Lopez Leaves Opeth

[DSS3]

From Opeth's site:

Martin Lopez leaves Opeth!

After several months away from his drumming duties in Opeth Martin Lopez has permanently decided to leave the group. After being plagued by illness and anxiety attacks Lopez decided he wanted to concentrate fully on his own project, currently unnamed. His replacement will be Martin "Axe" Axenrot who's been filling in for the last 5 tours and who also recorded with the band during the recent BBC sessions.

Mikael Åkerfeldt: " However sad I and the rest of the band feel in light of Lopez departure I want to thank him for his incredible work with Opeth and immense dedication to the band. We recorded some classic stuff together and he obviously had an enormous impact on our sound. I now feel very excited to hear the material of his own band. In the meantime Opeth fans can rest assured that we'll continue jamming it out with Axe and we all have high expectations about our coming musical ventures."

[Sanctuary]

Yep, I wondered why Mikael left New Zealand (while the other guys stayed on for a holiday) after the concert last week and this is the reason. Too bad. I have to say though, Axe is a MACHINE live.

Good thing is that Lopez is still playing.

Who knows what might happen in the future?

[RacerX]

Saw this coming.

[Inearthed]

Who knows what might happen in the future?

Lopez will either clean up / get off heroin or disappear off the face of the earth / die.

[shadowcat]

Saw this coming.

+1

Axe has been filling in for Lopez for so long already that he was kinda permanent anyways already. I've seen Opeth live with both guys, I think Axe is a perfect replacement for Lopez (playing-wise).

[Sanctuary]

Saw this coming.

Interestingly, when I asked Mikael whether he'd ever be back, he said "I don't know".

[Mr White]

Yeah, but Ron knew...


James

[DSS3]

Lopez will either clean up / get off heroin or disappear off the face of the earth / die.

Holy shit I didn't even know there was a heroin addiction involved! That SUCKS! He is definately my favorite drummer, from a feel standpoint.

[HoWheels]

Holy shit I didn't even know there was a heroin addiction involved! That SUCKS! He is definately my favorite drummer, from a feel standpoint.

This is purely speculation, and unfounded.

-a

[Sanctuary]

Yep.

[Inearthed]

Then I guess one of their tourmates was lying. I'm not one of the internet speculators that heard some guy on a forum somewhere say something about how he thinks Lopez is addicted to heroin. Several people have heard about this through different people that have some sort of relation to the band.