choice. But when Anders eventually called me up from Brazil, I was eager to tell him these news, as well as that we had booked Fredman studios for the third record. He had even bigger news: "I´m moving to Brazil...I´m quitting the band"!! I was honestly in tears, as he and I had started this whole thing, and there actually was a short period of time when Opeth was no more.

However, I changed my mind as the new material we had was so fucking exciting! We started advertising for drummers/bassists, and we almost immediately got contacted by Martin Lopez, a huge Opeth fan! We tried him out, and he seemed to be a competent drummer, so we took it one step further, and tried him out in the studio as well.

His first Opeth recording is Remember tomorrow which was recorded in 1997. Later on, his friend, Martin Mendez, completed the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle by becoming the new basist. We didn't have time to try him out before the recordings of the third album, so I decided to put the basslines down myself on the record.

My arms your hearse was recorded at Fredman in August/September of 1997, and it is probably our best work yet! In December 1997, we returned to the UK for a couple of successful gigs. One of which was together with Cradle of Filth at the LA2 in London.

This was also the time of our last days with Candlelight records. Lee Barrett who was the founder of the label, and a good friend (still is), decided to call it quits and sold his share of the company to the guys who runs it nowadays.

We had problems with some persons that we worked with and when Lee left we had basically noone to trust. And we also had fullfilled our part of the agreement and recorded the 3 albums we were supposed to. We were negotiating with several labels for the 4th release but eventually we ended up at Hammys legendary Peceville records. It was/is a big thing for me as an old death metal freak signing to one of these classic labels, and the fact that they had a close relationship with Music for nations didn´t make things worse. We signed the agreement quite instantly.

Fredman studios was booked for mid March, but had to be put back a month due to the relocating of the studio. For this, the "Still Life" album we had only rehearsed as a full band twice, so basically I knew nothing about the way the tracks would sound. It was a daring experiment I reckon, but the result was very good indeed. It was the first album for our basist Martin Mendez, so I guess it’s a very special Cd for him. For the rest of us it was just boring work in the mixing room.

Me and the guys used to skip work in favour our recent addiction to Playstation. We made our way through Resident evil 2 as well as some football games. However, one day in Fredman costs about 3500 Skr, so it was expensive time we spent on...nothing!

The album was scheduled for an late September/early October release, and we had just contacted Travis Smith for the layout. I knew we wouldn´t make it on time, and sure enough the album had to be postponed to October 4, and then again to October 18. This is probably the date the album will come out, definately!

Me and my best friend, Jonas (of Katatonia) went on vacation to England. Basically just to have a good time, drinking beer, buying albums and shit like that.

We had also planned a meeting with Hammy and Lisa at their house in Yorkshire. We ended up staying there for 5 days. We really had a good time, and I also got to meet the people we were supposed to work with. We also went to visit Academy studios where My dying bride were recording their new album. We met the guys who apparently were into Opeth.

Anyways, we met the guys of the band who were really cool people, and eventually we started talking about doing a tour together. Since we both were Peaceville bands, both with new albums coming out in the same month. It´s an ideal position. This is not confirmed yet, but I know a tour is in the works, and it will probably be dome during January/February 2000. This will, if it happens, be our first tour since the 1996 Morningrise European tour. So be sure to show up when we come over to YOUR town.... * * *